Culture

The Ideology of the Bicycle

Jody Rosen’s new history of our two-wheeled machines proves that they might be the one thing we all have in common.

Airlines’ Premium-Economy Trick

Carriers are banking on the psychological allure of marginal luxury.

Patriotic Songs for a Cruel Country

Wilco’s new album resets with a folkier sound—and a hunt for serenity.

When Stranger Things Finally Gave Its Villain a Voice

A (spoiler-filled) close read of the show’s new Season 4 monster

The Ludicrous Beauty of Top Gun: Maverick

It’s just what every cineplex in the country needs.

What a Book Can Do for a Girl

A story that changes how a child sees can, in no small way, change her life: Your weekly guide to the best in books

The Review: Top Gun

How does the classic work of propaganda hold up? And can its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, deliver decades later?

The Amber Heard–Johnny Depp Trial Is Not a Joke

Why are so many people treating it like one?

We Tell Ourselves Stories About Money to Live

Hernan Diaz’s new novel audaciously tells a tale of American capital—again, and again, and again.

Men Is a Brutal Film With Pathetic Villains

What on earth is going on in those final scenes?

Don’t Look Away From Philip Guston’s Cartoonish Paintings of Klansmen

The artist’s depictions of bumbling “hoods” lure viewers into considering the proximity of evil.

What Hacks Understands About the Myth of Self-Betterment

The HBO Max show’s second season is refreshingly free of easy epiphanies and life lessons.

The Book That Said the Words I Couldn’t Say

As a teen, I didn’t always know how to express myself. A now-forgotten novel helped me find my voice.

What Kate McKinnon Gave to Saturday Night Live

Of the show’s big cast departures, this one will hurt the most.

Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers Is a Reboot That Requires Zero Nostalgia

The Disney+ film is like an updated Who Framed Roger Rabbit—a fantastically funny cartoon satire.

Something’s Up With Harry Styles’s Vibe

Don’t be fooled by the pastel tones and gentle sounds of Harry’s House.

The Review: Knocked Up

Sophie Gilbert, Megan Garber, and Hannah Giorgis discuss Hollywood and the way it depicts abortion (or doesn’t).

How Hulu’s Conversations With Friends Got Sally Rooney So Wrong

The novel is darkly observant of Millennial malaise. The TV adaptation is a different story.

Pleasure Is a Deeply Unerotic Portrait of the Porn Industry

The film offers the same clinical gaze to both the mundane and graphic sides of the adult-entertainment business.

The Fight to Decouple Sex From Marriage

Sixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown’s best-selling book promised women sexual freedom. Today, it reads like an omen.