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      15 Classic Christmas Movies to Stream over the Holidays

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      Our list of classics is broad, from warm Old Hollywood favorites to the sort of boozy, vulgar entertainments that parents can watch after putting the kids to bed.Does a Christmas movie have to be about Christmas? If it merely takes place around Christmas, how prominently does the holiday have to feature for it to qualify? And really, must it be a merry Christmas? The Grinches and Scrooges of the world have streaming subscriptions, too.With a more elastic conception of the holiday in mind, we picked 15 Christmas movies of a broad variety, from warm Old Hollywood favorites to family-friendly modern comedies to the sort of boozy, vulgar entertainments that parents can watch after putting the kids to bed. (And yes, the oft-debated “Die Hard” did make the list. When is it ever a bad time to watch “Die Hard”?) These films are either on streaming services or available to rent on major platforms. Also, “Die Hard” returns to theaters Dec. 8.‘Christmas in Connecticut’ (1945)Stream it on Max. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Having established herself as a master of melodrama in “Stella Dallas,” a closet romantic in “The Lady Eve” and a duplicitous femme fatale in “Double Indemnity,” Barbara Stanwyck combines all three qualities into a winning performance in “Christmas in Connecticut,” a screwball holiday comedy with heart. Stanwyck plays a single New Yorker who’s been posing as a wife and mother from rural Connecticut to make her food column more appealing to American housewives. When asked to host Christmas dinner for a dashing war hero (Dennis Morgan), she scrambles desperately to sell her made-up persona, but amid the confusion over her fake husband and baby, she winds up falling for her guest.‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946)Stream it on Amazon Prime Video. Rent it on Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Released to mixed reviews and disappointing box office — particularly by the standards of the director Frank Capra, who was seen as a hitmaker after films like “It Happened One Night” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” — “It’s a Wonderful Life” has become the undisputed star atop the holiday-movie tree. But what makes it so enduring ties into why it took a while to catch on: The joyful, tear-jerking ending is exceptionally hard-won, following a Christmas Eve that’s a dark night of the soul for George Bailey (James Stewart), a man whose despair nearly drives him to the brink. It’s only after meeting his guardian angel that George sees his value to his family and community.‘A Christmas Story’ (1983)Stream it on Max. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Jeff Gillen, left, and Peter Billingsley in “A Christmas Story.”Warner Bros.As if to compensate for making the holiday-themed slasher classic “Black Christmas” nine years earlier, the director Bob Clark turned to this nostalgia-soaked comedy, which has become a seasonal favorite, though it’s not without its horrors. The Parkers are the most disaster-prone family in their 1940s Midwestern town, and embarrassment is always around the corner for poor Ralphie (Peter Billingsley), who wants nothing more than a Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas, but is constantly told, “You’ll shoot your eye out.” In the lead-up to his big gift, Ralphie has an awful encounter with a mall Santa, decodes a disappointing secret message from Ovaltine and is forced to wear the pink bunny onesie his Aunt Clara got him. But Ralphie won’t be a put-upon kid forever.‘Gremlins’ (1984)Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV+, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.An ideal double feature with “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Joe Dante’s mischievous comedy throws a Capraesque small town into chaos when an exotic Christmas present spawns the green marauders of the title. While in Chinatown on business, an eccentric inventor discovers a cute little animal called a mogwai and sneaks it back home to his family. But the new caretakers don’t follow important instructions, like keeping the mogwai away from water and not feeding it after midnight. It mutates into the innumerable creatures of the title, who take a juvenile delight in creating mayhem. Part monster movie, part live-action Looney Tunes, “Gremlins” leaves a trail of destruction through its snow-capped holiday idyll.‘Die Hard’ (1988)Stream it on Hulu. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Bruce Willis and Bonnie Bedelia in a scene from “Die Hard.”20th Century Fox, via Getty ImagesThere should be no argument over whether “Die Hard” is a true Christmas movie, given that John McClane (Bruce Willis) flies out to Los Angeles to spend the holiday with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia), battles an armed band of European thieves who have taken over an office party and even dresses one unfortunate henchman in a Santa suit. Plus it’s a useful excuse to rewatch this impeccably crafted and influential action movie, which emphasizes McClane’s vulnerability as much as his resourcefulness and guile in outwitting a criminal mastermind (Alan Rickman) and perhaps saving his marriage in the process.‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ (1992)Stream it on Disney+ and Hulu. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.He may be surrounded by singing, dancing, mischief-making Muppets, but Michael Caine gives the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, the heartless miser of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” every bit the gravity of screen antecedents like Alastair Sim, Basil Rathbone and Albert Finney. This allows “The Muppet Christmas Carol” to position him as the ideal straight man, a grouchy counterpoint to the silliness of Kermit the Frog’s earnest Bob Cratchit, Miss Piggy as a typically brassy Emily Cratchit and the three offbeat ghosts who show Scrooge the path to redemption. The film proves it’s possible to honor Dickens while paying a visit to Fozzie Bear’s rubber chicken factory.‘Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993)Stream it on Disney+. