Aurelia Butler

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    ‘Armand’ Review: When a School Is a Trap

    Renate Reinsve stars in a drama about an insular community that is intermittently interesting.Technically, “Armand” is not a folk horror movie. Technically, it’s not a horror movie at all. But the director Halfdan Ullmann Tondel wants us to wonder what we’re in for from the very start. First we see, in claustrophobically panicky close-up shots, a woman blazing down the road in her car. She’s speaking urgently on the phone to someone named Armand, asking if he is OK. Something is clearly wrong.Then we’re at a school, and the camera glides along the hallways slowly, as if it is a ghost observing the surroundings that we — and she — are about to enter. Ominous music plays. Something bad is lurking.What the bad thing is takes a while to unfold, and no, it’s not a monster. (Not exactly.) Instead, “Armand” is about the way harm, perpetuated across generations, causes communities to turn insular. Outsiders threaten established order, and must be dealt with accordingly. It’s this theme that makes the film feel like folk horror.But for most of its running time, “Armand,” which Tondel also wrote, feels more like a realist drama, the kind in which a school stands in for the whole of society, much like the 2023 film “The Teacher’s Lounge.” Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve), the woman in the car, is the single mother of 6-year-old Armand, who has done a disturbing thing to a classmate. That classmate’s parents, Sarah and Anders (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Endre Hellestveit), are headed to the school as well for a meeting about the situation. The headmaster (Oystein Roger) and the school counselor (Vera Veljovic) have decided to put a junior teacher named Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) in charge of the meeting. She may be in over her head.There’s a lot of sitting and talking in classrooms, and a lot of taking breaks so people can go to the bathroom or tend to a nosebleed. The meeting progresses in fits and starts, which is as annoying to the characters as it is to the audience: Just when things get started, the attendees stop, get up, go somewhere. We move in and out of the classroom with them, back and forth through the halls, the place eventually starting to appear like a maze in which every hallway simply leads to some place we feel like we’ve already been.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Fishing Place’ Review: A Village Under Suspicion

    Rob Tregenza’s latest film, set in a German-occupied Norwegian village, follows a housekeeper dispatched to spy on a priest.“The Fishing Place” is a visually arresting exploration of resistance, including that of its writer-director, Rob Tregenza. Set in a German-occupied Norwegian village in World War II, it tracks several characters circling one another in a world that’s striking for its natural beauty and its humming menace. Outwardly, everything and everyone here looks so ordinary, including the prosperous resident who, early on at a get-together at his home, salutes his guest of honor. “Our friendship goes way back,” he says, “we have been on the same team.” He then raises his glass, inviting the room to do the same, and toasts his guest, a Nazi officer.Beautifully shot in film by Tregenza and divided into two discrete sections, the movie opens on a fjord in the southern Norwegian county of Telemark. It’s winter. Snow has heavily blanketed the ground and dusted the surrounding forest and jagged peaks, lending the village a picture-postcard quality. Although Tregenza doesn’t offer much by way of historical background, it seems worth noting that Telemark is the birthplace of Vidkun Quisling, the head of the Norwegian government under occupation whose name became a synonym for traitor. It’s also the setting for Anthony Mann’s 1965 war film “The Heroes of Telemark,” in which Kirk Douglas plays a Norwegian physicist turned heroic resistance fighter.The mild intrigue in “The Fishing Place” is almost incidental to the overall movie and centers on Anna (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), a middle-age woman who arrives in the village with a single suitcase and no explanation. Sometime later, she is approached by the Nazi officer, Hansen (Frode Winther), a Norwegian with whom she has a murky history. “May I have this dance,” he says with a threatening undertone just before reminding her that she once turned him down. He seems to be holding a grudge; he also holds the power. So, when he orders Anna to begin working as a housekeeper for a newly arrived priest, Honderich (the quietly charismatic Andreas Lust), and reporting on his activities, she gets to work.Much of what transpires involves Anna, Hansen and Honderich, a German Lutheran. As life goes on, the priest tends to the oddly unwelcoming community — several residents warn him about the town — as Anna and the officer keep watch. Along the way, Tregenza seems to directly nod at the Mann movie, including in a scene set inside the priest’s church. More generally, Tregenza’s film offers up a counterpoint to the fantasies (and national myths) that turn history into screen entertainment, people into glamorous heroes. Tregenza is adept at deploying the conventions of mainstream fiction — guns are fired here, blows struck and brows furrowed — but he’s more interested in dismantling norms than in just recycling them.In that respect, the most intriguing figure in “The Fishing Place” is, in a manner of speaking, Tregenza, who throughout the film continuously draws attention to his camerawork, as he plays with the palette and different registers of realism, mixing in naturalistic scenes with more stylized ones that border on the hieroglyphic. His touch is evident right from the beginning with an eerie image of what looks like a ghost fishing boat adrift on the water amid tendrils of sea fog. Soon, Anna has arrived and with the camera parked behind her, glides toward the town. She looks like she’s floating on air, as if she too were a specter.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in February

