After two and a half years of construction, the greatly enlarged museum reopened last month as an ensemble of restrained, nuanced and highly crafted compartments by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi. In age of cumulonimbus architectural spectacle, of swooping expressionism and angular deconstruction, the new MOMA opted for the subdued forms of classic right-angled Modernism. There are some problematic spaces. The tall atrium that greets visitors on the second floor gives the interior an early dose of literally high drama, but what work of art can compete with its altitudes? Monet's "Water Lilies" becomes a forlorn blue-green slot in an immense white wall. But elsewhere, again and again, Taniguchi reintroduces us to the fine filaments of the Modernist vocabulary. His light canopies, the suave transitions of a staircase, the complicated re-knitting of the old MOMA with the new — the more you look, the more you see.
Come fly with us, and Leo, through the best (and worst) of 2004. Tops in the cinema this year include Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Elsewhere, Deadwood was good TV, and a Strange tale fascinated readers.