Movie Review | 'Thor'

Have Golden Locks, Seeking Hammer

By A. O. SCOTT 6:04 PM ET

Mark Fellman/Paramount Pictures

Chris Hemsworth as Thor.

“Thor,” directed by Kenneth Branagh, is a programmed triumph of commercial calculation over imagination.

After a matinee, young fans at the Hirschfeld Theater hoping to catch a glimpse of Daniel Radcliffe, who stars in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

Broadway: Take ’Em Early, Take ’Em Often

By ROBIN POGREBIN

My children are immersed in a world of iPads and text messages, but I was pleased that my teenage son and preteen daughter could nevertheless be charmed by “Anything Goes.”

Theater Review | 'The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures'

The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, by Tony Kushner, with, from left: Michael Cristofer, K. Todd Freeman, Linda Emond, Stephen Spinella and Steven Pasquale, at the Public Theater.

Debating Dialectics and Dad’s Suicide Plan

By BEN BRANTLEY

The long-awaited new play by Tony Kushner is a densely textured portrait of a Brooklyn family losing its (strictly secular) religion.

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: Tony Kushner and the Art of Empathy

The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway runs underneath the Manhattan Bridge.

On Two Wheels, With Water as a Companion

By JANE MARGOLIES

The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway beckons cyclists to discover an island.

Slide Show: Cycling the Waterfront

Movie Review | 'Jumping the Broom'

Loretta Devine, left, plays a postal worker and future mother-in-law to Paula Patton's lawyer in “Jumping the Broom.”

2 Families Put Asunder Just Before the ‘I Dos’

By A. O. SCOTT

In “Jumping the Broom” a nuptial weekend is the backdrop for a trousseau full of revelations revolving around class conflict between the two bridal families.

Critic’s Notebook

New York Botanical Garden Azaleas blaze in intensities of purple and dark pink at the Azalea Garden's entrance.

A Method Behind All the Wildness

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN

Nature is wild but proportioned at the new Azalea Garden, which reflects a particular philosophy of garden display, at the New York Botanical Garden.

Inside Art

Egon Schiele's “Häuser Mit Bunter Wäsche (Vorstadt II),” an oil on canvas, is being sold at Sotheby's in London.

A Schiele Going, a Schiele Staying

By CAROL VOGEL

A Schiele is for sale, Storm King plans an exhibition on Governors Island, and a BMW Guggenheim Lab is going up on East First Street.

Art Review

What They Loved and What They Bought

By KAREN ROSENBERG

At the Jewish Museum “Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters” presents a selection of works from the collection of the Baltimore sisters Etta and Claribel Cone.

Movie Review | 'Octubre'

Bruno Odar in “Octubre,” a Peruvian film written and directed by Daniel and Diego Vega.

The Difference a Baby Can Make

By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Octubre,” a Peruvian film, shows how life changes for a shabby moneylender in Lima when an infant is left on his bed.

Music Review

Peter Asher performing his autobiographical show at Feinstein's.

An Inside Take on the British Invasion

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

In his autobiographical show at Feinstein’s, Peter Asher, the Peter of Peter and Gordon, tells tales of his life at the center of the British music scene in the 1960s.

Critic’s Notebook

San Francisco, the Crossroads of the Avant-Garde

By MANOHLA DARGIS

The Radical Light series at Anthology Film Archives and MoMA looks at the San Francisco Bay Area as humming hub for great avant-garde film and video makers.

Mr. Laurents and Patti LuPone during rehearsals at City Center in New York for a revival of the musical “Gypsy” in 2007.

Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director on Broadway, Dies at 93

By ROBERT BERKVIST

Mr. Laurents was a playwright, screenwriter and director who wrote and ultimately transformed two of Broadway’s landmark shows, “Gypsy” and “West Side Story.”

Levine Withdraws From Met's Thursday Performance

May 5, 2011 5:44 PM ET

Popcast: Can Tyler Create a Career?

May 5, 2011 4:59 PM ET

Commission Asks Congress to Support a Smithsonian American Latino Museum

May 5, 2011 4:20 PM ET

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Art Review

The toylike items in “The Collector” (1991-2006) are made from metal containers. Mr. Alÿs says they are meant to be moved.

Ephemeral Events, Annotated

By ROBERTA SMITH

“Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception” is a survey split between the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA P.S. 1.

Slide Show

A page from an Angus MacLise manuscript called “Mother Tongue,” part of the “Dreamweapon” exhibition.

The Velvet Unknown, Now Emerging

By BEN SISARIO

Angus MacLise, an original member of the Velvet Underground, didn’t achieve the prominence of others in that group, but a new exhibition suggests he was an influential force in the 1960s.

Interactive Feature

Theater Review | 'Carson McCullers Talks About Love'

Suzanne Vega portraying the writer Carson McCullers.

The Alienated Souls Whisperer

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

“Carson McCullers Talks About Love,” Suzanne Vega’s mixture of nightclub act and theater piece at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, is a funky ramble through McCullers’s life.

Movie Review | 'The Beaver'

Leave It to the Beaver to Do All the Talking

By MANOHLA DARGIS 5:19 PM ET

A depressed toy manufacturer fails to commit suicide and begins communicating through a hand puppet. Nasty and brutish, the beaver owns the film.

When Art Imitates an Actor’s Troubled Life

Books of The Times

‘Pulse’

By JULIAN BARNES
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI

The latest story collection from Julian Barnes is filled with both gems and should-have-been discards.

Movie Review | 'Something Borrowed'

From left, John Krasinski, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson and Colin Egglesfield in Luke Greenfield's “Something Borrowed.”

New Lovers and the Old Triangle

By A. O. SCOTT

“Something Borrowed” is a comedy of marriage and a love triangle made up of Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson and Colin Egglesfield.

2011 Tony Awards

News, photos, analysis and more on the nominees for the 65th annual Tony Awards.

Ballot: Cast Your Vote

Podcast: Music

This week: the serenity and anxiety of Fleet Foxes; Gerald Clayton and the state of the piano trio in jazz; and a eulogy for Poly Styrene. Ben Ratliff is the host.

Abroad

Michael Kimmelman on culture and society in Europe and beyond.

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Art Review

“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a survey of the career of the British fashion designer who died last year, a suicide at 40.

The Shock of Fashion, When It Turns Into Something Else

By HOLLAND COTTER

A Metropolitan Museum exhibition of work by Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide last year, surveys the career of a designer who used shock to challenge preconceptions.