As I sat in Brenna Youngblood’s studio among thousands of photo clippings, observing what has emerged from the chaos, she apologized for the mess. “Write that it was pristine,” she said with a short laugh. Read more...

One interesting part of winter break is poking around one’s old room and finding things from the past. Typically, I find old books and pictures, along with Post-it notes on which I used to write down things that struck me as clever (like trying to phonetically transcribe “awesome guitar riffs,” most of which turn out to have been bass lines). Read more...

For their annual December concert, the UCLA choral groups are ditching their usual program of formal, classical pieces for a more accessible and festive one. On Dec. Read more...

“Brokeback Mountain” Directed by Ang Lee Focus Features Gay cowboys. Yes, that is the premise of “Brokeback Mountain,” Ang Lee’s new film about the solitude and anguish felt by victims of desperate isolation in a suddenly changing world. Read more...

“The Family Stone” Directed by Thomas Bezucha 20th Century Fox The members of the eponymous family of “The Family Stone” fit liberal stereotypes to a T, though they may stop short of being the “left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers” described in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” A staple of almost every holiday movie is the dysfunctional family, but few have been as unbelievable as this one, led by “Annie Hall” co-star Diane Keaton. Read more...

“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” Directed by Tommy Lee Jones Sony Pictures Classics When Mike and Lou Ann Norton move into their new trailer home, the window looks out onto a dusty road and a sign that reads, “Liberty means freedom from high interest rates.” It sounds stupid, like a crooked salesman’s way of conniving some sorry sucker, but the idea resonates throughout the film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” Freedom in this film ““ written by Guillermo Arriaga (“21 Grams,” “Amores Perros”) and the first directed by Tommy Lee Jones ““ is about many things: the freedom of an outlaw, the freedom of the dead, the freedom of moving away, the freedom of having an affair. Read more...

This is definitely not your parents’ Woody Allen film. With “Match Point,” the latest offering from the filmmaker, Allen has departed from many of the conventions of his earlier work. Read more...