August Cosentino

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Film: “Lie With Me” (2022) starring Victor Belmondo
What does it mean to “seek closure?” Is this just a fancy term for resolving something that’s been troubling you for years?
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August Cosentino
Books: “Lie With Me” by Philippe Besson
Ever been in a situation when you see someone you think you knew from your past?
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August Cosentino
Theater: “Purpose” @ Helen Hayes Theatre
Do power couples produce powerful children?
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August Cosentino
Film: “The Swimmer” starring Burt Lancaster
The last few months have been boom times for fans of Tennessee Williams— more specifically his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” On Christmas Eve, Film…
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August Cosentino
Theater: “A Streetcar Named Desire” @ BAM
The last few months have been boom times for fans of Tennessee Williams— more specifically his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” On Christmas Eve, Film…
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August Cosentino
Apple TV: “Prime Target” starring Leo Woodall
As a high school student I was a whiz at algebra.
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August Cosentino
Books: “Our Evenings” by Alan Hollinghurst
“Our Evenings,” Alan Hollinghurst’s tender new novel, is basically the story of an actor’s life.
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August Cosentino
Theater: “On the Evolutionary Function of Shame”
Even though you think you may have seen everything in the theater world (and sometimes I think we have), you’re in for a surprise with D.
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August Cosentino
Theater: “Dakar 2000” at MTC
Imagine it’s late 1999, with the uproar over Y2K accelerating.
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August Cosentino

February 2025

Film: “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
There was a time when gay people weren’t fabulous, or when they weren’t the first people to get a res at a pistol-hot restaurant.
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August Cosentino
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Books: “The Last One at The Wedding” by Jason Rekulak
Some days you just don’t want to read a NYT’s 100-Best-Books-of-the-Century book, or a plow through a classic like Kakfa’s “The Trial.” For days like…
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August Cosentino
Theater: Ibsen’s “Ghosts” with Lily Rabe and Billy Crudup
Before Henrik Ibsen’s play “Ghosts” was ever staged, it was published in 1881–over 10,000 copies were printed.
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August Cosentino
Film: “All About Eve” starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter
In the late 1940s, Hollywood screenwriter Joseph Mankiewicz decided he wanted to write a movie about an “actress of a certain age” (i.e., 40-plus.) He…
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August Cosentino
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Theater: “Curse of the Starving Class” starring Christian Slater and Calista Flockhart
Sam Shepard never plays nice.
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August Cosentino
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Film: “Blow-Up” directed by Antonioni
If there were one movie that could define the 1960s, it just might be “Blow-Up” (1966).
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August Cosentino
Film: “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” at IFC
First there was Sophie Tucker, “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.” Then there was Judy Garland, who learned everything she knew from Sophie.
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August Cosentino
Film: “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975) directed by Peter Weir
Some 1970s classics just don’t age well.
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August Cosentino
Film: “A Woman is a Woman” directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Sorry, but “A Woman is a Woman,” Jean-Luc Godard’s 1961 movie at Film Forum, is not the masterpiece the director claimed it was.
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August Cosentino
Theater: “Kowalski” at the Duke
The charms of “Kowalski,” Gregg Ostrin’s
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August Cosentino
Apple TV: “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes”
Humphrey Bogart could be called many things, but “pretentious” was not one of them.
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August Cosentino
Theater: “The Antiquities” at Playwright’s Horizons
How did we become human?
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August Cosentino
Film: “Swept Away” (1974) directed by Lina Wertmuller
Among the first things you notice about Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini), the crew member in “Swept Away” (1974), are his eyes.
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August Cosentino
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January 2025

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