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon) in “Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas.”Touchstone PicturesOn paper, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” sounds like a cynical proposition, an animated studio musical with a plot that covers both Halloween and Christmas, giving it a solid three-month window where it’s seasonally appropriate viewing. Yet Henry Selick’s stop-motion fantasy, made in collaboration with one of its producers, Tim Burton, has a dark, personal, idiosyncratic style that dispels any thought of commercial calculation. It has earned a legitimate cult following over the years. As the Pumpkin King of Skeleton Town, Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon) inadvertently discovers the joys of Christmas Town and tries to bring the magic back home, with predictably demented and chaotic results.‘The Ref’ (1994)Rent it on Amazon, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.The premise of this dark comedy sounds a little like the Humphrey Bogart noir “The Desperate Hours,” in which escaped felons hole up in a suburban home and take a family hostage. Only the twist of “The Ref” is that the crook, a cat burglar (Denis Leary) abandoned by his partner in the middle of a job, winds up captive himself to his hostages, a Connecticut couple (Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis) who cannot stop arguing. It becomes a Christmas Eve to survive when other members of the family turn up and the would-be felon takes on the role of reluctant counselor.‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999)Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in “Eyes Wide Shut.”Warner BrothersThe marital odyssey in Stanley Kubrick’s dreamlike final film is book ended by Christmas backdrops that underline the state of a bourgeois marriage that threatens to collapse. After a fashionable party where his wife (Nicole Kidman) flirts shamelessly with a well-heeled Hungarian, a doctor (Tom Cruise) starts a fight with her about jealousy and temptation. From there, he embarks on a nocturnal adventure that leads to several frustrating encounters with other women, culminating in an exclusive sex party that he tries to attend without an invitation. Given the threat to this superficially stable and happy family, the holiday setting, rendered in warm lights and festive colors, stands out in sharp relief.‘Elf’ (2003)Stream it on Hulu and Max. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.There was no more ideal choice to play an orphan raised by North Pole elves than Will Ferrell, whose ungainly, up-for-anything rambunctiousness had made him a breakout star on “Saturday Night Live.” “Elf” has the quality of an extended sketch, as Ferrell’s overgrown Buddy leaves Santa’s Workshop for New York City to find his real father (James Caan), an ornery children’s book publisher who works in the Empire State Building. His comic naïveté and relentless good cheer turn “Elf” into a fish-out-of-water comedy of disarming warmth, thanks largely to an ace supporting cast that includes Emily Deschanel, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen and Bob Newhart.‘Bad Santa’ (2003)Stream it on Paramount+. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.For those who greet the holidays with dread — or simply like their eggnog extra-spiked — Terry Zwigoff’s dark comedy is the ultimate in Christmas counterprogramming, a relentlessly vulgar provocation that does have a heart if you squint hard enough to see it. Billy Bob Thornton stars as an alcoholic mall Santa who uses his access to rob department stores at the peak of the shopping season, provided he can stay sober long enough to crack the safe. His latest job is complicated by a sweet, outcast boy whose belief in Santa is unshakable, even when his hero is a grump with conspicuously foul breath.‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ (2005)Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Robert Downey Jr., left, and Val Kilmer in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”Warner Bros.Since breaking into Hollywood with his script for “Lethal Weapon,” the writer Shane Black has set six of his films during Christmas in Los Angeles, where it’s too temperate to find obvious evidence of the season. His directing debut, the spiky neo-noir buddy-action comedy “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” loads up the soundtrack with a mix of traditional and irreverent Christmas songs. Its murder mystery starts at a fancy party where the most intriguing guest, an aspiring actress (Michelle Monaghan), appears in a deconstructed Santa outfit. Robert Downey Jr. plays a hilariously snarky thief who stumbles into an audition for a detective role, gets the part and then shadows a real-life private eye (Val Kilmer) on a case.‘A Christmas Tale’ (2008)Stream it on Mubi. Rent it on Amazon and Apple TV.The premise for this French ensemble piece sounds like a heartwarming holiday treacle: Playing the matriarch of a large family, the screen legend Catherine Deneuve gathers her three adult-age children and their significant others to announce that she has leukemia and needs a bone-marrow transplant. But the director, Arnaud Desplechin, who broke through with a three-hour film titled “My Sex Life (Or How I Got Into an Argument),” isn’t the sentimental type. “A Christmas Tale” exposes the many fault lines in this wildly dysfunctional family but it’s a disarmingly affectionate film, too, with a first-rate cast that includes Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud and Emmanuelle Devos.‘Carol’ (2015)Stream it on Netflix. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett in “Carol.”Wilson Webb/The Weinstein CompanyDuring the Christmas rush at Frankenberg’s department store in 1952 Manhattan, a moment is shared by two women — one an aspiring young photographer (Rooney Mara) logging time as a clerk in a Santa hat, the other a wealthy married woman (Cate Blanchett) in a glamorous mink. What follows is a forbidden affair that bridges a chasm in age and class. The morality clause in the older woman’s marital contract threatens her financial security and her status as a mother. Yet “Carol” has a powerful romantic spirit all the same, buoyed by a wintry holiday backdrop that’s suggestive of a new home these women seek to find in each other.‘Le Pupille’ (2022)Stream it on Disney+.A deserving nominee for best live action short at the 2023 Oscars, Alice Rohrwacher’s charming and evocative 37-minute film takes place at an all-girls Catholic boarding school over Christmas during World War II. As the head nun keeps strict watch over these adorable, mischievous kids — they get their mouths soaped for grooving to a pop song on the radio — a young woman arrives with a scrumptious red custard cake, asking them to pray for her unfaithful boyfriend. The nun presents the kids with a cruel challenge: Can they prove their devotion to Jesus by resisting the temptation of this Christmas Day treat? More

