In “The Taste of Things,” a radiant Juliette Binoche plays Eugénie, a gifted cook who for the past 20 years has been running the kitchen of a 19th-century epicurean named Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel). As the movie opens, Eugénie is harvesting vegetables from Dodin’s garden, smiling beatifically and delicately rearranging wisps of hair as she […]
Leslie Bridgers
Columnist
Leslie Bridgers is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, writing about Maine culture, customs and the things we notice and wonder about in our everyday lives. Originally from Connecticut, Leslie came to Maine by way of Bowdoin College and never left. She joined the Portland Press Herald in 2011 as a reporter and spent seven years as the paper’s features editor, overseeing coverage of arts, entertainment and food.
Spider-Verse-adjacent action flick ‘Madame Web’ has low-key appeal
Dakota Johnson isn’t an obvious choice for a superhero. Best known for “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the actress mostly exudes a laid-back, half-lidded, even soporific energy that only rarely rears up with intensity, as it did in her acclaimed supporting performance in “The Lost Daughter.” But that may be precisely the best argument for casting […]
Indie Film: Doc appointment: Cabin Fever festival offers wintertime oasis for nonfiction film fans
On Saturday, the Camden International Film Festival is holding a single-day event that celebrates documentary storytelling.
Bestsellers: ‘North Woods,’ ‘Maine: A Love Story’
The current top-selling fiction and nonfiction books at Longfellow Books in Portland.
Deep Water: ‘Never,’ by Lily Jessen
Maine poems edited and introduced by Megan Grumbling.
Art review: Immerse yourself in Emilie Stark-Menneg’s fantastical world
Her show at the Farnsworth is the first in series featuring the next generation of Maine artists.
Society Notebook: Partygoers get their groove on for Portland Youth Dance
A gala at the Woodfords Club raised money to support the company’s programs, including free classes and scholarships.
Concert review: Wynton Marsalis and his band entertain and enlighten
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra played a sold-out concert Thursday at Merrill that had been rescheduled from 10 months earlier.
Bob Marley biopic turns a complicated subject into the Messiah
“Bob Marley: One Love” is bookended by two concerts, in 1976 and 1978, both intended to foster peace in a Jamaica that had long been polarized by political violence. Such a narrow time frame for this story of the reggae pioneer, who died in 1981 at the age of 36 from skin cancer, is unusual. […]
Theater review: When college friends reunite, controversial topics take over in ‘Heroes of the Fourth Turning’
The thought-provoking play is having its Maine premiere at Mad Horse Theatre in South Portland.