When I reviewed it last December, I wrote that Stephen Adly Guirgis s sprawling dramedy about the inhabitants of an Upper West Side women s shelter could easily provide the basis for a Netflix series. I still feel that way, and I think millions of Americans would agree with me if they could only see the Atlantic Theater Company production. Essentially a three-hour pilot episode,
Halfway Bitches introduces us to a group of outcasts navigating the transitional space between exile and belonging. Guirgis and an all-star cast of New York stage performers find dramatic potential in every moment, so you never want to look away.
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Morgan Freeman returns in Feast of Love as a wise counselor of the troubled and heartsick. Apart from his great films, of which there are many, this is almost his standard role, although he also seems to spend a lot of time playing God. Most of his insights seem not merely handed down the mountain, but arriving as a successful forward pass. At the beginning of the film, he gives us the ground rules: They say that when the Greek gods were bored, they invented humans. Still bored, they invented love. That wasn t boring, so they tried it themselves. And then they invented laughter so they could stand it.
How Wintering captured the strange beauty of 2020 Features How Wintering captured the strange beauty of 2020
Katherine May’s book about retreating from everyday life was released a month before lockdown, yet has become an emblem of it for readers around the world. Here Alice Vincent explores how Wintering gave us all something to cling onto.
It’s uncanny to read
Wintering, Katherine May’s fourth book, at the end of the year we’ve just had. I found myself underlining several passages throughout the first dozen pages out of the sheer familiarity of what May writes. On page one: The photographs I have of that day seem absurd now that I know what was about to happen . She is writing about the party that pre-empts her husband’s burst appendix, but it could have been snapshots from a wedding in early March, of two people hugging in a selfie, taken as Covid cases ratcheted up in late winter.
Stayin Alive with the Bee Gees and Mariah: Best things to watch this week Our weekly picks to lift your spirits and expand your pandemic playlist. December 10, 2020 11:33am Text size Copy shortlink: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart Saturday Night Fever made the Bee Gees wealthy and the butt of jokes. This documentary goes a long way to giving the trio back their street cred with top-tapping evidence that they contributed a lot more to jukeboxes than a disco soundtrack. Director Frank Marshall doesn t shy away from the infighting, but the film is eventually about brothers in harmony. Eric Clapton and Coldplay s Chris Martin are among the unlikely fans who voice their support. 7 p.m. Saturday, HBO