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MOVIES
Aferim!
The Romanian director Radu Jude pioneers
a new genre—the Wallachian Western—and
brings style and insight to a historical tale
of pursuit and persecution. The action is set
in 1835, in the southern region of Romania,
where the Roma people are held as slaves, no-
blemen wield tyrannical power, and Russian
and Turkish occupiers terrorize the populace.
There, a crusty lawman named Constantin
and his awkward and mild-mannered son, Io-
nita, have been dispatched to find a warlord’s
runaway slave, Carfin. Travelling on horse-
back through plains and swampland, Con-
stantin abuses the weak and grovels before
the mighty, all the while sharing life-worn
wisdom with his son. Their encounters—a
revealing cross-section of ethnic and eco-
nomic divisions—are tinged with collected
ignorance and sedimented hatreds, especially
in the name of religion, passed down through
generations. Jude’s avid eye for material de-
tails and cultural nuances lends the drama an
anthropological specificity; he captures the
cruelty of the times and the pitiless course
of history with a bitter majesty. Released
in 2015. In Romanian.—Richard Brody (Film
Forum, Nov. 23, and streaming.)Burning Cane
The nineteen-year-old writer and director
Phillip Youmans displays a preternatural ma-
turity in this intimately textured, far-reaching
drama, set in rural Louisiana and centered on
a middle-aged black woman named Helen
(Karen Kaia Livers), who is weary in body
and in soul. She lives alone in a house near
cane fields, with an ailing dog as her sole com-
panion. Her dissolute husband died of AIDS;
her son, Daniel (Dominique McClellan), a
heavy drinker who can’t hold a job, physically
abuses his wife, Sherry (Emyri Crutchfield),
while nonetheless asserting his right to raise
their young son, Jeremiah (Braelyn Kelly).
Meanwhile, Helen’s friend and pastor, the
recently widowed Reverend Tillman (Wen-
dell Pierce), is undergoing a spiritual trial
that makes him judgmental and aggressive.
Youmans, who does his own cinematography,
depicts these harrowing emotional crises in
dramatic fragments and shadow-drenched,
often oblique images; they suggest his anguish
at a legacy of male frustration, violence, rage,
and self-destruction that leaves the region’s
women trapped in a futile silence.—R.B. (In
limited release and Netflix.)Crumb / Divino Niño
Music Hall of Williamsburg
“Cracking,” the song that begins Crumb’s
début album, “Jinx,” is so spacious and atmo-
spheric that it sounds as if it could float away
at any second. The Brooklyn-based band has
a special talent for weightless, antigravity
compositions, but its repertoire is anchored
by impressive jazz-oriented instrumentals
and by the rich vocals of its front woman, Lila
Ramani. The group headlines a pair of shows
at Music Hall of Williamsburg; Divino Niño,
a Chicago quartet that, in June, delivered
one of the year’s prettiest shoegaze albums,
opens.—J.L. (Nov. 22-23.)
slowthai / 100 gecs
Hulu Theatre at Madison
Square Garden
In a meeting of a merry band of misfits, the
experimental duo 100 gecs and the theatri-
cal British rapper slowthai join the boy band
BROCKHAMPTON on its “Heaven Belongs
to You” tour. It’s a combination of acts that
share a commitment to raw self-expression,
no matter how it manifests. 100 gecs opt
for abrasive maximalist pop, deconstruct-
ing notions of genre (and song structure)
as they smash together strident electronics,
cartoonish vocals, and other assorted styles.
The self-anointed Brexit Bandit, slowthai,
who is also Irish and Bajan, rails against the
establishment with clever lyricism that is both
scorching in its critiques and tender in how it
sees those who often go unseen. Both match
BROCKHAMPTON’s own anti-ethos. (Later
in the week, on Nov. 26, 100 gecs headline a
show at the Brooklyn venue Elsewhere.)—B.Y.
(Nov. 22-23.)
Bob Dylan
Beacon Theatre
Bob Dylan famously maintains a restless tour-
ing schedule that renders him a nomad for
much of the year but often returns him to the
place of his artistic birth; this year, he settles
in for a whopping ten-night stand. Among
rock élites, Dylan remains peerless. His con-
certs are strictly pander-free zones—no cheesy
pleas to clap or sing along, no glut of backup
musicians, usually no “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Rather, Dylan asks audiences to ignore his
legend and engage with his firecracker band,
its every elegant rumble rooted to the pres-
ent.—Jay Ruttenberg (Nov. 23-Dec. 6.)
Snoh Aalegra / Baby Rose
Webster Hall
Compared with the contemporary and pop-lean-
ing songs that occupy most of R. & B.’s real es-
tate on the Billboard charts, Snoh Aalegra’s and
Baby Rose’s music sounds decidedly old school.
Both singers’ recent albums—“-Ugh, those feels
again” and “To Myself,” respectively—empha-
size the voice as its own kind of instrument and
bask in the familiar warmth of traditional soul
music. Snoh Aalegra’s smoky jazz tone evokes
vintage drama; Baby Rose’s bluesy vocals sound
possessed by the spirit of Nina Simone. Their
pairing makes for a night that is equal parts
melancholic and euphoric.—B.Y. (Nov. 24.)
Son Little
Bowery Ballroom
The singer Son Little has a lithely expressive
voice that can locate forgiveness, sorrow, and
ecstasy in even the most hackneyed turns of
phrase. Though he traffics in sounds sealed
shut in the previous century—classic R. & B.,
some blues—his songs are rarely delivered
without subtle contemporary flourishes. As
his own star has inched up, his versatility has
led him to the studios of various luminaries,
including Mavis Staples and the Roots. At
Bowery Ballroom, Little gives a peek of his
third solo LP, due next year.—J.R. (Nov. 26.)Shop all eight colors online at
newyorkerstore.com/diaries.Juggle work and playwith a much neededdose of humor.