Tippingpoint

our pick & pans

Land

“Land” is the first feature film Robin Wright has directed, and while she does a mighty fine job, the movie’s

greatest asset isn’t Wright filmtip

the director but Wright the actress. With a pared-down script featuring sparse dialogue, Wright lets every emotion play across her face as she portrays a woman, Edee, grieving over her husband and young child. Bereft, Edee retreats from humanity and spends months in an isolated mountain cabin. While the script hits the expected beats — she faces outdoorsy trials like snowstorms and bears, and she learns how to survive in the wilderness, and she (spoiler alert) eventually finds peace — it’s all well done. The scenery of Alberta, Canada, is stunning, and Demian Bichir is Wright’s perfect complement as one of the few humans to cross her path.

— Kristina Dorsey

The Future Bites Steven Wilson

A few years ago, Steven Wilson suggested there was no new musical ground left to cover in the traditional guitar/bass/drums context. It seemed sort of depressing, mostly because he might be right. For Wilson, though — who has with genius explored space rock, pop, fusion and along the way redefined prog — this new reality is as an opportunity to stay engaged and to keep pushing and exploring fresh frontiers. So it goes with his newest album, “The Future Bites.” A beautifully produced and performed concept record of sorts about consumerism and pop culture, “The Future Bites” relies heavily on contemporary electronics and dance rhythms — but not without Wilson fusing ‘80s synth pop and his innate sense of haunting melody into the mix. As an old school fan, I feel a bit like Wilson’s leaving me behind. In other ways, some of “The Future Bites” is exhilarating — and always interesting.

— Rick Koster

The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel

The author of “Station Eleven” leaves the post-apocalyptic world behind for her latest novel, which focuses on a Bernie Madoff-like character and all the people surrounding him. As usual, Mandel compellingly draws the reader along with a quickly unfolding tale. Like seemingly all novels these days, this one skips around to focus on different characters’ perspectives in various chapters and sometimes jumps in time as well. One of the central figures is Vincent, a woman who meets the Madoff stand-in, named Jonathan Alkaitis, when she is bartending at the titular glass hotel in Canada and becomes his trophy wife. She leaves behind her depressive half-brother, who runs away from a tragic event he instigates early on and who later develops a successful music career. If you overlooked “The Glass Hotel” when it was released last March, a time when most of us were distracted by the start of the pandemic, give it a try now.