MOVIE TIP

Somewhere in Queens

Maybe this statement will come as a surprise to you, but it’s true: Ray Romano is a very good director. He helms this familial story, creating a very realistic world that is shot through with low-key comedy and affecting drama. He also co-wrote the screenplay and stars as a father who works in a construction business for his dismissive father and brother. He is married to his high school sweetheart (Laurie Metcalf), who is recovering from breast cancer. They are parents to a painfully shy teenaged son (a pitch-perfect Jacob Ward) who is a talented basketball player. When the possibility of a college scholarship arises, so do all sorts of conflicts surrounding whether he should go. The acting is all quite good, and some of the best scenes are of the extended clan gathered together, full of energy, joy and insults.

– Kristina Dorsey

BOOK TIP

All the Sinners Bleed

S.A. Cosby

Magicians Penn & Teller have a television show called “Fool Us” where all manners of tricksters and hoaxers are invited to perform a deception in front of the masters. The goal is to, well, fool them. S.A. Cosby is a magician of a different sort. He’s a superior literary crime novelist of polished complexity. If somehow Penn & Teller were tasked with reading Cosby’s latest, “All the Sinners Bleed,” they’d turn the last page, smile admiringly and say, “How the hell did he DO THAT?“ The novel is about Titus Crown, the first Black sheriff in a backwards Virginia small town, trying to understand a school shooting that, on investigation, suggests the possibility of a serial killer connection. That alone is Hook City. But within these irresistible pages are core-shaking examinations of ongoing racism, religious fundamentalism, the steadfastly toxic myth of Southern honor, and the redemptive importance of family — all of which are nuanced within the context of Story. Magnificent.

— Rick Koster

BOOK TIP

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Gabrielle Zevin

Nope, not a “Macbeth” parody. This novel revolves around a boy and girl who, when they are college-aged in the 1990s, become young game developers. Sam was in a tragic accident that killed his mother and seriously damaged his foot. Sadie, while visiting her cancer-stricken sister in the same hospital where Sam is, connects with Sam when they play video games together. After a falling out, they reconnect while he’s at Harvard and she’s at MIT, and they create a game that becomes a huge hit. Another rift develops when Sadie falls for a mutual friend and business partner. Sam and Sadie’s relationship remains platonic, despite his feelings for her, and it is somehow deeper than a romance. Perhaps it’s not surprising, but the relationships here are more interesting than the virtual world-building. As for that title, author Gabrielle Zevin writes that, in games, there is the “possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption.” An enticing thought, no doubt.

– Kristina Dorsey