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      ‘Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer’ Review: A Guide to the Filmmaker’s Work

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      This documentary examines Herzog’s oeuvre and celebrity influence.In the preface to his 1991 “Memoirs,” Kingsley Amis stated, “I have already written an account of myself in twenty or more volumes, most of them called novels.” Amis published the memoirs anyway. It could be said of the protean filmmaker Werner Herzog that he’s presented a monumental and wide-ranging account of himself in the form of over 60 motion pictures. He’s also been the subject of two fantastic documentaries by Les Blank, “Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe” and “Burden of Dreams.” And on top of that, Herzog himself published a memoir this year.One may wonder, then, about the possible utility value of Thomas von Steinaecker’s film “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer,” a brisk documentary made with Herzog’s participation. It definitely exists, though, and might be more obvious had the picture been titled “The Young Person’s Guide to Werner Herzog.” It begins with Herzog’s unusual contemporary media celebrity and examines how he got it — honoring some of his most astonishing work, including the obsessive epics “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” and “Fitzcarraldo.”The array of talking heads praising Herzog may seem random to the novice: Carl Weathers, Nicole Kidman and Chloé Zhao are among them, They’ve all worked with Herzog, or been his beneficiary somehow. Such is his cultural reach. The movie also provides a smart primer on the “New German Cinema” Herzog helped bring into being during the 1960s. An anecdote about how Herzog walked across Europe to heal the ailing German film critic Lotte Eisner — the connective tissue between Herzog and the 1920s German maestro F.W. Murnau — is emblematic of the man’s shoe-leather mysticism.After praising Herzog’s mastery of cinema, his friend and peer Wim Wenders drolly reflects that the man, now based in Los Angeles, presents Americans with an oddly appealing persona: “A likable but somewhat fanatical German.”Werner Herzog: Radical DreamerNot rated. In English and German, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and ‘Murder in Boston’

