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Short reviews of recent releases.

The region has long attracted idealists, from the radical performers of Bread & Puppet in the seventies to the striving artisan farmers of the early two-thousands.

Virginia Oldoini helped conceptualize and starred in more than four hundred portraits so experimental and expressive that they have drawn comparisons to works by Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman.

Notes on baking at the South Pole.

In their warped and wrongheaded way, the omnipresent influencer Clavicular and his looksmaxxing compatriots are intent on demystifying the ideal of natural beauty.

In the new HBO docuseries, about petty disputes between homeowners, everyone has a gun, a grievance, and a security camera.

Idrissa Ouédraogo's first feature, now streaming, is a tense drama of romance amid politics and a striking advance in cinematic form.

No Nobel Peace Prize in sight.

A "living drug" was developed as a cancer treatment. Now it is showing promise for conditions, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, that have long been considered incurable.

Also: Jonathan Richman's soft touch, Sean Hayes's liquid charm in the play "The Unknown," "The Bride!"-related culture picks, and more.