John Cariani’s Almost, Maine — a collection of nine playlets about love in an isolated small town in northeast Maine — is such a crowd-pleaser that it’s easy to overlook […]
INDIE SCREEN
Passions Swell in Provincetown During High Tide
In Marco Calvani’s new film, the town is faithfully brought to life
At long last, Provincetown has gotten the stylish and thoughtful cinematic representation it deserves. You can forget the trashy and formulaic law-and-order series Hightown and chuck the mean-spirited and woolly […]
THEATER
There’s Nothing Statuesque About Lady Liberty
Fermín Rojas’s new play disrobes an icon
Even today, as Donald Trump recklessly exploits the xenophobia of American voters, the Statue of Liberty, rising majestically in New York Harbor, is a powerful symbol of New World freedom […]
THEATER
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dog?
Not Brenda Withers, whose new play, Westminster, is sublime satire
There’s a threat weighing on the two couples who inhabit a pleasant living room in Brenda Withers’s hilarious new play, Westminster, at the Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet through Sept. […]
THEATER
Take a Time Warp to a Live Rocky Horror
Transylvanians invade Provincetown
Most of us who are familiar with The Rocky Horror Show know it from the 1975 film version (the Rocky Horror Picture Show), which is the quintessential cult movie — […]
THEATER
Queercore Takes a Bow on the Provincetown Stage
Peregrine Theatre returns with Hedwig and the Angry Inch
When Hedwig and the Angry Inch premiered in 1998 at the small Jane Street Theatre in Manhattan’s West Village, the transgender rights movement had little of its current visibility or […]
FILMMAKER ON THE EDGE
Lonely Are the Brave
Andrew Haigh, director of All of Us Strangers, is coming to Provincetown
Queer cinema has been an important presence at the Provincetown International Film Festival since it began in 1999. Several past Filmmaker on the Edge award winners, such as Christine Vachon […]
FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW
A Time for Shots in the Dark
Provincetown gears up for a big-screen celebration
These days, in the world of “theatrical” movies — films screened in theaters — surviving and thriving are challenging at best. That’s certainly true for the Provincetown International Film Festival, […]
THEATER
Looking Back at the Millennium With Anger
Tony Kushner’s Angels in America takes flight in Provincetown
It’s hard to imagine now how different the worldview of the gay male community was in New York in 1985, when the city was the epicenter of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. […]
BOOKS
The Work of Art Is Worth the Effort
Adam Moss records his search for the secrets of creativity
In 2019, when Adam Moss left his powerful perch as top editor of New York magazine after 15 years, he decided to devote himself to painting. It didn’t go well. […]
INDIE SCREEN
The Pitfalls of Growing Up
Two recent films explore the hurdles facing lost young souls
Southern California teenagers can be a shallow bunch, especially in the movies that are made about them. From the beginnings of the postwar “youth” film — Rebel Without a Cause […]
INDIE SCREEN
Craziness in the Eye of the Moviegoer
In three new films, protagonists face a world stacked against them
It was an inspired choice when the Provincetown International Film Festival’s gave Julio Torres, the writer-director-star of a fanciful new comedy, Problemista, one of its Next Wave awards last June. […]
INDIE SCREEN
‘Barbenheimer’ Comes to the Academy Awards
How will the Oscars treat the movies that gave Hollywood back its mojo?
When Barbie and Oppenheimer, two big-budget Hollywood films, opened in theaters on the same day, July 21, 2023, they merged into a cultural phenomenon known by the portmanteau “Barbenheimer.” Finally, […]
THEATER REVIEW
Double and Triple Trouble in ‘Little Devils’
Six short plays about the tribulations of modern life
The Helltown Players is a self-described “collaborative of dramatists and theater enthusiasts from the Outer Cape” who, inspired by those historic rebels the Provincetown Players, aim to produce plays “written […]
INDIE SCREEN
Oscar Gets an International Itch
Three subtitled films are up for Best Picture
Making a film about the Holocaust is always problematic. How do you create something that properly represents or explains an atrocity so enormous it defies comprehension? The Nazis systematically exterminated […]