Can “Babygirl” Breathe New Life Into a Retrograde Genre? Can “Babygirl” Breathe New Life Into a Retrograde Genre?
The movie, starring Nicole Kidman, operates at the level of the female gaze. Its inversion of erotic thriller tropes leads to fascinating but, at times, tepid results.
Jan 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
Olga Tokarczuk’s New Rules for Realism Olga Tokarczuk’s New Rules for Realism
In The Empusium, the Polish novelist’s first novel since her Nobel, she pays homage to Thomas Mann in order to redraw the boundaries of the realist novel.
Jan 15, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jess Cotton
Fady Joudah’s Poetry of Dislocation Fady Joudah’s Poetry of Dislocation
In his new book of poetry, […], the poet, translator, and ER doctor explores Palestinians’ experiences of exile and displacement—and the difficulty of healing amid the ongoing Nak...
Jan 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Hussein Omar
The Worlds of Noam Chomsky The Worlds of Noam Chomsky
If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.
Jan 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bessner
What Adorno Can Still Teach Us What Adorno Can Still Teach Us
A conversation with Peter Gordon about the enduring influence of the Frankfurt School's leader, the future of critical theory, and his recent book, A Precarious Happiness.
Jan 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
What Do We Want From Bob Dylan’s Story? What Do We Want From Bob Dylan’s Story?
In James Mangold's film A Complete Unknown, we get a cautious and reverent story of a musician who has always sought to transcend the limits imposed upon him.
Jan 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sam Adler-Bell
Adam Ehrlich Sachs’s Exhibitions of Absurdity Adam Ehrlich Sachs’s Exhibitions of Absurdity
In Gretel and the Great War, an antic epistolary novel set in early 20th-century Austria, the writer tries to make sense of a society gone mad.
Jan 8, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Walker Rutter-Bowman
Robert Eggers’s “Nosferatu” Is a Modern Gothic Triumph Robert Eggers’s “Nosferatu” Is a Modern Gothic Triumph
The latest adaptation of the silent film classic evokes anxieties at once eternal and contemporary, using one of horror’s ur-texts to dissect race, sex, and power.
Jan 7, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Kelli Weston