All Arts & Culture
Top Picks: PBS鈥檚 'No Passport Required,' 'Oh Lucy!' on DVD and Blu-ray, and moreMake sure your car is ready for those summer road trips with the app聽Drivvo, the podcast 'American聽Innovations'聽details the stories of the people behind the discoveries that are still influencing our lives today, and more top picks.
What are you watching? Readers choose their favorite sitcomsMonitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.
'Sorry to Bother You' eventually loses its way in a welter of surrealityThere鈥檚 a promising satirical idea embedded in 'Sorry to Bother You,' but the writer-director, Boots Riley, doesn鈥檛 quite know how to extricate it.
In a WordThe surprising vitality of one small wordA 1395 translation of the Bible demonstrates that the word 'sad'聽didn鈥檛 mean what it does now.聽
How streaming is saving the music businessThere has never been a more vast, diverse, and readily available body of music to explore. But聽how does a below-the-megastar-radar artist or band survive the new paradigm?
5 movies you should see this monthViewers will rejoice in the hopes of immigrants while watching 'En el S茅ptimo D铆a,' one of Monitor critic Peter Rainer's best movies of June.
'Three Identical Strangers' is a true story that could only be believed because it actually happenedIn 1980, through sheer coincidence, 19-year-olds Robert Shafran and Eddy Galland discovered they are identical twins separated at birth. When their story was trumpeted in the media, 19-year-old David Kellman saw the photos and realized he was their triplet.
'Leave No Trace' shows empathy for those on the fringes of societyBen Foster stars as Will, a war veteran and widower with post-traumatic stress disorder who has been living undercover with daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) in a large public nature preserve in Portland, Ore.
Ry Cooder's 'The Prodigal Son,' the iScanner app, and more top picks聽The podcast 'Drawn' explores various aspects of animated movies and TV shows,聽biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) signs up for a mission into a mysterious anomaly at a meteor crash site in 'Annihilation,' and more top picks.
What are you watching? Readers recommend their favorite sitcomsMonitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.
First LookHow two documentaries became summer box office hits'Won't You Be My Neighbor?' and 'RBG' made unlikely box office stars of their subjects. The two documentaries serve as reminders to be kind and helpful 鈥� a聽message that is missing from the news,聽those behind the film said. 聽
In a WordWhen good words turn badWhat do the words聽politicaster,聽mongrel, and聽braggart聽have in common? They end with a pejorative suffix, a few final letters that change a neutral or positive word into a negative one.
First LookUS restaurants host refugee chefs as part of worldwide festivalFor the first time, restaurants in US cities will turn over their kitchens to refugee chefs for an evening as part of the Refugee Food Festival, organized by聽the United Nations Refugee Agency and a French nonprofit. The purpose of the program is to increase awareness about the experiences of refugees.聽
Poke bowl trend combines choice, healthy ingredientsMany of the latest food trends in the United States, including a莽a铆 bowls and sushi burritos, are being driven by environmentally aware Millennials who enjoy customizing quick and healthy fusion-flavored meals.聽
First Look'Jurassic World,' 'Incredibles 2' make for Hollywood's fourth-largest weekend everHollywood raked in $280 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada, roughly double what it made the same weekend last year. The largest factor: "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" roaring past bad reviews to open with $150 million.聽
Finding common ground at a fiddlers' festival in IdahoDwindling numbers and stylistic differences are threatening the future of a beloved fiddlers' festival in Idaho. The solution may lie in something musicians intrinsically know: Simply listening can bridge divides.聽- 'The Catcher Was a Spy' is more pallid than its eminently juicy subject deservesPaul Rudd stars as聽Morris 'Moe' Berg, a middling catcher in baseball鈥檚 major leagues who was recruited by US military intelligence to spy on and possibly assassinate physicist Werner Heisenberg.
- The cast outshines the material in road trip movie 鈥楤oundaries鈥�Because of聽Christopher Plummer and Vera Farmiga,聽'Boundaries,' which might have been cooked up by a screenwriting program called RoadMovie, is halfway tolerable.
'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' is the latest and arguably least of the seriesChris聽Pratt brings a wry insouciance to the mayhem and the escape from Isla Nublar has its modicum of thrills.
Top Picks: 'The Party' on DVD and Blu-ray, 'Breaking Big' on PBS, and moreA new National Geographic video, 'Behind the Scenes: Life Below Zero,' provides a look at how the people who work on the show create a time-lapse in such difficult weather conditions, the National Women鈥檚 History Museum鈥檚 new exhibit, 'Inventive Women,' explores the lives of women in the United States who patented important inventions and technologies, and more top picks.
