In “Adelante,” director Ben Sinclair references the 1990 Iranian film Close-Up and a memorable, lingering shot of a can rolling down the street. In the Abbas Kiarostami-directed movie, the moment acts like a pause for the viewer amidst an emotionally complicated experience.…
Album Review: U.S. Girls’ “Heavy Light” paints a dark portrait of modern America
Meg Remy of U.S. Girls probably couldn’t have had a better release date for her new album, Heavy Light. The latest record, the newest release since 2018’s In a Poem Unlimited, takes the frequent seeds of patriotic anger present in Remy’s work and builds a…
High Maintenance 4×05 Review: “Screen”
High Maintenance’s fourth season continues on its rollercoaster trajectory, with each fresh and original episode being followed by an installment that leans a bit too hard into its deepest Brooklyn setting and tendencies. “Screen,” like “Voir Dire” two weeks ago, is…
Album Review: The Secret Sisters prepare a warm, intelligent set of songs for “Saturn Return”
The Secret Sisters’ fourth album, Saturn Return, allows Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle to display their effortlessly compassionate songwriting. The record doesn’t stray from the folk-country lane in which the Secret Sisters travel but rather journeys over the familiar grooves of…
High Maintenance 4×04 Review: “Backflash”
In its fourth season, High Maintenance debuts perhaps its most conceptual episode yet. In just 23 minutes, we follow the decades-long life of a single lighter as it passes through different situations, designs, and individuals. In a way, this lighter is a…
Album Review: Tennis excel with personal, sunny indie-pop on “Swimmer”
Ten years into their existence as a band, and as a married couple, Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley of Tennis have released a mature yet effervescent album confronting age and the future. The album is not a departure from the…
High Maintenance 4×03 Review: “Voir Dire”
While High Maintenance can often mine treasure from the everyday meeting of strangers and old acquaintances, “Voir Dire” makes those interactions feel more random and pedestrian than usual. Additionally, while the naturalism of High Maintenance is one of its most refreshing features, some episodes…
