The Absurdist Spectacle of the Nike Boycotts
The viral responses to the company’s new campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick reinforce the stakes of his protests—and misunderstand what motivated the brand in the first place.
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Projects
Frontiers of Sports
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USA Today Sports / Reuters Will Juan Martín del Potro Usher In a New, Younger Generation of Tennis Greats?
In 2009, the Argentine player was primed to lead a youth movement in men’s tennis and shift the demographics of the game. It didn’t happen, but he may have a second chance this year.
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Annapurna What to Expect at This Year’s Toronto International Film Festival
The start of TIFF, alongside events in Venice and Telluride, signals the beginning of Oscar season, with movies like First Man, If Beale Street Could Talk, A Star Is Born, and Widows on the horizon.
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Starz America to Me Tackles Race in New Ways
The 10-part Starz docuseries from Steve James follows students and faculty through an Illinois high school to explore racial inequity from a different angle.
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Peter Kramer / AP What the Shaming of Geoffrey Owens Reveals
The reaction to the former Cosby Show actor working a retail job says a lot about how Americans understand success.
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Annapurna How to Make a Western Movie With No Heroes
The French director Jacques Audiard discusses adapting Patrick deWitt’s novel The Sisters Brothers into a darkly funny film starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix.
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Sylvia Jennings Alexander Estate / The Atlantic When Slavery Is Erased From Plantations
Some presidential estates and other historical sites have struggled to reconcile founding-era exceptionalism with the true story of America’s original sin.
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Drawn & Quarterly Coyote Doggirl Gives the Western a Whimsical, Watercolor Spin
A new graphic novel from the artist Lisa Hanawalt (BoJack Horseman) gives an old genre the kind of heroine it’s never seen before.
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Mark Makela / Reuters Eminem Makes a Vicious Strike in the War of Generations
The rapper’s surprise new album, Kamikaze, insults those who’ve leached away his buzz—but also reiterates what their appeal is.
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Greg Preston / Dark Horse Comics Remembering the Woman Who Changed Marvel Comics
Marie Severin, the trailblazing comic-book artist who drew some of pop culture’s most iconic characters, died Thursday at the age of 89.
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Moolkum / schankz / Shutterstock / Arsh Raziuddin ... Suicide Club Takes On the Tyranny of Wellness
Rachel Heng’s debut novel turns the cultural imperatives of health into commands of a totalitarian state.
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Charles Sykes / Invision / AP Troye Sivan’s Oh-So-Gentle Rebellion
Bloom, the second album from the aspiring pop star, puts a modest, queer twist on familiar formulas.
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Amazon Studios Jack Ryan, Reaganite Hero
Tom Clancy’s character—a former Marine, Wall Street millionaire, reluctant CIA agent, and loyal family man—has long been a symbol of a bygone era.
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Focus Features The Little Stranger Is a Different Kind of Haunted-House Movie
Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’s novel stars Domhnall Gleeson as a doctor who gets wrapped up with a decaying aristocratic family in postwar Britain.
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Gregory Bull / AP The San Diego Padres Found a Way to Monetize Bad Baseball
By building a promotion around poor on-field performance, the team may have offered a grim look at the future of one of pro sports’ most controversial practices: tanking.
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Eli Ade / OWN The Holy Family of Greenleaf Is a Sinful Mess
The OWN series, which follows the leading family of a Memphis mega-church, cleverly dramatizes the gap between its characters’ sanctified public personas and their private misdeeds.
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The Logo Design Revolution
Before Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, logos were often literal representations of products.
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MGM Operation Finale Grapples With the Banality of Evil
Chris Weitz’s new film stars Oscar Isaac as one of the agents who captured the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (played by Ben Kingsley) and transported him to stand trial in Israel.
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Charlotte Rutherford Dr. Luke’s Queasy Two-Front Comeback Effort
As the once-ubiquitous pop producer accused of abuse by Kesha continues his court battle against her, the appealing new voice of Kim Petras sells his songs.
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Danny Moloshok / Reuters Louis C.K. and the Missed Point of Redemption
With a surprise performance Sunday evening, the comic joins a cadre of men who have begun reentering the public eye after misconduct accusations.
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Raymond Hagans / MediaPunch / IPX Ethan Hawke Reckons With Poptimism in Hollywood
The actor gave a fascinating interview on the film industry that included a dismissive remark about the superhero genre. But his broader frustrations are perhaps less controversial.
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Brad Barket / Invision / AP Louis C.K. and the Men Who Keep Getting What They Want
The #MeToo comebacks are coming. And they’re revolving, once again, around the desires of those who needed to negotiate the returns in the first place.
