business 
Parked underneath an overpass, a hit man looks out the window, surveying a bleak American landscape. The nation is, in a word, screwed. “There’s a plague coming,” Jackie (Brad Pitt) declares early on in “Killing Them Softly.” It’s 2008, and on radios and televisions, a young senator from Illinois is promising a new era of … Read more
‘Broken Rage’ Stream it on Amazon Prime Video. The director Takeshi Kitano’s “Broken Rage” might be the most original action film I’ve ever seen. A witty parody of the genre, it follows an older Japanese hit man named Mouse (Kitano), who’s forced by detectives to inform on a gangster by becoming the goon’s bodyguard. Mouse … Read more
Critic’s Pick Andrew Scott, Andrew Scott, Andrew Scott … ‘Vanya’ Directed by Sam Yates and adapted by Simon Stephens, this one-man “Vanya” — in which Andrew Scott delivers a tour-de-force performance — arrives Off Broadway after a run in London, where it won an Olivier for best play revival. Though faithful to the original material, … Read more
But if their plane had not crashed, they would be living at home. Sure, they’re high school existence might still be filled with drama, but at the end of each day (most of them) could go to their parents for advice or comfort. The heartbreak in Liv Hewson’s face is painful to watch. Despite that … Read more
The phrase “attention economy” has gained currency in an ever more distracted world. An art fair like Art Basel Hong Kong next week offers thousands of ways to spend attention, usually in short bursts as visitors make the rounds and land their eyes on a work of interest briefly, over and over. The film section … Read more
When Wes Anderson was just starting out and wanted to reshoot some scenes for his 1996 debut “Bottle Rocket,” the rookie director got a shock. Columbia Pictures had sent all the movie’s props off to a store, which had then sold them for next to nothing. So when he made his next movie, “Rushmore” (1998), … Read more
Poems don’t have to be perfect, but this one pretty much is. I mean that less as praise — though it is a long-time favorite — than as a technical description. Not many modern verses are so finely wrought, so ruthlessly precise in every facet of meaning and music. It was included in her first … Read more
The tectonic plates of the art world are always shifting as regions and countries gain or lose market power. An art fair provides useful data about the changes. Think of it as Walt Disney World’s “it’s a small world” attraction, but with pricey art for sale. Art Basel Hong Kong, taking place March 28 to … Read more
McCarthy and his Temporal Drift partner, Yosuke Kitazawa, have been part of four of the five Yoshimura reissues that have been released by multiple record labels since 2017. The pair met at the indie imprint Light in the Attic, where they built a relationship with the Yoshimura estate while preparing to resurface his debut, “Music … Read more
Contains spoilers about past episodes but not the Season 2 finale. In “Severance,” the Apple TV+ series about a shadowy company where some employees have their consciousness split into two parts, with the “innie” doing all the work and the “outie” remembering none of it, the office is sparse and lifeless. The show reinforces that … Read more