‘Dreamin’ Wild’ review: Tuneful Casey Affleck shines darkly

Two men embrace and smile.

Late-blooming recognition becomes both a blessing and a sideways needle scratch for the aspirations of a struggling singer-songwriter played by an epically downbeat Casey Affleck in director Bill Pohlad’s sweetly melancholic “Dreamin’ Wild.” A well-cast, […]

Twisted Metal review: Peacock’s PlayStation adaptation isn’t so twisted

Anthony Mackie’s John Doe and Stephanie Beatriz’s Quiet are assembled with a group of wasteland raiders in front of a speaker just off-screen in the Peacock series Twisted Metal

Allow me to free associate for a moment. Twisted Metal is a funny show. Not ha-ha funny, like a clown. But there is a clown. The kind that thinks murder is funny. This is also […]

Womad review – more music festivals need this vitality, daring and breadth | Womad

Mariza.

In a crowded festival marketplace that nevertheless often cleaves to a relatively timid and tight crop of British, European and American artists, Womad provides a vital yearly reminder of the breadth of the planet’s music. […]

Lance Gurisik: Cull Portal review – drones, drums and disruptive drama | Music

The artwork for Cull Portal

Cull Portal slowly mutates in various directions. Analogue synths burble; intense meditative improvisations develop on the piano; pastoral string sections fade in and grow more harmonically complex; wispy saxophones spray modal jazz riffs over coruscating […]

Joni Mitchell: At Newport review – years melt away in surprise folk festival recording | Music

The artwork for At Newport

Joni Mitchell’s surprise appearance at last year’s Newport folk festival marked the singer-songwriter’s first time at the festival in 53 years, and her first live appearance since a near-fatal 2015 aneurysm that led to fears […]

Review: Billy Joel plays Madison Square Garden, remembers Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett, seen here performing at the Library of Congress in 2014, bridged generations with his cheery brand of classic American crooning

Billy Joel. Photo Courtesy of Myrna Suarez On July 24, Billy Joel played a show at Madison Square Garden as part of his monthly residency. He also took the time to remember the late Tony […]

Blur: The Ballad of Darren review – mature melancholia spiked with adventure | Blur

Blur - The Ballad of Darren

Nine albums in, Blur do not owe anyone any bangers. They are a four-piece very much in the post-urgent stage of their career, reaping the rewards of their long musical life at a pair of […]

Enji: Ulaan review – elegant and powerful twist on traditional Mongolian music | Music

The artwork for Ulaan.

Mongolian music has a long history of producing captivating vocal styles. The best-known is throat singing – a reverberating technique that produces multiple pitches during a single phrase. Raw, earthy and a predominantly male pursuit, […]

Blur: The Ballad of Darren review – middle-age regrets voiced in gorgeous tunes | Blur

Cover art for The Ballad of Darren

‘We’re taking down the scaffolds very soon,” sings Damon Albarn, midway through Barbaric, presumably one of the songs he wrote for Blur’s ninth studio album while on tour with Gorillaz last year. Whether it was […]

‘Barbie’ review: Margot Robbie doll-ivers

A blond woman in a striped bathing suit standing in a stark, prehistoric landscape

Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” an exuberant, sometimes exhaustingly clever piece of Mattelian neorealism, opens with an extended, heavily trailer-spoiled homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey.” We’re at a drab early moment in the history of the […]