Arts

Asia Kate Dillon wandered into a coffee shop near Brooklyn’s Prospect Park looking like a fallen angel taking a personal day: Black shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, black liner circling each eye. Dillon, who gave eye-catching performancesLucifer off-off-Broadway and as a white supremacist on “Orange Is the New Black,”“Billions.” “Hello, I’m Taylor,” the character says when first meeting the fund’s boss, Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). “My pronouns are they, theirs and them.” Dillon, 34, identifies as nonbinary, too, with the same preferred pronouns, a gender identity the “Billions” role helped them clarify. And Dillon has recently taken on a new role. In “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” currently in theaters, the actor plays On a recent afternoon, Most casting breakdowns specify male and female roles. How did you navigate that when you were younger? I remember in middle school … [Read more...] about Asia Kate Dillon: ‘This Is Who I Am’

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. paid tribute last week to its architect, the late I.M. Pei, by setting vases of orchids and calla lilies on a table in its lobby alongside a gold-framed document extolling the Chinese-American designer.Even more touching as a public display of affection were two spots on the pink marble building that have been discolored by thousands of admirers who stroked them like statues of Buddha or a Christian saint. One is where Pei’s name has been incised in a classical Roman font on a lobby wall. The other is outside, where a knife-edged portion of the façade comes close to a sidewalk.Architects rarely get such love, but Pei’s death at 102 on May 16 was a reminder of the gratitude people feel for the beauty he brought into their lives, and impact he made on global culture through buildings including the East Wing, the Louvre pyramid in Paris and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in … [Read more...] about Remembering I.M. Pei as designer of the Rock Hall

CANNES, France — “Parasite,” a social satire by the South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, about a poor family of hustlers who find jobs with a wealthy family, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or. “Parasite” is the first Korean film to ever win the Palme. The awards were handed out in a ceremony Saturday after being chosen by a jury presided over by filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. The festival’s second-place award, the Grand Prize, went to the French-Senegalese director Mati Diop for “Atlantics.” Ms. Diop was the first black female director in competition at Cannes. Best actor went to Antonio Banderas for Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” and best actress went to Emily Beecham of Britain for “Little Joe.” Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne won best director for “Young Ahmed.” … [Read more...] about ‘Parasite’ Wins Top Honors at Cannes

[ Read all of our classical music coverage here. ] Readers and listeners, here’s wishing you a very happy, and hopefully relaxing, Memorial Day weekend. On Monday I went to the premiere screening of a restored version of Meredith Monk’s “Quarry” at Anthology Film Archives. (Seth Colter Walls did a fascinating interview with her a few days before, with excerpts from the restoration.) There are dated aspects to the piece, but also passages of great beauty and performances of intense commitment. (Here, in very much not restored footage, is an amazing Ping Chong as the nameless Dictator.) It was a poignant moment when, during a question and answer period after the screening, the handful of original performers who were in the audience were asked to stand. I hadn’t known that the aching solo that opens Ms. Monk’s breakthrough album “Dolmen Music” (as “Gotham Lullaby”) is at the core of “Quarry.” I can’t … [Read more...] about Aching Lullaby: The Week in Classical Music

What’s on TV HALLOWEEN (2018) 8 p.m. on HBO; stream on HBO platforms. Forty years (and nine sequels and remakes) later, John Carpenter’s classic slasher film got yet another update, one that reprised Jamie Lee Curtis’s role as the baby sitter who survived a killing spree on Halloween night. Ignoring the narratives of the franchise’s other films, this reboot by David Gordon Green has our masked villain, Michael Myers (played by James Jude Courtney and the originating actor, Nick Castle), escape from a prison transfer and head straight back to Haddonfield. He’s out for Laurie, of course, who has become a paranoid, rabid grandmother with a fortress for a house. Fans of the original know what to expect, and overall, they should be pleased with the gruesome result. “Green wants us to believe in his Bogeyman, and Curtis is his ace card,” Jeannette Catsoulis wrote in her New York Times review. “Leaving no room for winks or giggles, she makes … [Read more...] about What’s on TV Saturday: ‘Halloween’ and ‘The Perfection’