    This month’s new arrivals include an insightful docudrama about a fraudulent wellness blogger and a rare TV role for Robert De Niro.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of February’s most promising new titles for U.S. subscribers. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘Apple Cider Vinegar’Starts streaming: Feb. 6The Australian mini-series “Apple Cider Vinegar” is a fictionalized version of a true story about Belle Gibson, a wellness influencer who became the center of a scandal when she admitted to lying about overcoming cancer through strict dieting. Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle, who becomes addicted to the positive attention she receives — not to mention the money — when she begins sharing her made-up story on social media. Alycia Debnam-Carey plays Milla, another alternative health advocate who becomes first an inspiration to Belle and then a rival for likes and clicks — although her testimonials, too, are not strictly on the level. Aisha Dee rounds out the main cast as Chanelle, a friend of Milla’s who works with Belle and gets caught in the middle of the escalating quackery.‘La Dolce Villa’Starts streaming: Feb. 13This romantic comedy offers two main attractions. One is Scott Foley, a veteran TV actor with a disarming screen presence. He plays Eric, a busy business consultant and widower who puts his career on hold to help his daughter, Olivia (Maia Reficco), extract value from a suspiciously cheap piece of rural Italian real estate. The movie’s other big star is its sun-dappled location, where these two Americans discover some unexpected passions: Eric for cooking and the local dignitary Francesca (Violante Placido); and Olivia for interior design and the charming local restaurateur Giovanni (Giuseppe Futia). Directed by Mark Waters (“Mean Girls,” “Freaky Friday”), “La Dolce Villa” emphasizes the sensual seductions of the European countryside.‘Court of Gold’Starts streaming: Feb. 18When the U.S. Olympic Team first started sending N.B.A. players to compete internationally in 1992, the idea was to grow the sport of basketball so that one day, the United States would not, by default, have the most dominant players. This past summer’s Paris Olympics saw that plan fully coming to fruition, as the United States was tested night after night by the new N.B.A. superstars from Canada, Serbia, France and elsewhere. The documentary series “Court of Gold” offers behind the scenes access with the Americans as they prepare for a real challenge. The director Jake Rogal also spends time with the other top competitors, who no longer fear the United States the way teams did 30 years ago. Across six episodes, the series tells the story of a dramatic Olympics tournament, with twists and comebacks and a lot of pride on the line.‘Zero Day’Starts streaming: Feb. 20Robert De Niro takes his first regular role in an American TV series in this political thriller, playing George Mullen, a former U.S. president who gets pulled back into public service during a national emergency. When a global cyberattack results in widespread destruction and fatalities, the aged but still popular Mullen is asked to head a commission to uncover who was responsible, with vast and possibly unconstitutional powers at his command. The stacked cast also includes Lizzy Caplan as Mullen’s politically ambitious daughter, Joan Allen as his worried wife and Angela Bassett as the current president, who has reluctantly called for her predecessor’s help. Jesse Plemons, Matthew Modine, Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, Gaby Hoffmann, Connie Britton and Clark Gregg play various friends and foes who — even when they appear to be on Mullen’s side — have their own mysterious agendas.‘Running Point’Starts streaming: Feb. 27Based loosely on the life of the Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss, this fast-paced sports sitcom has Kate Hudson playing Isla Gordon, a basketball-savvy executive in the offices of the Los Angeles Waves. When a family scandal leaves Isla in charge of the team her father and brothers ran for decades, she has to overcome industry sexism, fan skepticism and various boardroom struggles to put the floundering franchise in position for a playoff run. “Running Point” is run by the “Mindy Project” writer-producer team of Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen, with Buss as an executive producer. They pepper underdog story beats throughout a close-up look at an often overlooked woman, trying to prove she can handle pro basketball’s big personalities.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull

