Sugar, Spice and Guts
By A. O. SCOTT and MANOHLA DARGIS
In many movie genres, the representation of girls and women is improving. But there’s a long way to go.
In “Gone Girl,” Ben Affleck — husband, father, actor and Oscar-winning producer — stretches even further with his most complex performance.
In many movie genres, the representation of girls and women is improving. But there’s a long way to go.
Hollywood has finally realized that movies starring women can make major money, and a wave of sequels and new films with female protagonists is on its way.
Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, formerly longtime co-stars on “Saturday Night Live,” take on dramatic roles in “The Skeleton Twins.”
Julianne Moore, who’s equally at home in indies and big-budget projects, goes out on an emotional limb with David Cronenberg’s “Map to the Stars.”
Ned Benson spent nearly a decade working on “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” and ended up making not one film but three, with the same cast.
A graphic novelist, a concept artist, film directors and others collaborated to visualize a German Expressionist-tinged fantasy world for “The Boxtrolls.”
The new season comes with five standout performances from recent Hollywood arrivals.
Glenn Close is returning to Broadway for the first time in 20 years this fall in Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance.”
Actors, composers and directors talk (briefly) about making their Broadway debuts.
At 25, Alex Sharp is preparing for his Broadway debut, playing a 15-year-old mathematician in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”
Innovative musical theater Off Broadway is having a fertile season, with characters including superheroes, a serial killer and Alexander Hamilton.
“On the Town” marked the Broadway debut of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a foursome known as “the kids.”
“Madam Secretary,” “State of Affairs” and other new prime-time dramas offer heroines who advise the Oval Office and influence global events.
ABC’s “Manhattan Love Story” and NBC’s “A to Z” are taking the same unusual approach to romantic comedies.
“The Affair,” a new Showtime drama series, is about an extramarital romance in which both parties, a married waitress and a married schoolteacher, are not easy to judge.
The coming season will have TV series set in Battle Creek, Mich., and Seattle, among other places.
Hope Davis (“Allegiance”), Yael Grobglas (“Jane the Virgin”), John Carroll Lynch (“American Horror Story” and Robin Lord Taylor (“Gotham”) embrace their roles as the season’s bad guys.
New ABC shows feature an Asian family comedy, a black actress as the star of a new drama, and a black family comedy.
The White Light Festival, which strives to explore the power of music and the arts to reveal a spiritual dimension, enters its fifth year with an enticing lineup.
Anne-Sophie Mutter will play the opening concert at Carnegie Hall, while Christian Tetzlaff kicks off the season at the 92nd Street Y.
Joyce DiDonato will be featured in Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives series this season, programming her own repertory and highlighting new discoveries.
The Ubuntu festival, featuring the trumpeter Hugh Masekela, the pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and the soprano Pretty Yende, will run from Oct. 8 through Nov. 5.
How to wade through the crush of culture coming your way this season? Here’s a guide to 100 events that have us especially excited, in order of appearance.
When Pierre Huyghe’s art heads to Los Angeles for his highly anticipated American retrospective, it’s not clear which of his works-in-progress will be fully incubated.
A busy and well-balanced art season lies ahead, offering museumgoers Cubists, European and Latin American modernism, textile sculpture and Renaissance pagans.
The array of museum shows opening across the country this fall feels promising, almost an embarrassment of riches.
The High Line at the Rail Yards opens on Sept. 21, with lush plantings, picnic tables, a seesaw for children and a wild, untouched section as you head west.
Many American urban projects opening in the coming months are not large-scale institutions but hybrids being constructed in locations not necessarily known for design.
Charli XCX, a Myspace prodigy, is developing into a more mature performer.
U2’s newest album was supposed to come out in 2014, but plans for the album have been changing since 2009.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of apartheid’s end in South Africa with music at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere.
“Nonesuch Records at BAM” celebrates the 50th-anniversary of this prestige record label at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The Basilica Soundscape festival offers two days of aggressive and immersive music.
This fall offers treasures from three centuries, from Seattle and Phoenix to Florida and New York.
The Crossing the Line festival will include the debut of the Argentine visual artist Fernando Rubio, and present works by Trajal Harrell and Xavier Le Roy, among others.
The choreographers Kyle Abraham and Jodi Melnick seem ready to make a splash this season.
The new season comes with an array of promising video games, including Destiny (Paul McCartney! Peter Dinklage!) and Fantasia: Music Evolved (Mozart! Lady Gaga!).