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      The Mirrorball Trophy will be handed out on the dance competition show, and HBO airs a documentary on a 1989 crime.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Dec. 4-10. Details and times are subject to change.MondayFrom “Murder in Boston.”Courtesy of HBOMURDER IN BOSTON 9 p.m. on HBO. On Oct. 23, 1989, the Boston Police Department received a panicked call from Charles Stuart saying that he and his pregnant wife, a white couple, had been shot in their car by a Black man. Later his wife died, and a manhunt around Boston led to the arrest of multiple Black men, even though Stuart’s brother would go on to name Charles as the murderer. Footage from the CBS docuseries “Rescue 911,” which happened to be shadowing the response to Stuart’s call that night, is used in this documentary, which casts the case as a microcosm of bigger problems in race relations in the city.BARMAGEDDON: BLAKE SHELTON’S HOLIDAY BARTACULAR 10 p.m. on NBC. Blake Shelton is up to his usual bar game shenanigans, this time with a holiday flair. In this special, he will be going up against the rapper and actor Ice-T in games including “Merry Axe-Mas,” “Christmas Carol-okie” and “Little Drummer Boy (and Girl)” — your guess on what they entail is as good as mine.TuesdayDANCING WITH THE STARS 8 p.m. on ABC. The 32nd season of this Latin and ballroom dance competition show has been the first without former lead judge Len Goodman, who died early this year. Because of this, the winning couple will receive the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. Last week, in a gotcha-type twist, no couples were eliminated from the semifinals, meaning that for the first time, five couples will be competing for the trophy. There are some great competitors this year, so the winner will be a toss up, but my money is on the 17-year-old actress Xochitl Gomez and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy.Wednesday2024 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE 8 p.m. on The CW. This marks the fourth Republican primary debate of this election cycle — this time at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida; Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy entrepreneur are expected to qualify. As has been his pattern this year, Donald J. Trump will skip the debate and instead attend a fund-raiser.ThursdayJess Girod and Blake Moynes on “Bachelor in Paradise.”ABC/Craig SjodinBACHELOR IN PARADISE 8 p.m. on ABC. It’s been a sweaty and tearful couple weeks on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, and finally we will see who gets engaged and who leaves solo. So far only one couple on the beach is of official boyfriend-girlfriend status, and after a bunch of people left last week, including Rachel and Blake, every couple seems a little mismatch. So maybe no bling will be thrown around in this episode.CHRISTMAS AT THE OPRY 8 p.m. on NBC. This two-hour special hosted by Wynonna Judd is all things festive and all things country. Kelly Clarkson, Chrissy Metz and Lauren Alaina are just a few of the many singers set to perform.FridayFROZEN (2013) 8:20 p.m. on Freeform. It’s hard to believe that it was 10 years ago when my stepsister dragged me to what I thought was a children’s movie, and then I left the theater sobbing — and I haven’t gotten “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” out of my head since. Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell voice the sisters Elsa and Anna, who find themselves on an adventure with a snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad) and the ice harvester Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) after things go awry at the palace.Reunited for “Frozen 2.”DisneyFROZEN 2 (2019) 10:50 p.m. on Freeform. The sequel is set three years after Anna’s problematic fiancé tried to freeze her to death, and things are going pretty well — until Elsa feels unsettled, and the crew heads out to find an autumn-bound forest in an enchanted land. “The emphasis remains on the sisters,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The New York Times. “It’s never surprising, yet its bursts of pictorial imagination — snowflakes that streak like shooting stars — keep you engaged, as do Elsa and Anna, who still aren’t waiting for life to happen.”SaturdayMEAN GIRLS (2004) 3:30 p.m. on VH1. If you want to prep for the new musical movie (whose trailer pretends it is not a musical) coming out in January, this is your moment. The original follows Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), who moves from Africa to the suburbs of Illinois and falls in with the popular girls known as the Plastics: Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) and Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert). So many zeitgeist-y quotes have come from this movie, it’s never a bad idea to brush up. (My favorite: “I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops, so I wore army pants and flip-flops.”)SundayA GRAMMY SALUTE TO 50 YEARS OF HIP HOP 8:30 p.m. on CBS. Taking place live on Wednesday in Inglewood, Calif., some of the biggest names in hip-hop are gathering to continue their ode to 50 years of the genre, including Queen Latifah, Rick Ross, LL Cool J, Common and so many more. More