    Hear 10 tracks from a long, winding career.Danny Kasirye for The New York TimesDear listeners,We lost one of the true greats last week when Marianne Faithfull died at age 78. A pop star turned punk rocker turned cabaret chanteuse, Faithfull was also a style icon, an actress with remarkable screen presence and a wonderfully unfiltered memoirist, among many other things. She will be greatly missed — but what a life she lived!Today’s playlist is a celebration of Faithfull’s long and varied musical career, which began at 17 — when she was signed on sight by the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham — and stretched until her late 70s. I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Faithfull in 2021, around the release of what is now the final album she released in her lifetime, “She Walks in Beauty,” which found her reciting Romantic poetry atop compositions produced by her friend and collaborator Warren Ellis. She was then recovering from a nasty bout of Covid-19 that had put her in a coma, but her resilience was something to behold.That toughness and durability was a through line of her career, as she sprung back from multiple near-death experiences and returned with music that seemed supercharged by those struggles. She was a bold, intuitive and one-of-a-kind artist, as you’ll hear on the following 10 tracks.Also, apologies for this newsletter going out a day late. My personal advice: Steer clear of that norovirus! Thankfully I’m now on the mend and The Amplifier will return to its regular schedule on Friday. Til then!It is the evening of the day,LindsayListen along while you read.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Emilia Pérez’ and the New Era of Online Oscar Scandals

    As Karla Sofía Gascón’s resurfaced social media posts upend the campaign for the year’s most-nominated film, what happens now?Last August, when I first met and interviewed the “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón, she told me that she was not the type of person to back down from a conflict.“I’m a great warrior,” Gascón said then. “I love to fight. If it was up to me, I would go to all the talk shows and fight with everybody all the time.”She shared this to illustrate how fraught her life had become in the years leading up to “Emilia Pérez,” when Gascón, previously known to Mexican audiences for her work in telenovelas, came out publicly as a trans woman. But that hint at her combative nature could also have been considered something of a sneak preview, now that the newly Oscar-nominated actress has become embroiled in a scandal — and embarked on a defiant media blitz — that has imperiled both her career and the formerly front-running awards campaign of “Emilia Pérez.”As recently as last week, the 52-year-old actress and the Spanish-language musical she stars in were riding high. With a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations, “Emilia Pérez” represented Netflix’s strongest shot at finally nabbing its first best-picture trophy, while Gascón had already made history as the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar.Gascón is the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar.Pathé FilmsThen, last Wednesday, the journalist Sarah Hagi unearthed years-old posts Gascón had written on X that denigrated Muslims (saying Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured”), called George Floyd a “drug-addicted con artist,” and criticized the diverse winners of the 2021 Oscar telecast (“I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8-M”). In a statement issued by Netflix the next day, Gascón apologized for the posts. But instead of allowing the dust to settle, the star took matters into her own hands.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Composer Turns Down the Tempo, and Turns Up the Complexity

