Aurelia Butler

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    ‘Reverse the Curse’ Review: Baseball Is Life

    The writer-director David Duchovny plays a long-suffering Red Sox fan with cancer who may yet live to see the team defeat the Yankees.David Duchovny is hardly the first American novelist to find literary profundity in baseball — Bernard Malamud and Don DeLillo spring quickly to mind. Not just baseball as a thing itself — a very American thing, better still — but baseball as a metaphor for Life Itself.But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While Duchovny is the author of several novels, he is better known as an actor and director. His new movie, “Reverse the Curse,” is an adaptation of his 2016 novel — now with a more newspaper-friendly title.This tale of father-and-son reconciliation is set against the backdrop of the long rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The year is 1978 and Ted (Logan Marshall-Green) is a struggling novelist who makes his living as a stadium peanut vendor; Marty (Duchovny) is his father, once a low-level ad man stuck in the suburbs, now dying of cancer.The movie struggles with period detail from the beginning. Green’s stringy wig and mutton chops make him look like Steve Guttenberg in the ’90s comedy “Don’t Tell Her It’s Me” if Guttenberg’s character had been a werewolf. And Duchovny’s haircut is pretty Beverly Hills, despite many of the movie’s scenes taking place in a regular-guy barbershop.Ted and Marty’s interactions are alternately earthy and highfalutin. On a road trip, they have a flatulence competition, and then one rhapsodizes over a woman whose smile makes “a rip in the fabric of time.” After Ted introduces Marty to weed, Marty is seen reading Walter Benjamin’s “On Hashish.”Duchovny’s smarts are commendable, theoretically, but the movie falls short of compelling. And for all the novelistic details that he packs in, “Reverse the Curse” moves at the pace of a self-defeating snail.Reverse the CurseNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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    ‘Firebrand’ Review: Placid Queen

    Top-shelf actors and authentic Tudor table-setting fail to quicken this glumly unfocused take on the exploits of Henry VIII’s last wife, Katherine Parr.Not until I watched “Firebrand” did I think the sight of Jude Law’s naked behind could cause me to recoil rather than rejoice. Playing a late-career Henry VIII, Law is all rutting buttocks and barely mobile bulk, an obese, paranoid ruler with a weeping leg wound where maggots wriggle in ecstatic close-up. Law (and his director, Karim Aïnouz) might be laying it on thick, but his grotesque tyrant is the only thing lifting this dreary, ahistoric drama out of its narrative doldrums.Adapted from Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2012 novel, “Queen’s Gambit,” “Firebrand” seeks to highlight Henry’s sixth and last wife, Katherine Parr (Alicia Vikander), the only spouse to outlive the infamous king. Studious and devout, Parr conceals her Protestant sympathies while arguing in favor of women’s education and an English-language Bible. Her clandestine support for the poet and Protestant preacher Anne Askew (Erin Doherty), however, almost proves fatal when she’s accused of heresy by an oily bishop (Simon Russell Beale).Unfolding in and around Whitehall Palace in 1547, the movie is lavishly, oppressively costumed, the actors imprisoned by fabric and a screenplay that plays fast and loose with the historical record. A plummy voice-over describes Henry’s kingdom as “blood-soaked” and “plague-ridden,” though we see little of either plasma or pustules. What we see is a queen whose downcast demeanor speaks less of a firebrand than of a wife placating a husband who isn’t above spousal decapitation if a younger, saucier option should wiggle past.That Parr deserves a spotlight is easily argued. But the woman who believed herself chosen by God to influence the King is, despite Vikander’s skills, ill-served by this meandering, glum picture. So much so that, in just two brief appearances, Doherty’s vivid portrayal of the reformist Askew makes us wonder whom the film’s title is really memorializing.FirebrandRated R for spousal abuse and celebrity skin. Running time: 2 hours. In theaters. More

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    ‘Tiger Stripes’ Review: A Ferocious Change

