Culture

The Most Unadaptable Book in Fiction

Dee Rees’s new Netflix film tackles the Joan Didion novel The Last Thing He Wanted. It may have been a futile task.

• Sophie Gilbert
• 2:12 PM ET

The Peter Pan Story Has Lost Its Magic

Wendy, Benh Zeitlin’s visually stunning new film, attempts to reinvigorate an overused tale—and fails.

• David Sims
• 11:39 AM ET

‘Alleged’ No Longer

Harvey Weinstein was tried over the past two months. So were regressive ideas about what sexual violence really looks like.

• Megan Garber
• February 25, 2020

Whistleblower: When a Memoir Is Also an Indictment

The book from the former Uber engineer Susan Fowler is an intimate first-person account that doubles as a warning.

• Megan Garber
• February 23, 2020

The Message of Grimes’s Dark Masterpiece

The singer’s new album, Miss Anthropocene, combines angsty music styles with a supposedly environmental purpose—but mostly to indulge the thrill of submission.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• February 22, 2020

Pixar Needs to Make More Movies Like Onward

The studio’s latest film is a sweet, inventive, and original story of two brothers growing up in a fantasy universe that’s lost its edge.

• David Sims
• February 21, 2020

The Books Briefing: A Study in Sleuthing

Mysteries and their histories: Your weekly guide to the best in books

• Rosa Inocencio Smith
• February 21, 2020

The Problem With Amazon’s Nazi-Hunters Show

The Al Pacino–fronted series is a sweaty smorgasbord of cartoonish simplicity and wanton violence.

• Sophie Gilbert
• February 21, 2020

Reality Shows Don’t Have to Be Cruel

Netflix’s Next in Fashion demonstrates that niceness among contestants can be really fun to watch.

• Helen Lewis
• February 20, 2020

Gentefied: The Netflix Show That Makes Gentrification Personal

A grounded story about urban displacement zooms in on the lives of one fictional Los Angeles family and those in their orbit.

• Hannah Giorgis
• February 20, 2020

More Than Ever, Justin Bieber Feels Like a Cautionary Tale

The singer’s first album in five years, Changes, and his YouTube documentary, Seasons, paint a picture of fragile recovery from the trauma of child stardom.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• February 20, 2020

How to Murder Harry Potter

In “deathfic,” writers of fan fiction find unexpected comfort in killing off their favorite popular characters.

• Kaitlyn Tiffany
• February 19, 2020

The Delicate and Demanding World of Emma

The director Autumn de Wilde’s precise aesthetic is an ideal match for the rigid social rules of Jane Austen’s classic novel.

• David Sims
• February 19, 2020

The Show That Actually Understands Modern Romance

Unlike other rom-com reboots that prioritize feel-good nostalgia, Hulu’s High Fidelity takes the time to examine the messiness of dating today.

• Shirley Li
• February 19, 2020

It’s Okay to Leave Your Headphones at Home

How one writer learned an accidental lesson in the joys of silence

• Talmon Joseph Smith
• February 17, 2020

The Story The Pharmacist Can’t Tell

The new Netflix series attempts to contain the sprawling opioid epidemic within the conventions of true crime.

• Sophie Gilbert
• February 16, 2020

How High Maintenance Creates Ethical Tension

The fourth season of the HBO show questions its own charming vision of urban coincidence.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• February 15, 2020

Fan Fiction Was Just as Sexual in the 1700s as It Is Today

Before tales about Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, people wrote bawdy or gross stories about Gulliver’s Travels.

• Shannon Chamberlain
• February 14, 2020