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      in Theater

      10 Performances That Pushed Emotional Limits

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      For our critic-at-large, the year was marked by the Black excellence of “Purlie Victorious,” the brutality of “Bottoms” and rage of “Beef.”For me, 2023 was a year of entertainment that captured people pushed to their emotional limits, whether that was the rage of two bitter enemies, the desperation of a widow who only sees a future of annihilation or the pent-up aggression of a bunch of high school girls. But it was also a year of colorful, funny and biting Black stories on stages. Throw in a dancing goth, a freshly single New York City fashionista and a chronicle of a dying band, and you’ve got my top picks for everything that tickled my fancy in the past year across theater, film and TV.‘Swing State’Call me a masochist, but what I most loved about Rebecca Gilman’s devastating play was that it tapped into multiple registers of despair: individual, communal, ecological. Peg, a widow living on a prairie in Wisconsin, is nursing concerns about endangered animals and environmental catastrophe, and how everything is leading us to an uninhabitable planet. But alongside Peg’s global anxieties are a host of much more intimate sorrows — grief for her husband, a sense of hopelessness, and isolation — that are driving her to consider suicide. Gilman’s script offers black humor, suspense and a crushing ending. And the empathetic direction, by Robert Falls, of a stellar cast led by Mary Beth Fisher and Bubba Weiler, provides a sense of existential urgency to every minute. (Read our review of “Swing State.”)‘Purlie Victorious’From left: Billy Eugene Jones, Kara Young, Leslie Odom Jr. and Jay O. Sanders in “Purlie Victorious.” Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAt the end of this Ossie Davis play, our hero, Purlie Victorious (a larger-than-life Leslie Odom Jr.), heartily declares, “I find, in being Black, a thing of beauty: a joy, a strength, a secret cup of gladness.” I nearly cried at this ecstatic celebration of Blackness, because this Broadway production, cleverly directed by Kenny Leon, was itself a prime example of Black excellence. As hilarious as it is biting, “Purlie Victorious” follows Purlie’s scheme to reclaim the inheritance owed to his family in the Jim Crow South. Kara Young, as Purlie’s love interest — the uniquely named Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins — proves she can carry off a fearless comedic performance on par with her dramatic roles. (Read our review of “Purlie Victorious.”)‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’Even if the hairstyles in this play weren’t as fabulous as they were, Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” about a day in the life of African immigrants working in a Harlem hair-braiding shop, would still be a sparkling Broadway delight. That’s thanks to Bioh’s colorful characters and brisk, playful dialogue. Whitney White’s direction provided extra spark, and the production’s re-creation of real braid hairstyles and salon culture felt novel; it’s not often that Black spaces are so lovingly portrayed, or portrayed at all, on Broadway. (Read our review of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.”)‘Stereophonic’Earlier this year, after guiltily binging the soapy Amazon Prime series “Daisy Jones & the Six,” I wondered what a better version of this narrative — the band drama full of drugs, sex and music that’s kinda-but-not-really about Fleetwood Mac — would look like. I didn’t know until I saw David Adjmi’s “Stereophonic,” which kept me fully engaged through its full three-hour running time. The central band’s journey to celebrity then collapse, the addictions, the toxic relationships — the bones of the material are the same, but “Stereophonic” is unique in the way it uses music to do some of the storytelling. Entirely diegetic, the songs aren’t used for exposition or ornamentation; they exist as products in themselves, which we hear in different incarnations, in different parts, sometimes several times before we hear the final version. We learn about the characters through the parts they play in making and performing this music — which, by the way, is amazing, and written by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire. The cast is flawless, and the production is so meticulously composed, including David Zinn’s stunning set and Ryan Rumery’s explosive sound design, that it feels like you’re actually being ushered into this world of Billboard hits, giant bags of cocaine and ego-driven rock stars. I can’t wait to see it again. (Read our review of “Stereophonic.”)‘Flex’There are a lot of reasons I liked this Lincoln Center Theater production about a high school basketball team, but one of them was, to my surprise, more a feat of athleticism than of drama. Throughout the performance I went to, Starra, the team’s talented, headstrong captain played by Erica Matthews, never missed a shot to the basket set above the stage at the Mitzi E. Newhouse. A story about the clash of beliefs, personalities, priorities and ambitions among these girls in lower-class, rural Arkansas, “Flex” was a win in all respects, from Candrice Jones’s engaging script to Lileana Blain-Cruz’s dynamic direction to the strong cast. I’m no fan of team sports, and in any other context would find taking the role of basketball spectator tedious; but, even if for only two hours, “Flex” transformed me into a fan. (Read our review of “Flex.”)‘Bottoms’Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri in “Bottoms.”Orion PicturesI loved the chaos of this weird, perversely satisfying film about two unpopular high school students who start a girls’ fight club with the ultimate goal of losing their virginity. Rachel Sennott, who delivered a panic-inducing performance in “Shiva Baby,” plays the similarly unstable and unpredictable PJ, opposite Ayo Edebiri’s adorably dweeby Josie. “Bottoms” has a brutal sense of humor that gleefully spirals into a violent finale I won’t forget anytime soon. (Read our review of “Bottoms.”)‘Beef’The only reason I didn’t ravenously consume this phenomenal Netflix series in one go was that “Beef” was so effective in its storytelling, performances and direction that every episode felt staggering, but in the best way. It would have been so easy for this series, about the way rage rips apart and connects the lives of two unhappy strangers (played by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun), to stay in one lane and offer us 10 straight-up comedic episodes of steadily escalating acts of sabotage and retribution. But “Beef” also offers up pathos and humanity, getting to the brokenness underneath its characters’ rage without forgiving or dismissing their most heinous actions. Wong and Yeun are stellar in every scene, and beautifully navigate the chaotic turns of the script. (Read our review of “Beef.”)‘Primary Trust’A story about a grown man named Kenneth (William Jackson Harper) with no family living a quaint, routine small-town life with his imaginary best friend, “Primary Trust” was one of those shows that left me practically clutching my chest with feeling by the end. Harper delivered one of the finest, most exacting performances I saw this year; his Kenneth was delicate but not fragile. A contemporary fable about alienation, loneliness and facing the wild unknowns of adult life, “Primary Trust” felt cathartic, especially given how quarantines and six-foot distances changed many people’s understanding of isolation. (Read our review of “Primary Trust.”)‘Survival of the Thickest’The actress-comedian Michelle Buteau has so much charm that it seems to radiate from the TV. She exudes a playful energy and has a deep pocket of grand, larger-than-life facial reactions that serve punchlines without her even saying a word. So watching “Survival of the Thickest,” her bright, stylish confection of a sitcom on Netflix, feels like a soul-affirming treat. Buteau stars as Mavis Beaumont, a personal stylist forced to re-evaluate her relationship, home and career when she catches her longtime boyfriend cheating. Mavis starts at square one, moving into a tiny apartment with an eccentric New York City roommate and building her brand from the ground up. A little awkward, a bit misguided but full of heart, brains, talent and personality — and also, let’s not forget, style — Mavis is infinitely relatable, and, importantly, a Black full-figured heroine with supportive and snarky Black friends. In other words, she feels real.‘Wednesday’Jenna Ortega in “Wednesday.”NetflixWhen it comes to gothic, sexy teen revamps of old franchises, like “Riverdale” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” I’m often turned off by the baroque plots, aesthetic preening and self-conscious … well, adolescence of it all. “Wednesday” is a delightful exception, in part because the Addams daughter did goth before it was cool. (And it doesn’t hurt that the director, Tim Burton, has been the goth king of filmmaking for decades.) The show strikes the perfect balance between juicy teen dramedy and ghoulish supernatural thriller, with Jenna Ortega starring as the ever-dour and ever-surprising young mistress of darkness. Her performance delivers flashes of color behind Wednesday’s signature dead eyes and deadpan mannerisms; she manages to carry off a character with a sociopathic disconnect from the world around her and yet still make her the charming antiheroine. And I’m still waiting for anything to come along that I enjoyed as much as Wednesday’s dance in Episode 4. (Read our review of “Wednesday.”) More