    Myth and the changes of puberty combine in Amanda Nell Eu’s fierce, funny debut feature.Decades of storytellers have framed changes in the adolescent female body as somehow mysterious and dangerous, almost sorcery. That’s why horror films like “Carrie,” “The Witch,” “The Exorcist” and “Teeth” are so spine-chilling. The theme is so well-trodden that it’s a little hard to find a fresh spin on the subject. In her feature debut “Tiger Stripes,” the director Amanda Nell Eu pulls it off.Eu’s film is set in her native Malaysia, and centers on Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), a vivacious 11-year-old whose world revolves around her best friends Farah (Deena Ezral) and Mariam (Piqa). Together they film TikTok dances, play in the river on the way home from school, plaster stickers everywhere and talk about bras. They pretend to be kittens and they have a club for the three of them. They are, in other words, typical tweens.Then one day, Zaffan discovers she’s begun menstruating, and overnight her life changes. In her strict religious school, she doesn’t attend prayers while on her period. Her friends suddenly see her as unclean, dirty, an outsider. They gang up on her. They call her names. And strange things start to happen to Zaffan’s body and mind, including the lingering presence of a red-eyed woman in a tree that only she seems to be able to see.“Tiger Stripes” literalizes some of the potential side effects of menstruation — mood changes, cramps, body dysmorphia and more — but it also heads in a more fanciful direction, with the idea of a stalking tiger lurking around the edges of Zaffan’s consciousness.In her village, a tiger is a figure of curiosity, with everyone wanting to look at it and film it, and a source of danger, a powerful being that can hurt you if it chooses. Zaffan begins to feel that’s what she has become; no longer is she the little girl who sometimes misbehaves but mostly follows the rules. She has stepped beyond their reach, and deserves her own kind of freedom.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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    ‘Ride’ Review: Heists, Heifers and Hospital Bills

    A father and son resort to desperate measures to save an ailing child in this Texas-set dramatic thriller.Like many movies before it, including “John Q,” and “Ambulance,” the indie thriller “Ride” is about a well-meaning father who turns to crime in a desperate bid to cover his family’s medical bills. It’s a distinctly, bleakly American crisis, one with an inevitable political subtext: If a man is forced to choose between stealing and watching his daughter die of cancer, maybe it’s the system, not the man, that’s the problem.“I’m praying for you,” John (C. Thomas Howell) is told when his request to draw on his pension is denied. In the United States, you might not get help, as “Ride” bitterly makes clear, but you’ll get plenty of thoughts and prayers.John is a rancher and former rodeo star in Texas worn down by years of hard labor, and Howell, looking much older than his 57 years, brings a Sam Elliott-type of rugged cowboy pathos to the role of the family patriarch. The writer-director Jake Allyn also stars as John’s wayward son Peter, who helps him plan a high-risk theft.But Allyn always seems a bit out of his depth trying to convey Peter’s inner anguish. Consequently, the character’s struggles with addiction and a troubled past feel like a distraction from the heart of the story, which is John’s drive to do anything to help Virginia, his ailing child (Zia Carlock). Decked out in cowboy hat and Carhartt jacket, Allyn looks the part. But only Howell truly embodies the spirit of the Old West.RideRated R for drug use, strong language and some violence. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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    A New Opera Mashes Up Monteverdi and W.E.B. Du Bois

