Like Jacques Doillon's Ponette and John Sayles's The Secret of Roan Inish, Céline Sciamma's new film is about very young children living with loss and grief. And, like those films, it casts an unforgettable spell. Don't miss it!

With full respect for arguments to the contrary, I'm of a mind to say that Robert Eggers's The Northman, while very clearly in the category of "Not My Kind of Movie," is a complex and meaningful film that deserves heavy cautions, the raising of certain concerns, and considerable praise. Viewer discretion is very forcefully advised.

In this edition of The Weekender, a miscellany of podcast highlights, insights on faith and race, a prayer worth memorizing, and a memorable TED Talk.

The greatest films are becoming the most difficult to see in a theater. Memoria — the third transcendent cinematic experience I've enjoyed in 2022 — is, like the others, one that moviegoers will have to seek out on their own, and they're unlikely to ever see it on a big screen.

One of my favorite records of 2021 won the Album of the Year award: Jon Batiste's We Are.

You are arriving at the summit of my 2021 Music Mountain. These are my fifteen favorite albums of 2021