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      Why Beyoncé Should Be Considered an Auteur

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      She is essentially one on the new film, but she has also demonstrated throughout her career just who is in charge of her art.“I’m excited for people to see the show,” Beyoncé says early in “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” based on her recent world tour and seventh studio album. “But I’m really excited for everyone to see the process.”I’ve long wanted to understand her process better, too, especially because she has taken to rarely giving interviews. Instead she has let her art speak for itself, a risky venture when critics do the interpreting without her input. My interest in her approach is partly scholarly. I regularly teach courses on her and want my students to learn from her observations. But my enthusiasm is also speculative. I often wonder whether our ignorance of her creative practice has minimized and denied her innovation, ingenuity and individual contributions to her own body of work.If “Renaissance” was only a film about her beaming audience, dazzling performances and the making of the tour, that would be more than enough. However, it’s clear early on that Beyoncé is not entirely interested in fetishizing her “process” to validate her artistry. Instead, the movie deconstructs its subject to expand our understanding of her. More poignantly, it critiques how race, gender and genre have limited our ability to see her talent and, by doing so, liberates her from ever again having to prove her singular impact on American culture.It does so by quickly establishing her creative control. The concert itself reveled in Beyoncé’s simultaneous mastery of dance, music, fashion and live performance, which makes her unparalleled among artists today. On the other hand, the film shows her working backstage and sometimes even underneath it. As the tour director, executive producer and creative director, she oversaw everything from hiring and salaries to musical selections, marketing, choreography, costumes and video.But what makes “Renaissance” unique among other great concert films is that she did not just star in it the way the Talking Heads did in Jonathan Demme’s classic “Stop Making Sense” or Madonna in Alek Keshishian’s provocative “Truth or Dare.” Beyoncé also wrote, directed and produced the film. In fact, she has created some of the past decade’s most memorable cinematic musical experiences and should be considered an auteur — in terms of both this film and her career.In this way, “Renaissance” is the culmination of her visual projects, beginning with the visual albums “Beyoncé” (2013) and “Lemonade” (2016); her intimate documentary “Life Is but a Dream” (2013); the 2019 Coachella concert film “Homecoming”; and “Black Is King” (2020), the visual companion she and Blitz Bazawule made for the soundtrack “The Lion King: The Gift.” But by offering the most in-depth document of her vision, preparation and personal sacrifice, the new film goes further than these productions.Beyoncé in a scene from “Life Is but a Dream,” her intimate 2013 documentary.Parkwood EntertainmentThe film opens with Beyoncé commanding our attention in a citron yellow dress, her hair blowing as she belts “Dangerously in Love 2.” She later revisits that moment through a flashback showing her at work with her production team. Via voice-overs and close-ups of her in far more casual clothing, we watch as she gives her team notes about camera angles, lighting and the speed and direction of the mechanical fans. If only we could rewind to that first performance to better appreciate all the technical components that went into making that moment appear so flawless.In another scene in which the entire sound system cuts out as she sings “Alien Superstar” in Glendale, Ariz., the tension really mounts. She and her dancers leave the stage immediately. That’s all the live audience knows. But as a film director, she has the cameras follow her backstage to capture her audio team’s update (“It will be back on in three minutes”). Within that short period, she convinces the wardrobe department she has enough time for a quick costume change, then, in a new outfit, meets with her head of music production to test a new transition to the next song. It is an exhilarating sequence that makes her seamless comeback to the stage even more admirable and shows her remarkable sense of timing and tension as a storyteller and filmmaker.These moments pose the question of why it took her so long to exhibit such a thrilling illustration of her leadership. And then I realized: We were the problem; we just hadn’t listened to her.Beyoncé has spent most of her career telling us she was in charge. As far back as 2004, “Beyoncé: Live at Wembley,” a concert film about her first solo tour, featured the artist at 22 as well as its creative director, Kim Burse, and choreographer, Frank Gatson, discussing how the headliner had helped conceive the show and chose its costumes, songs and choreography. Subsequent documentaries like the short “Beyoncé: Year of 4” and “Life Is but a Dream” focused even more intensely on her artistic independence after she split from her father and longtime manager, Mathew Knowles, and started her own company, Parkwood, to manage herself.She returned to this theme of independence again in “Homecoming,” when, cinéma vérité-style, she shares the inspiration she found in the Battle of the Bands of historically Black colleges and universities; her use of three different sound stages to rehearse with the band, the dancers and her production team; and her intricate collaboration with Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing to design more than 200 outfits for the show. “In the rehearsals, I am directing and watching the show,” she says in “Homecoming” and notes, “I’m in the audience, and I’m able to be on the stage and kind of see the stage at the same time.”And yet even in “Homecoming,” she points out how her team tried to ignore her directives in the lead-up to Coachella. At one point, she expresses her frustration to a film crew that isn’t listening to her when she describes what it will take to translate the energetic performances from the stage to the screen. “Until I see some of my notes applied,” an exasperated Beyoncé warns, “it doesn’t make sense for me to make more.”A scene from “Homecoming,” her 2019 film in which she made clear that she was the director.Parkwood Entertainment/Netflix, via Associated PressBut in “Renaissance,” she explains her crew’s dismissiveness. “Communicating as a Black woman, everything is a fight,” she says, and adds, “I constantly have to repeat myself.” In back-to-back scenes, she shows what that looks like when she tries to buy two separate cameras to film her show. A team member informs her that one camera is unavailable, only to eventually admit that he can find it after she doubts him. In the next scene, she readies herself for the pushback. When someone else tells her the other camera does not exist, she reveals she has already found it online, so it just needs to be purchased. While this exchange is humorous, it is not minor. It is the frequency that makes the second-guessing larger-than-life and, unfortunately, far too relatable, especially for many Black women in positions of authority.Management is one challenge; motherhood is far more demanding. The film pivots to Beyoncé’s ambivalence in allowing her older daughter, Blue Ivy, to perform with her on tour, only for Beyoncé to witness her growth as a young artist. And when we watch Beyoncé thank her mother, Tina Knowles, for protecting her from the more vicious aspects of the music industry, we realize not only that Mama Tina is her maternal template, but also that Beyoncé herself considers her three children, including the twins, Rumi and Sir, fuel for her creative process rather than fully outside of it.After these exchanges, “Renaissance” opens up more and allows its star to reject the idea of solitary genius. Through archival footage, photographs and shots of dancers onstage, Beyoncé showcases the Black queer ballroom culture that inspired her album and concert choreography. She also pays homage to iconic Black women like Diana Ross and Tina Turner, who influenced her career, and to her hometown, Houston, where she was a founding member of the girl group Destiny’s Child. By exploring her indebtedness to a people and place, she confidently embraces her own contributions alongside those of her community and her collaborators. The payoff: She paints a more transparent portrait of the creative process.Whether “Renaissance” will dampen criticism regarding her generous sharing of credits or drive a new appreciation of her artistry remains to be seen. By the end, Beyoncé declares she is ready for the next phase of her life and finally feels free.May this film be the last time she has to repeat herself. More