    “The Comet/Poppea” radically pares down a classic and blends it with a premiere by George E. Lewis for an original show that will travel widely.Morality takes a hike in Claudio Monteverdi’s final opera, “L’Incoronazione di Poppea.” Bold in its satire and explicit in its sensuality, even more than 350 years after its creation, the work gives its ruthless lovers, Nero and Poppea, everything they desire.A decadent exploration of Nero’s Rome, “Poppea” might seem to share little with “The Comet,” a W.E.B. Du Bois short story from 1920. Using tropes of sci-fi catastrophe, Du Bois, the famous Black sociologist, asks what it would take for a racially equitable civilization to emerge. But, like Monteverdi’s opera, it has an amoral, ice-cold finish: After the merest possibility of interracial love, the status quo of segregation returns.On Friday, both the opera and the story will be brought together, united by their common denominator of jaundiced cynicism, in “The Comet/Poppea,” which is premiering at Geffen Contemporary, a warehouse-style space at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. (There are already plans for it to travel to Philadelphia this fall, to New York next year and to the Schwarzman Center at Yale University in 2026.)Yuval Sharon, center, the director, with the singers Joelle Lamarre, left and Davóne Tines.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesAmanda Lynn Bottoms, seated, and Nardus Williams, lying on the floor, during a rehearsal for the show, which adapts a W.E.B. Du Bois story from 1920.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesePresented in Los Angeles by MOCA and the director Yuval Sharon’s company of operatic experimenters, the Industry, “The Comet/Poppea” was commissioned by the American Modern Opera Company. Over a 90-minute run time, it alternates between a radically pared-down “Poppea” and an adaptation of Du Bois’s story by the librettist Douglas Kearney and the composer George E. Lewis, for a mash-up featuring stark transitions — and superimpositions — between Monteverdi’s Baroque style and Lewis’s high-modernist states of frenzy.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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    Sony Pictures Acquires Alamo Drafthouse in Lifeline to Cinema Chain

    The deal is a rare example of a traditional Hollywood studio owning a movie theater chain.Sony Pictures Entertainment is acquiring Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and will manage its 35 locations, a rare example of a traditional Hollywood studio’s owning a theater chain.The deal, announced Wednesday, followed the Justice Department’s decision in 2020 to rescind the so-called Paramount consent decrees — movie distribution rules dating to 1949 that forced the largest Hollywood studios to sell off their theater holdings. Those rules were intended to prevent studios from controlling the film business, from creation to exhibition.In 2019, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief at the time, Makan Delrahim, said changes in the entertainment industry “made it unlikely that the remaining defendants can reinstate their cartel.” Sony’s move could open the door to similar deals by other leading studios. In recent years, Netflix, the leading streaming company, has bought theaters to show films.Alamo, the seventh-largest theater chain in North America, operates theaters in 25 metro areas across the United States and has invested in distinctive programming and food offerings in an attempt to lure in moviegoers away from major multiplexes.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sony bought Alamo from Altamont Capital Partners and Fortress Investment Group, as well as the chain’s founder, Tim League. Mr. League said the dine-in movie theater chain was “beyond thrilled” about the deal.It comes at a time of financial trouble for Alamo and for the movie theater business as a whole. Several of Alamo’s franchised locations filed for bankruptcy and closed this month, making Sony’s move a potential lifeline for the struggling chain. Alamo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2021 before a private equity firm stepped in.The cinemas will still operate under the Alamo Drafthouse brand, Sony said, though they will be managed by a newly formed division at Sony led by Michael Kustermann, Alamo’s chief executive.“Alamo Drafthouse has always held the craft of filmmaking and the theatrical experience in high esteem, which are fundamental shared values between our companies,” said Tom Rothman, the chief executive of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.The industry has grappled with multiple headwinds in recent years, as the pandemic caused a slump in box office receipts — and, more recently, a dismal start to the summer blockbuster season — while Hollywood strikes chipped away at the number of movies that studios churned out.Ticket sales in the United States and Canada for the year to date total just over $2.8 billion, a 26 percent decline from the same period last year, according to Comscore. More

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    Françoise Hardy, Moody French Pop Star, Dies at 80

