In an undated image provided by Bungie, a scene from the extraction shooter game Marathon. Over the decades, the depiction of artificial intelligence has evolved from sci-fi villain to systemic reality. (Bungie via The New York Times) By YUSSEF COLE Players take up the role of runners, free-floating consciousness beamed across space into the hollow shells of mindless synthetic bodies, in Marathon, the newest game by the studio behind the sci-fi behemoths Halo and Destiny. The

Sylvain Chomet in Paris, on Feb. 3, 2026. The first animated feature in 15 years by the acclaimed French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet, the “Triplets of Belleville” creator, is a biopic of another artist who never lost his ability for wonder and curiosity. (Elliott Verdier/The New York Times) By CARLOS AGUILAR In the hand-drawn period pieces that have earned French animator Sylvain Chomet international acclaim, the cartoony characters don’t speak. Their bodies tell the story. But

“Bone Lake” By ERIK PIEPENBERG This month’s picks include a disastrous vacation, a macabre homecoming and a witchy healing session. ‘Bone Lake’ Drugs, alcohol, sex toys, beefcake, physical seduction, emotional manipulation, taboo attractions and an arrow shot through a pair of testicles. Those are just some of the sinister pleasures in this nutty, darkly funny and very entertaining erotic thriller from director Mercedes Bryce Morgan and writer Joshua Friedlander. Sage (Maddie

Orfeón San Juan Bautista (Facebook via Orfeón San Juan Bautista) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR There is a small city in the northwestern state of Oregon where it rains all the time. And in that small city, almost everyone has a vein of musical talent. Precipitation and harmonization are two facts of life that clarinetist Kathleen Jones knows well. She had many a play date or shopping spree ruined by a downpour when she was growing up in the aforementioned town, Eugen

An AI-generated likeness of the late actor Val Kilmer will appear in the movie “As Deep as the Grave,” set for release later this year. (Instagram via screenthrill) By REGGIE UGWU A photorealistic artificial intelligence likeness of Val Kilmer, the “Top Gun,” “Batman Forever” and “Heat” actor who died from throat cancer last year, will appear in a new movie he had planned to shoot before being hindered by his illness. Coerte Voorhees, the movie’s writer and director, said the

Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres ( lscivicorchestra.org ) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Young keyboard wizard Bryan Ojeda Chevres has played with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) five times under the baton of Maestro Maximiliano Valdés, the last on the fabled Bosendorfer of the University of Puerto Rico. But that was some two years ago, with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, and this is now, at Bellas Artes, with the “Fourth Piano Concerto in D,” p

A molecular biologist, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) has been working as a middle-school teacher when some serious-looking people recruit him for humanity’s seemingly impossible mission. By MANOHLA DARGIS One of the charms of “Project Hail Mary,” a feather-light science-fiction movie about a heavyweight subject — the end of the world — is how it embraces the seductions of outer space. It’s a nice change of pace, given how space often occupies the darker corners of the human ima

Chuck Norris with fans and Mike Huckabee, then a Republican presidential hopeful, at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 1, 2008. Norris, who channeled his skills as a martial arts black belt into a durable acting career that left film critics largely unimpressed but delighted millions of fans savoring his good-guy triumphs and fortune-cookie musings, died on Thursday, March 20, 2026. He was 86. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) By CLYDE HABERMAN Chuck Norris, who chan

Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres (Instagram via bryan_piano) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR When young Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres got a call in New York from Maximiano Valdés inviting him to bring Ludwig Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto to the stage next Saturday March 28 with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO), he was ecstatic. Not so much when the young man, who lives in New York City, was told there was no money to pay him. But not knowin

Dúo Gil y Figueroa (Facebook via Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico - Página Oficial) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR From Serenity to Transcendence. De la serenidad hasta la transcendencia. Whatever language you say it in, it’s a mouthful. And a promise. The above is the ambitious title of what promises to bring both serenity and transcendence to anyone who enters the hallowed hall of the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory this Sunday at 4. Highlighting the prestigiou