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      10 Works and Performances That Helped Me Make Sense of 2023

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      Global conflict and personal loss encouraged our critic to seek out art that gave her a better understanding of grief and healing.“I hope you don’t mind if we carry on,” Juicy says at the end of “Fat Ham.” The other characters in the play then begin cleaning and clearing the stage, an act that affirms Juicy’s proposition and, in this work inspired by Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, suggests that there might be a way for them to work through their shared trauma together.Those words hit me hard when I heard them last spring. I was staving off my own mourning as my family prepared for the 10th anniversary of my brother Shaka’s death from cancer. That, coupled with political crises and global despair, pushed me to find film, television and performances that helped me make sense of my grief and, hopefully, find a release for it.‘Fat Ham’I almost didn’t see what ended up as one of my favorite plays of the year. I could not wrap my head around the story line of a Black, queer, “Hamlet”-like play, even after it had won over my fellow critics and earned the Pulitzer Prize for best drama. Then I saw it on Broadway. I was startled by its clever transformation of an Elizabethan-era depressive into Gen Z ennui through its main character Juicy (Marcel Spears), a 20-something mourning his father’s death as well as the hyper-masculinity that his family and society impose on him. Though Juicy sneaks glances and shares asides with the audience, “Fat Ham” truly breaks theater’s fourth wall when the cast stages a surreal group cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” and then again with its unexpectedly liberatory final scene that invites us to join them in a party filled with glitter, gender fluidity and Black joy. (Read our review of “Fat Ham.”)The Last Season of ‘Succession’Who knew that if you killed off Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the show’s most dynamic character, his children would easily make up for his lost charisma? The “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong, that’s who knew. I can’t think of three more heart-wrenching performances of parental loss than Shiv (Sarah Snook), her voice breaking as she pleads, “Daddy? I love you. Don’t go, please. Not now,” on the phone; Roman (Kieran Culkin), breaking down during his eulogy; and Kendall (Jeremy Strong), the most tragic, as he loses his bid to replace his father as chief executive. In the end, Kendall simply stares out at the water rather than being buoyed up or submerged in it as he has been in the past. A man without a company, it is a fate that, for him, is far worse than death. (Read our review of the “Succession” finale.)‘A Thousand and One’In “A Thousand and One,” Teyana Taylor plays Inez, a mother scarred by her childhood in foster care. Aaron Kingsley Adetola plays Terry.Focus FeaturesWinner of a grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, A.V. Rockwell’s debut feature, “A Thousand and One,” sensitively explores the failure of society’s safety nets to protect Black families and the lengths Black mothers will go to ensure their children’s future. But underneath that story is another: one about the personal voids we try to fill. Appearing in her first leading role, Teyana Taylor plays Inez, a mother scarred by her childhood in foster care. She infused this character with such electricity and vitality that I found myself championing her every move, even, or especially, her most morally ambiguous decisions. (Read our interview with the director.)‘Past Lives’What if someone you pined for turns out to be your soul mate, not in this life, but another? This tension drives Celine Song’s debut film “Past Lives,” a tender portrait of two adults, Na Young (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who forged a special bond as classmates in Seoul but lost touch over the years. Their poignant performances and Song’s intimate directing style make the chemistry between these two characters believable. But, we, and they, are left with the sense that the chasm caused by immigration (and the self-invention it requires) is insurmountable, making longing the most consistent emotion available to them. (Read our review of “Past Lives.”)‘Purlie Victorious’When he first conceived of writing a play based on his childhood in rural, segregated Georgia, Ossie Davis tried to write it straight. Once he realized that satire was better suited to capture the absurdity and tragedy of American racism, he premiered his first play, “Purlie Victorious.” Back on Broadway 62 years later, the play, directed by Kenny Leon, stars Leslie Odom Jr. as the ambitious preacher Purlie and Kara Young as Lutibelle, a naïve young woman he brings home to impersonate a dead cousin whose inheritance Purlie wants. The resulting ruckus undercuts an enduring racial stereotype — that all Black people look alike — while sharing a radical vision of Black pride and interracial solidarity. Odom is a mesmerizing triumph and Young a hilarious tour de force, while this is Leon (“Fences,” “Topdog/Underdog”) at his very best. (Read our interview with the cast and director.)Jeffrey Wright in ‘American Fiction’Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in “American Fiction.” Ellison is torn between staying true to his highbrow literary vision and caricaturing Black life to make money and take care of his mother. via TIFFJeffrey Wright is a consummate screen stealer — this year alone, I wanted more speeches from his General Gibson in “Asteroid City” and more shade from his Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in “Rustin.” But not since “Basquiat” in 1996 have I seen Wright as a lead in a feature-length film, and his performance in Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” reminds us what an actual loss this is for those of us who love watching movies. He wholly embodies Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a novelist who, in the process of mourning the death of his father and sister, is torn between staying true to his highbrow literary vision and caricaturing Black life to make money and take care of his mother. Wright gives a nuanced, captivating performance, punctuated with humor, anger, desire and vulnerability, while his character conveys the frustrations of Black artists who refuse to conform to the white gaze.‘The Last of Us’There are so many painful separations and sentimental reunions on “The Last of Us,” the dystopian HBO series based on the video game of the same name, that it is hard for me to pick the most affecting one. I am choosing the story in which Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old orphan who is immune to the brain infection that has decimated most of the world, reconnects with her former roommate Riley (Storm Reid), who left to join the resistance. When Riley takes Ellie on an overnight trip to an abandoned mall, we see how liberating their adolescent female desire for each other is, making this night of last memories even more apocalyptic. (Read our review of “The Last of Us.”)Jodie Comer in ‘Prima Facie’When Jodie Comer, best known as an assassin on “Killing Eve,” decided to do her first major stage role, she went big with “Prima Facie.” Alone on a Broadway stage for 100 minutes, Comer commands our attention as Tessa Ensler, a barrister who has moved up in the British class system only to be pulled back down as a victim of a sexual assault. Tessa finds herself in a paradox: In the past, she has defended male clients from assault accusations. Comer moves through the emotions of grief, shame, self-doubt, rage and hope with such intensity that it still seems impossible to me that this was her professional stage debut. (Read our review of “Prima Facie.”)‘Reservation Dogs’Graham Greene as Maximus, left, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear in “Reservation Dogs,” a show that redefined American television.Shane Brown/FXDespite its notable lack of Emmy nods, “Reservation Dogs,” the first television show where every writer, director and main character was Indigenous, redefined American television over three seasons. While it is primarily a coming-of-age story, this final season’s episodes veered thrillingly into family drama, horror, science fiction and comedy. I am sad to say goodbye to these characters, but I am grateful for its brilliant ensemble and its affirmation of community, and how a people who lived and grieved together can, through ritual and remembrance, find their way back to each other and teach themselves, and those watching them, how to heal. (Read our interview with the “Reservation Dogs” showrunner.)Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour“Uncle Jonny made my dress,” Beyoncé rhymes on “Heated,” a single from her 2022 album “Renaissance.” “That cheap spandex, she looks a mess.” That playful line reminds us that she dedicated this album to her maternal uncle Jonny, a Black gay man who helped raise her and died of H.I.V./AIDS-related causes. (She released her concert film on Friday, which was World AIDS Day.) The lyric also declares the political aesthetics of “Renaissance” and the house music and Black queer ballroom cultures that inspired its sound and her style on this year’s behemoth world tour. She encouraged us to wear our most fabulous silver fashions and become human disco balls that mirrored “each other’s joy.” And so we came, witnessed and participated in what was more like a Black church revival than just a stadium concert, in which we left feeling as beautiful in our skin (and our clothing) as she appeared to us onstage. (Read our review of Beyoncé’s tour.) More