    Françoise Hardy, an introspective pop singer who became a hero to French youth in the 1960s with her moody ballads, died on Tuesday. She was 80.Her death, from cancer, was announced by her son, Thomas Dutronc, in a post on Instagram, saying simply, “Mom is gone.” No other details were provided.With songs like her breakthrough 1962 hit, “Tous les Garçons et les Filles” (“All the Boys and Girls”), and later “Dans le Monde Entier” (“All Over the World”); her lithe look, prized by star fashion designers; and her understated personality, Ms. Hardy incarnated a 1960s cool still treasured by the French.“How can we say goodbye to her?” President Emmanuel Macron of France said in a statement on Wednesday, a play on the title of Ms. Hardy’s 1968 hit “Comment Te Dire Adieu” (“How Can I Say Goodbye to You?”).She was the only French singer on Rolling Stone’s 2023 list of the 200 best singers of all time.Ms. Hardy in 1969. Her singular look — tall, long brown hair, a natural reticence — catapulted her into the worlds of fashion and film. Joost Evers/Anefo, via The National ArchivesWe 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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    Françoise Hardy: A Life in Photos

    The French pop star Françoise Hardy, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80, was celebrated for her beauty and style, always striking the perfect pose whether she was doing a fashion shoot or had gotten caught in a candid picture. Hardy’s self-possession could be intimidating, but her songs created a sense of intimacy, pulling listeners close by exploring emotional depths, and she earned the love and loyalty of pop aficionados, devoted aesthetes and lonely souls.In these images we gathered, notice how she sometimes seems to be looking at us, even though we are looking at her. Notice also what is not there, besides any bad angles: no come-hither poses, no inviting décolleté, no exposed gams, and almost no teeth — Hardy’s smiles were of the closed lips, amused kind, not open-mouthed beams. In a photo captured on a motorboat, she’s the only one not wearing a bathing suit as she turns her face to the sun in what looks like serene bliss.Hardy was no prude and enjoyed fun — she was prone to fits of laughter, her close friend the singer Étienne Daho remembered in a brief eulogy — but she led her life and career while remaining true to herself, on her terms: watching the world with curiosity, artistically exacting, a little aloof and a little curmudgeonly, and always passionate.Hardy in London, where she did some of her recording, in 1963.Reporters Associes/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy with Sheila, a fellow pop star, on the French Riviera, circa 1960. Hardy’s first big single was released in 1962.Reporters Associes/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy and Claude François (center left) congratulate the winners of a twist dance competition in Paris, 1964.Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy evolved into the kind of performer who unleashed emotion even as she refused to over-emote.Sam Falk/The New York TimesHardy at the Savoy Hotel in London, 1965. Jean-Marie Périer, in the background, photographed many of the yé-yé singers (as the rocking and twisting French singers of the era were known).Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy on the set of the film “Grand Prix” in London, 1966.Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy performing at the Savoy Hotel in London, 1967.Keystone/Hulton Archive and Getty ImagesHardy wearing a silver suit by the designer Paco Rabanne in London, 1968.Evening Standard/Hulton Archive and Getty ImagesCalle Hesslefors/ullstein bild, via Getty ImagesHardy on the streets of London in 1968.Chris Ware/Keystone Features and Getty ImagesBack in Paris, 1969.Reg Lancaster/Daily Express/Hulton Archive and Getty ImagesHardy, the actress Mireille Darc, and Liza Minnelli in the front row at Yves Saint-Laurent in Paris, 1969.Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy rehearsing with her early singing teacher Mireille at a recording studio in Paris, 1969.Yves le Roux/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy and the crooner Tino Rossi signing autographs at a campaign to support medical research in Paris, 1970.Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesHardy at the drums in 1970. Her main instrument was the guitar.Evening Standard/Hulton Archive and Getty ImagesHardy with the French singer-songwriter Julien Clerc in Lyon, 1974.Picot/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesHardy appeared on the German TV show “Liedercircus” (“Song Circus”) in 1977. Hardy stopped giving live concerts in the late ’60s.Impress Own/United Archives, via Getty ImagesHardy on the beach at Cannes, 1974.Gilbert Giribaldi/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesEtienne Daho and Hardy at the French music awards show Victoires De La Musique, in 1986.Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty ImagesHardy with Mireille again, at an event in Paris in 1996.Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesHardy with her son, Thomas Dutronc.Stephane Cardinale/Sygma, via Getty ImagesJacques Morell/Sygma, via Getty Images More