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Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza was only 23 years old when he was excommunicated from the Spanish-Portugese Jewish community of Amsterdam. That was 350 years ago, but author Rebecca Newberger Goldstein says that his thoughts are still important today.

Indie rock heroes Yo La Tengo are known for confounding expectations with each new album -- sometimes it's organ-based moody pop-rock worthy of Burt Bacharach, sometimes it's a long, droning, guitar-god freakout. On their best albums, it's both.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Half Nelson, starring Ryan Gosling. Gosling stars as a young inner-city junior high school teacher who develops a drug habit, and the friendship he strikes up with one of his students.

Slate Mark Jordan Legan reviews what critics are saying about the weekend's movie releases: Pulse, Step Up and Conversations with Other Women.

Jane Campion's and Denis Villeneuve's films got the highest amount of nominations, 12 and 10 each. Drive My Car, from Japan, got nominated for both Best Picture and Best International Feature.

Hollywoodland is an ambitious film that succeeds up to a point, but no further. It's a reasonable facsimile of film noir, but it's also an overly derivative piece of work that thinks it is doing and saying more than it is. And this despite a subtle and effective performance by, of all people, Ben Affleck.

The black comedy Little Miss Sunshine revolves around a 7-year- old girl and her dream of winning a childrens' beauty pageant. The movie is the feature debut of the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who made their names directing music videos for groups such as REM and The Smashing Pumpkins. Our film critic has a review.

Director Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia is based upon James Ellroy's fictional take on a real-life 1947 L.A. murder case. Ellroy's novel L.A. Confidential was turned into a great movie, but don't expect the same of Dahlia.

Slate contributor Mark Jordan Legan reviews what critics are saying about the weekend's major movie releases: The Night Listener, Barnyard: The Original Party Animals, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Ever since Chuck Berry, St. Louis has been producing rock music that defies the prevailing norm. But is it possible that in 1969 it also produced America's Beatles, a band no one ever heard? Rock historian Ed Ward investigates the curious case of the Aerovons.