Arts

Judi Dench returns to the role of Queen Victoria — this time in her dotage — for Stephen Frears' film about the monarch's eyebrow-raising friendship with a young Indian man (Ali Fazal).

Critic Chris Klimek says Martin Scorsese's landmark 1980 film provides an unflattering portrait of Jake LaMotta, who died Wednesday — a portrait the boxer was only too happy to sit for.

"You'd think cake would be apolitical, and yet here we are," says one of several D.C.-area pastry chefs who wrought their support for gay marriage into elaborate wedding cakes.

Alice McDermott's new novel immerses readers in the homely details of Irish Catholic Brooklyn in the early decades of the 20th century, but also addresses bigger, universal questions of love and life.

Through the Rubenstein Test Kitchen project, librarians and staff re-create historical recipes from thousands of cookbooks in the collections. Some dishes are culturally telling ... and comical.

Eleanor Henderson's novel, set in 1930s Georgia, seeks to portray a time when "slavery was over, but not past," says our reviewer. But a lack of nuance keeps its characters from emerging as individuals.

Director David Gordon Green's film stands out from others like it because it prizes "understanding Bauman's perspective and the private burdens of being a hero" over simple uplift.

The one-woman show centers on a Syrian-American who tells harrowing stories of Syria's civil war as she prepares a traditional dish. It's an intimate experience for both the audience and the actress.