Critics' Voices

By TIME''S REVIEWERS/Compiled by Andrea Sachs

MOVIES

THE INDIAN RUNNER. Method mannerism in the '60s Midwest; bringin' the Vietnam War back home; 90 minutes of simmering before a family explodes. From these tired conventions (which the movie embraces like new truths), writer-director Sean Penn has found a stark camera style that ignites behavioral sparks. Stay tuned; this kid has talent.

THE FISHER KING. Trust director Terry Gilliam (Brazil) to hatch the year's most exasperatingly good movie, in which Robin Williams is a holy homeless fool and Jeff Bridges a burned-out case ripe for redemption. To catch the brilliant bits in this handsome botch, you need patience and daring; it's like finding gold nuggets strewn across a minefield.

THE 23RD INTERNATIONAL TOURNEE OF ANIMATION. Cartoons on the serious side from nine countries. More of ethnographic than artistic interest and short on the chuckles. Check it out to see what comes on before the feature in European movie houses. Then go home and savor The Simpsons. Now that's cartooning!

MUSIC

VAN MORRISON: HYMNS TO THE SILENCE (Polydor). Twenty-one new songs by one of rock's greatest and most idiosyncratic creative spirits. Bluesy, mystical, introspective, demanding, demented, resolutely unique: Morrison reigns and remains rock's own dear Celtic bard, an electrified James Joyce.

NAT KING COLE: BIG BAND COLE (Capitol). Now that Nat has got to the top of the charts again, via a ghostly duet with his daughter Natalie, this is the perfect time to discover Pop in his prime, singing and swinging his way through 17 standards backed by a big band, predominantly Count Basie's, on this welcome reissue.

DR. MICHAEL WHITE: CRESCENT CITY SERENADE (Antilles). The irrepressible clarinetist and musicologist leads a new generation of New Orleans players through a lively exploration of their roots -- and proves once again that rumors of the death of traditional jazz have been greatly exaggerated.

TELEVISION

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON: 29TH ANNIVERSARY (NBC, Oct. 3, 9:30 p.m. EDT). It's not too early to get nostalgic. Johnny is leaving in May, which means this year's annual collection of highlights from past shows will be -- gulp! -- his last.

HEROES OF THE DESERT STORM (ABC, Oct. 6, 9 p.m. EDT). From real war to TV movie in just eight months. Talk about a superpower!

SESSIONS (HBO, debuting Oct. 6, 10:10 p.m. EDT). A 42-year-old husband and father (Michael McKean) discusses his sexual fantasies and mid-life neuroses with a sympathetic shrink (Elliott Gould). Billy Crystal created and co-wrote this offbeat comedy series, which is frank and frequently clever, though a bit mushy at the center.

THEATER

BREAKING LEGS. Three thuggish mobsters finance a play about the criminal mind by a college professor, who grasps with mounting horror what he has got into, in this unsubtle but engaging off-Broadway hit that is re-signing stars Vincent Gardenia and Philip Bosco and engendering plans for a national tour and possible movie.

UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN REMAINS AND THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE. Neither AIDS nor a serial killer can deflect the sexual searching of the young men and women in this punk-poetic, MTV-style thriller, full of quick verbal riffs and crosscut scenes, transferred from a Chicago hit to off-Broadway with stellar acting by hollow-smiled Clark Gregg.

ART

REVOLUTION IN RELIEF: WOODCUT, WOOD ENGRAVING AND RELIEF ETCHING IN EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1890-1930, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass. Seventy prints by such modern masters as Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse and Kathe Kollwitz demonstrate how these innovators transformed this ancient printing technique. Through Nov. 24.

INDIAN PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. The ceremonial and pleasurable side of Mogul, Rajput and Muslim court and town life from the 16th through 19th centuries is explored in the show's 42 works. Through Jan. 12.

ETCETERA

AMERICAN PATCHWORK (PBS Home Video). Written, and produced by host Alan Lomax, America's premier folklorist, this five-volume video series takes the viewer through two enthralling centuries of American culture and music, from Appalachian bluegrass and Mississippi Delta blues to Cajun two-steps and the street parades of New Orleans. Music documentaries don't get any better than this.

THE PIERPONT MORGAN LIBRARY, New York City. One of the jeweled granddaddies of museums reopens after a major expansion and renovation by the architects Voorsanger & Associates. The Morgan celebrates with the unveiling of a new glass-enclosed garden court, the creation of an education center, the restoration of an adjacent brownstone and the premiere of a major show featuring the masterpieces of its world-famous collection.

BERNSTEIN'S FINAL TRIUMPH

Let us rejoice! Leonard Bernstein has given us a posthumous operetta, Candide, in which nearly all his glorious talent has finally been harnessed. But since its 1956 premiere, Bernstein's rendition of Voltaire's corrosive satire has undergone a picaresque voyage closely rivaling in misunderstanding and abuse the trials suffered by its hero. Songs were dropped and added; the book was refashioned; lyrics were altered; parts were reassigned. This 1989 studio performance, just released by Deutsche Grammophon, represents Bernstein's triumphant final version. Bernstein conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, which are stirringly responsive to the score's tenderness, strength and sometimes explosive brilliance. Tenor Jerry Hadley's winning Candide blends conviction and vulnerability. As Cunegonde, June Anderson has a creamy coloratura soprano so captivating that many may wear out their replay buttons listening to Glitter and Be Gay.