Each week, Daily Arts writers evaluate the latest movies, shows, books, music, games and more. They watch, read and listen for the next standout artistic trends and then write about what that means for us in the art world and beyond. Come Friday, we highlight what Daily Arts loved most — here’s what will keep you captivated this weekend.
— Zoe Phillips and Elise Godfryd, Managing Arts Editors
Watch: “Pieces of a Woman”
In her review for the Daily, Daily Arts Writer Mary Elizabeth Johnson commends the new Netflix film release “Pieces of a Woman” for its willingness to explore one woman’s experience of motherhood in a way that doesn’t shy away from the “often overlooked parts” of it. The film approaches pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period with empathy, honesty and openness. Though the film’s reception has been somewhat polarized, Johnson promises “it’ll make you want to call your mom, check up on her and thank her.”
Listen to: Two Saviors
Two Saviors, Buck Meek’s new album, is, in the words of Daily Arts Writer Rosa Sofia Kaminski, “like a love letter written upon waking up from a dream.” With this collection of songs, the Big Thief guitarist has created a breakup album that is as melancholy as it is danceable. Two Saviors, “tinged with sadness” and “suffused with light” all at once, considers large, universal themes like nostalgia and sadness through a “loving observation” of the small things.
Read: “On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light” by Marge Piercy
In her review for The Daily, writer Emilia Ferrante describes Marge Piercy’s poetry as boldly introspective. The collection meditates on love and loss, sex and politics, family and religion. Within each, Ferrante notes that Piercy’s writing “thrives in small sentences and phrases.” The result is a book of poems that deserves to be kept close by, available for revisiting when in need of comfort. It is, as Ferrante writes, “like a friend giving gentle advice” — a carefully arranged collection of words that “most people screaming into the void can’t express.”
Watch: “WandaVision”
“WandaVision,” the latest Disney+ endeavor into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is, according to Daily Arts Writer Jessica Curney, a solid and exciting beginning to Phase Four of the Marvel franchise. The TV series examines what happened to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, “Sorry For Your Loss”) and Vision (Paul Bettany, “Uncle Frank”) after the explosive events of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Curney assures us that any viewer, regardless of their experience with Marvel, can enjoy the “wild ride” that is “WandaVision.”
Play: “Hades”
Daily Arts Writer M. Dietz has a long list of reasons to enjoy playing “Hades” from Supergiant games, the most notable of which may be the game’s decolonization of Greek mythology. Set in the middle of the Meditarranean, Dietz writes that the designers present its character list of gods as a “much more diverse, and frankly attractive, group of immortal beings.” Set on the premise of escaping from the Underworld, the game requires skill but offers originality — a combination that left Dietz returning to play as soon as they were done writing.