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News of Michelle Trachtenberg’s death at 39 on Wednesday sent shock waves through Hollywood, especially among actors who worked with her on movies like “Harriet the Spy” and the beloved TV shows “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl.” Blake Lively Lively, who played Serena van der Woodsen on “Gossip Girl,” called Trachtenberg “electricity” and … Read more
“L’ Embarquement pour Cythère,” a 1717 painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, depicts lovers having a party on an island. They are paired off near a statue of Venus, with encouraging Cupids flying about. Douglas Dunn’s new dance shares a title with the painting, along with some of its pastoral charm and idealization of the past. But … Read more
Tributes for the actor Gene Hackman, who was found dead on Wednesday at the age of 95 at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., with his wife and one of their dogs, streamed in from collaborators and co-stars as the news spread. Hackman, who played flawed Everymen, inflexible patriarchs and inspirational mentors, had decades of … Read more
“Rats!”, a gross-out action-comedy in the vein of “Pineapple Express” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” throws us back into the suburban-youth aesthetics of the mid-aughts: its Hot Topic threads, pop-punk music and chintzy stoner décor. Set in a fictional version of Fresno, Tex., called Pfresno, circa 2007, this underdog caper also satirizes … Read more
The “Steven Soderbergh presents” credit at the start of “Cold Wallet” raises expectations higher than can be sustained. The movie, directed by Cutter Hodierne, is a no-frills crime film that pits a group of wronged investors who trawl Reddit and YouTube for tips against an amoral crypto mogul who has stolen their savings. The matchup … Read more
The premise might sound like a riff on “Collateral,” but “The Accidental Getaway Driver” is no ticking clock thriller. Sing J. Lee’s quiet, big-hearted debut feature is steeped in the sorrow and yearning of its Vietnamese American characters as they work through the lingering trauma of displacement while living in Southern California. One late night … Read more
In the Hindi-language film “Superboys of Malegaon,” a wedding videographer named Nasir (Adarsh Gourav) dreams of making movies that will transform his brother’s video parlor in the western Indian city of Malegaon into a movie theater, packed like the one across the street. For this fool’s errand, he enlists his closest friends. A love letter … Read more
‘Drunk Black History’ Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. at Littlefield, 635 Sackett Street, Brooklyn; littlefieldnyc.com. Derek Waters had an epiphany: Alcohol can make history more interesting and funnier. So in 2007 he created “Drunk History” by plying his friends with liquor, recording them as they channeled their inner Jon Meachams and having comedians re-enact the … Read more
The prospect of an animated movie about sloths introduces an invigorating challenge. What’s the best way to spin a comedic children’s story about the slowest-moving mammals on Earth? Sid, the central sloth in the “Ice Age” franchise, is slow of wit but swift in body, while “Zootopia” installed its sloth, Flash, as an unhurried employee … Read more
