By Joshua Barone There comes a moment in “The Nutcracker,” a ballet full of fantasy of fantastical music, when the Sugar Plum Fairy...

By Alexandra Alter Percival Everett won the National Book Award for fiction last month for his novel “James,” a propulsive and slyly...

By The Star Staff Renowned Spanish art historian, art theorist and curator Paco Barragán was in Puerto Rico recently giving seminars at...

By Ben Kenigsberg Few cultural events of the 20th century have withstood as much scrutiny as the Beatles’ first trip to the United...

By Bob Mehr In the spring of 1967, blues singer Taj Mahal was about to cut his first solo album for Columbia Records and needed to find a...

By Devika Girish This month’s picks include coming-of-age stories from India, Italy, Canada, Switzerland and Poland, in which children...

By Elisabeth Vincentelli ‘The Missing’ To communicate, Eric (Carlo Aquino) needs to write: texts on his phone or messages on a dry-erase...

By Manohla Dargis When Denzel Washington sweeps into “Gladiator II” — Ridley Scott’s epic about ancient Rome and men at war and sometimes...

By Genevieve Glatsky “A mamacita since she was 14,” the song says in Spanish, with a chorus that repeats: “And even though that little...

By Manohla Dargis With its flying monkeys and magical shoes, oh my, the story of the Wizard of Oz has been lodged in the popular...