    Lisa Streich, an artist on the rise who has found success in Europe, is having a rare American showcase this week in New York.In the golden vastness of St. Mark’s Basilica after night had fallen, the voices seemed to hover in an endless haze. It was the closing concert of the Venice Music Biennale in October, and Lisa Streich’s “Stabat,” written for 32 singers divided into four choirs, blurred over half an hour into a soft yet never quite settled dream.Streich, 39, was represented in Venice not just by “Stabat,” but also by the premiere of “Orchestra of Black Butterflies,” a rigorous yet playful, pleasurable work for four musicians that unfolds like an off-kilter machine. That piece is now coming to New York, where it will be performed at the Miller Theater on Thursday by the piano-percussion quartet Yarn/Wire in a Composer Portrait devoted to Streich, a rare American showcase for an important rising artist.Born in Sweden and raised in a small town in northern Germany, Streich already has a formidable career in Europe. She was a composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival last summer. She has been commissioned by major institutions like the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, which asked her to write a final scene to append to Hans Werner Henze’s one-act “Das Wundertheater.” Conductors as eminent as Alan Gilbert and Matthias Pintscher have led her scores. After hearing her work in Venice, I’m hooked.Streich’s music is often quiet and deliberate. The program note at Miller says that when she was a young composer, her goal was “to find the slowest tempo where a performer could still keep a solid pulse.” Her favorite? Thirty-seven beats per minute. Her pieces tend to fade into oblivion as they end; “Ishjarta,” her Berlin Philharmonic commission, ends with almost the entire orchestra playing an extremely soft pianissississimo.Even when her work skirts inaudibility, it’s complex. Streich has taken to using software to analyze recordings of choirs she finds on the internet. She focuses on gnarly harmonic moments and has compiled some of the results — divided into 14 categories, like “Gloria” and “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” — in “Book of Chords,” alongside her photographs and poetry.

    SPUN by Sarah SavietWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Super Bowl Finally Embraced Rap. Is There Also Room for Country?

    Since Roc Nation’s partnership with the N.F.L., hip-hop stars like Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar have been center stage at halftime.The Super Bowl halftime show was at a low point in 2019. Despite an unrivaled television audience, Rihanna turned down the National Football League’s invitation to perform, keeping solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the exiled quarterback who had repeatedly knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.The pop band Maroon 5 headlined instead, underwhelming nearly 100 million television viewers. Jon Caramanica, a music critic for The New York Times, called it “an inessential performance” that was “dynamically flat” and “mushy at the edges.”The N.F.L. was quick to respond, courting Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by the billionaire rapper Jay-Z, in an attempt to strengthen its music and social justice initiatives. Over the past six years, Roc Nation has prioritized hip-hop and R&B, bringing rap to the Super Bowl spectacle for the first time with a celebratory 2022 performance by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent. Sunday’s show will feature Lamar and the guest star SZA.“The N.F.L. needed to do something to bring life to what is supposed to be their signature event, and that was accomplished,” said Jemele Hill, a writer for The Atlantic who is producing an ESPN documentary on Kaepernick with the director Spike Lee.An overdue emphasis on hip-hop and R&B — Usher and the Weeknd have also headlined under Roc Nation — means that other genres have been sidelined. Country music is ascendant culturally but has rarely been part of the Super Bowl; halftime shows by Coldplay and Lady Gaga feel long in the past.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Blue Note Records

    This month, we look at the legacy of Blue Note Records, perhaps the best-known label in jazz, with its instantly recognizable blue-and-white vinyl center labels and decades-long run of landmark albums, some of which have become cornerstones in the genre.Founded in 1939 by the German American record executive Alfred Lion and the writer Max Margulis, Blue Note began as a passion project for Lion, who visited the recently opened Café Society club to talk about recording music with the pianists Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. Soon after, Lion paid the artists to play in a Manhattan studio, later pressing up the music from the session and releasing it as the first album ever on Blue Note Records.Over the next decade, Blue Note would become the most prolific label in jazz, releasing albums from future legends like Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Bud Powell. Then the label hit its stride in the ’50s: Records from Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins and Lou Donaldson came in rapid succession, helping solidify Blue Note as the go-to label of the moment. Now, 86 years into its run, as a label still releasing straight-ahead jazz but also jazz-meets-hip-hop-and-funk, Blue Note truly needs no introduction.Below, we asked 14 musicians and writers to name a favorite song to introduce someone to the Blue Note catalog. Listen to the playlists below the article, and don’t forget to leave your own picks in the comments.◆ ◆ ◆Wayne Shorter, “Speak No Evil”Don Was, president of Blue Note RecordsWayne ShorterAndrew Putler/Redferns, via Getty ImagesIn February 1971, temperatures dropped below zero in Ann Arbor, Mich. I was a 19-year-old college dropout — draftable and without a car or job. My life was veering off track but there was one ritual that always provided comfort, direction and hope: turning down the lights and listening to Wayne Shorter’s Blue Note masterpiece, “Speak No Evil.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More