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      ‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’ Review: Peak Performance

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      The concert film offers a comprehensive look at a world-conquering tour and rare insight into the process of one of the world’s biggest stars.Of all the absurdities in “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” the one that takes the cake comes in the homestretch, long after the film’s revealed itself to be both a face-warping concert movie and a moving, unexpectedly transparent feat of self-portraiture, after the screen’s gone black and the speakers silent during her performance of “Alien Superstar” (which happened for about 10 minutes on the tour’s Phoenix stop) and the placid voices at “Renaissance” mission control sound concerned, after we’ve beheld one costuming outrage chase another, after we’ve witnessed technicians inform her that something’s impossible and she informs them that she’s looked the problem up and that, indeed, it is possible. (“Eventually, they realize this bitch will not give up,” she says, backstage, to the camera.)After all of that and about two and a half hours more, out comes the most outrageous costume of the evening. The bee. It’s by Thierry Mugler and lands somewhere between bathing suit and “Barbarella,” an exoskeleton breastplate in yellow and black, with black thigh-high boots. That’s not what kills me though, not really. It’s the matching helmet and yellow visor that cover the top half of her face. The helmet’s got horns that taper into antennae, and they swing, at about waist level. She’s put this thing on for her partisans in the Beyhive.That’s not even the deadliest thing about the costume, which, yes, on its own is a trip. It’s that at some point during this passage, a local TV news desk appears onstage. Its station call letters feature no vowels yet remain unprintable nonetheless. And from behind that desk, this titan of song, movement and facial expression, this mother of three and daughter of Tina and Matthew Knowles, this creature of Houston and global inspiration who has elected officials asking themselves “What would Beyoncé do?” — she is dressed like a bug, a bug who stings, in order to do the news, which, in the film, is simply this: “America? America has a problem,” the title of the bottom-bumping Miami bass jam that doubles as the wickedest joke on the “Renaissance” album. Here, in a film written, directed, produced by and starring Beyoncé, it’s camp. Divine camp.The absurd has always lurked on the perimeter of the Beyoncé experience, what with “do you pay my automo bills” and “can you eat my Skittles” and “got hot sauce in my bag — swag!” But she hadn’t fully wielded it, truly allowed it take her to Mars until “Renaissance,” the album, the tour and, as of this weekend, the movie. I don’t know if it’s entirely possible to be supremely conscious of one’s self and yet be vividly unselfconscious, but that’s where Beyoncé finds herself.This movie wants to convey a great deal about the woman who made it. Predominately, it’s that despite the metallic sheen Beyoncé’s cultivated she — to quote a glitchy Captcha screen that gets projected at every show — “is not a robot.” The film is an effective humanizing of a naturally withholding star. The last time Beyoncé took a stab at this kind of auto-documentary was 10 years ago with “Life Is but a Dream.” That movie was an introvert’s idea of extroversion. “Renaissance” is less cloistered. It widens the guardrails from alleyway to thoroughfare. It’s busy; and, in its business, casually revealing. The woman who’s made it has found a rich balance between the taciturn and TMI. We can see freckles. She includes flubs and flaws. We witness a parent in an assortment of resonant parenting moods.Beyoncé turns 42 in the film. It’s Diana Ross who graces a Los Angeles show for a round of “Happy Birthday.” And the older Beyoncé gets, the more her ambition expands, as a friend of mine puts it, toward the archival. (Her backup singers are styled to evoke En Vogue. The tour’s vibe is disco-shimmer. Some of the dancers are vogue specialists.) She’s bringing the past with her into the present, communing with both an audience and her ancestors, accepting stewardship as a rite of longevity. At her “Homecoming” show at Coachella, in 2019, she came out as a bandleader. The resulting show was an achievement of artistic self-rearrangement, of what happens when your hits meet your people’s musical history. “Renaissance” does something like that but internationally.It furnishes a lot to go “aww” over, too — a trip to her girlhood home; the sight of her children parroting their mother’s choreography backstage, in what looked like their PJs; a peek at a five-way Destiny’s Child reunion; the stretch devoted to maternity, or Uncle Johnny, a late family friend and gay man whose love of dance music led to “Renaissance,” and who now is immortalized in the ferocious read Beyoncé does at the end of that album’s “Heated.”What moved me, though, is her sense of awe that any tour gets pulled off at all; her wonder at the alignment of artistries and skills solely in the name of her art, wonder at the labor of so many woman technicians. Watching her aim for perfection in collaborative environments and be second-guessed (in two differently pointed moments by Blue Ivy Carter, her eldest child), brought to mind Barbra Streisand’s ruminating in her new memoir about her own pursuit of it, why as a performer it’s necessary and how vexing doubt can feel. These two also share a passion for the importance of lighting. And watching Beyoncé figure out how things should be lit turned a lightbulb on for me: She points out that all of that luminance is often being aimed at her, like into her eyes. It has to be right.None of this is what I came to a “Renaissance” movie hoping to experience. Had this merely been a film that said “I had a tour and this is how it went,” I’d take it. That approach basically worked for Taylor Swift. But Beyoncé’s done more than that. This is her fifth long-form visual project; we’re now talking about an auteur. Simply at the presentation level, coherence and visual imagination are in the house. There are different shooting styles, camera approaches and lensing ideas that capture the show’s inherent command of action but transform concert into cinema. Rather than focus on a single show, the movie is more or less all of the tour dates, sometimes seemingly in a single number. Every time we’re permitted to watch a craftsperson building something backstage or an artisan hunched over a sewing machine or doing painstaking beadwork, I thought about the pile of credited editors who are doing the equivalent of tweezing a zillion sequins onto a piece of fabric.They know when to cut to the crowd and when to hold on their star and her mighty, mightily synced yet physically heterogeneous dancers. We can see thrilling choreography in full. The cuts to the crowd here don’t qualify as fan service. Nearly every time we’re with someone in the audience, they’re amplifying what’s happening onstage, complementing, meme-generating. They’re giving face. In a packed movie theater, it’s tough to know whether the ecstatic applause and clacking fans are from Beyoncé’s movie or the row to your rear.There’s also some risk here. “Renaissance” the album is a marvel of ever proliferating rewards of stupendous production and vocal wit, a vulgar dessert menu that unspools all night. But the film interprets that music into a new organism, something closer to “Madonna: Truth or Dare” — well, as close to it as Beyoncé could bring herself. At some point, Beyoncé muses that she’s several different flavors of people. Of the stomping, snarling, sci-fi dominatrix onstage, she pleads plausible deniability: “I’m not really responsible for that person.” That might be the most succinct explanation of what camp is: the one mode of expression beyond a perfectionist’s control.So no, it’s not exactly the extroverts’ playground of “Truth or Dare.” Its offstage antics don’t rhyme with what happens during the shows. There aren’t may antics offstage in “Renaissance.” The one realm effectively cashmeres the other. “Renaissance” is daring to be true. For we have before our eyes an entertainer at peak command of her art and therefore herself. We don’t exactly need her to tell us how newly free she feels, as Beyoncé does here. She’s meaningfully permitting us to study her touring and family life, to examine — no, to savor — her creative process. I mean, we’re seeing her do the news dressed like a bee, and the news is about her booty. At 42, she’s Funkadelic in reverse. Her ass was free. Now her mind has followed.Renaissance: A Film by BeyoncéNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes. In theaters. More

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      in Movies

      Watch Natalie Portman Study Julianne Moore in ‘May December’

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      The director Todd Haynes narrates a sequence from the film where Portman, playing an actress, gets makeup tips from the woman (Moore) she’s portraying.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Two women apply makeup in front of a mirror.In the hands of some directors and performers, a moment like this might feel perfunctory. But when the director is the critically acclaimed Todd Haynes, and the performers are the Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, this kind of scene takes on layers of meaning.The moment happens in “May December” (streaming on Netflix), which tells the story of an actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) whose latest job is to portray Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), a woman who became known for a scandal more than two decades ago involving a sexual relationship with a seventh-grader, whom she would eventually marry.Elizabeth has gone to Savannah to spend time with Gracie and her family, and study her for the part. In this scene, Gracie shares her makeup routine while the two stand at a mirror. It’s one of several sequences in the film involving mirrors and long takes.In an interview discussing those decisions, Haynes said that he wanted to “let the camera just hold and observe what goes on in these people’s lives, and this actress’s entree into their life, shattering the protection and castle walls that they’ve built around this family since that scandal occurred.”Haynes said that while most scenes with Elizabeth frame her as the interrogator, this is one of the few times when Gracie asks Elizabeth questions.With the mirrors and the merging of personalities in this shot, Haynes cited Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” as an influence. And he praised his performers for pulling it off.“A shot like this is a great idea, but it doesn’t work unless you have Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.” he said.Read the “May December” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More