Culture

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in “Barbie.”

The Muddled Feminism of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” The Muddled Feminism of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie”

In trying to say too much, the film winds up not saying much at all.

Jul 27, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Tarpley Hitt

Margot Robbin in “Barbie.“

This “Barbie” Is in Crisis This “Barbie” Is in Crisis

Greta Gerwig tackles philosophical questions that are more daunting than a film based on a children’s toy can handle. It results in a strange, uneven, but beautiful movie. 

Jul 26, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

What Happened to Peter Handke?

What Happened to Peter Handke? What Happened to Peter Handke?

How an artist obsessed with interiority and language become a literary pariah. 

Jul 26, 2023 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace

Striking SAG-AFTRA member in front of Netflix building

SAG-AFTRA Can Agree on One Thing: It’s Time to Crush the Big Studios SAG-AFTRA Can Agree on One Thing: It’s Time to Crush the Big Studios

How do you bring a woefully divided union together? You go on strike.

Jul 26, 2023 / Piper French

Former vice president Mike Pence

The Pence Campaign Struggles The Pence Campaign Struggles

Jul 25, 2023 / Column / Calvin Trillin

The Psychic Theater of Boots Riley

The Psychic Theater of Boots Riley The Psychic Theater of Boots Riley

Absurdist, darkly funny, I’m a Virgo tells a story of first love, capitalism’s surreal excesses, the contradictions of Black life, and how much politics a work of art can bear.

Jul 25, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jorge Cotte

Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge.

The Monumental Improvisations of Sonny Rollins The Monumental Improvisations of Sonny Rollins

Though his life had its ups and downs, Rollins never wavered in his determination to get things right, and often that meant reinventing himself and, along the way, jazz as well.

Jul 24, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour

Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer”

The Many Enigmas of Oppenheimer The Many Enigmas of Oppenheimer

In Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan neither indicts nor vindicates the physicist. Instead, he offers a study of a man full of contradictions.

Jul 21, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jorge Cotte

Just Can’t Stop

Just Can’t Stop Just Can’t Stop

Exxon sing-along! 

Jul 21, 2023 / OppArt / Ben Hillman

black and white photo of j. robert oppenheimer testifying before the senate

Even as the Oppenheimer Film Rights a Historic Wrong, the Memo That Smeared Him Remains Redacted Even as the Oppenheimer Film Rights a Historic Wrong, the Memo That Smeared Him Remains Redacted

The physicist was punished for opposing development of the hydrogen bomb, and for warning about the dangers of nuclear proliferation.

Jul 21, 2023 / Peter Shinkle

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