Culture

A Film About Teens Finding Love Amid Climate Apocalypse

Makoto Shinkai’s bold and charming Weathering With You is set in a world ending so gradually, people barely notice it anymore.

• David Sims
• January 20, 2020

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix Show Is Painful to Watch

The streaming service has turned the star’s controversial e-commerce brand into a series. Soft-lit chaos ensues.

• Megan Garber
• January 18, 2020

Eminem Slips Into the Mind of the Las Vegas Shooter

The rapper’s “Darkness” video tries to fight gun violence while also glorifying it.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• January 17, 2020

Stephen King’s Comments About the Oscars Explain the Oscars

The author, who is an Academy Award voter, inadvertently captured why Hollywood’s biggest ceremony faces a diversity problem year after year.

• Hannah Giorgis
• January 17, 2020

The Books Briefing: What’s White and Black and Read All Over?

The journalists who help us contextualize: Your weekly guide to the best in books

• Myles Poydras
• January 17, 2020

Mac Miller Was Trying to Tell a Survival Story

The absorbing posthumous album Circles shows the rapper considering his own fragility.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• January 16, 2020

Dolittle Is One of the Worst Movies in Years

The new film starring Robert Downey Jr. as a doctor who talks to animals is transfixing at times, if only because it’s such a disaster.

• David Sims
• January 16, 2020

The Case Against Stripping the Astros of Their World Series Title

The MLB has handed harsh penalties to Houston for sign stealing, but revoking the team’s ill-gained 2017 championship is implausible.

• Robert O'Connell
• January 15, 2020

AJ and the Queen Says Drag Will Make America Okay Again

RuPaul’s patchy Netflix comedy portrays a queer art form as one of healing, not rebellion.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• January 15, 2020

The Filmmaker Who Says M. Night Shyamalan Stole Her Movie

A lawsuit filed by Francesca Gregorini argues that the Apple TV+ series Servant shares eerie similarities with her 2013 film, The Truth About Emanuel.

• Sophie Gilbert
• January 15, 2020

When Female Athletes Take the Spotlight on TV

Two dramas—Dare Me and Spinning Out—follow girls as they juggle their competitive ambitions and interpersonal relationships.

• Shirley Li
• January 14, 2020

The Problem With the Oscars’ Idea of a ‘Good Movie’

Every year, plenty of excellent films are excluded from the awards-season conversation for reasons that have nothing to do with talent or artistry. This year is no different.

• David Sims
• January 14, 2020

Let’s All Read More Fiction

Over the centuries, our magazine has prized great storytelling. Now we’re recommitting ourselves to publishing short fiction, beginning with a story by Lauren Groff.

• Adrienne LaFrance
• January 14, 2020

A Conversation With Lauren Groff About Her Writing Process

“Often before I write a scene for the final time … I take a minute, close my eyes, and build the world of the scene around me.”

• Ross Andersen
• January 14, 2020

Birdie

A short story

• Lauren Groff
• January 14, 2020

Breaking Down the 2020 Oscar Nominations

Todd Phillips’s Joker is the biggest contender in an Academy Awards race featuring a single actor of color and no female directors.

• David Sims
• January 13, 2020

A Stephen King Adaptation That Doesn’t Believe in Monsters

The Outsider, HBO's new 10-part series about an inexplicable murder in a small Georgia town, misses the uncanny intrigue.

• Sophie Gilbert
• January 12, 2020

Just Mercy Is a Stark True Story of Good and Evil

The biopic draws power from its faithful retelling of a man’s wrongful conviction, but risks seeming more like a news summary than a narrative work.

• David Sims
• January 10, 2020

The Books Briefing: First Exercise, Then Write

Health for the body, the mind, and the world: Your weekly guide to the best in books

• Rosa Inocencio Smith
• January 10, 2020