The Atlantic's Week in Culture

Don’t Miss

The Remarkable Rise of Tiffany Haddish—Michael P. Jeffries writes that the standup and Girls Trip star’s success points to how comedy has—and hasn’t—changed for women and entertainers of color.

Film

Why Is Hollywood Developing Three Different Joker Movies?—David Sims believes the flurry of news about multiple films featuring Batman’s chief villain shows just how desperate the industry is becoming.

33 Movies to Watch This Oscar Season—David Sims looks at the buzzy biopics and indie hits filling theaters over the next few months.

It: A Solid but Conventional Shocker—Christopher Orr thinks the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel privileges CGI scares over dread and nuance.

Rebel in the Rye Is Phony Through and Through—David Sims says Danny Strong’s directorial debut starring Nicholas Hoult as J.D. Salinger misses the mark in trying to capture his unique talent.

The Deuce Is Magnificent Television—Sophie Gilbert enjoys the new HBO show from David Simon and George Pelecanos, calling it the rightful heir to The Wire.

David Lynch Found the Perfect Ending for Twin Peaks—David Sims wraps up the 18-episode Showtime revival, which gave audiences both a tidy conclusion and a messy, dreamlike unraveling of everything that came before it.

Turning the Trump Era Into a Horror Story—Spencer Kornhaber ponders the FX anthology series AHS: Cult, which channels liberal anxieties for a gory, queasy romp.

29 New TV Shows to Watch This Fall—Sophie Gilbert breaks down the upcoming additions to an already packed television schedule, including The Deuce, American Horror Story, and Alias Grace.

Music

The National’s Super-Political Love Songs—Spencer Kornhaber talks to the singer and lyricist Matt Berninger about his band’s adventurous, election-influenced new album.

29 New Albums to Listen to This Fall—Spencer Kornhaber previews the most anticipated records of the season, from Miley Cyrus to Kamasi Washington.

Art

The Sad, Ecstatic Passions of Carol Rama—Jane Yong Kim reviews an exhibit focused on the self-taught Italian artist who explored the female body and its social context with curiosity and urgency.

Writing

More Than 100 Exceptional Works of Journalism—Conor Friedersdorf rounds up fantastic nonfiction from 2016 that’s still worth discovering and pondering today.

Theater

The Ferryman: Jez Butterworth on the Legacy of Hate—Sophie Gilbert watches the playwright and screenwriter’s new London hit, which is set during the Troubles in 1981 Ireland but considers timeless issues.

Stockbyte / Getty / Katie Martin / The Atlantic

Sports

The Four Quarterbacks to Watch This NFL Season—Robert O’Connell highlights a rookie, a comeback hopeful, a virtuoso, and an all-time great as the players fans should be paying attention to in the coming year.

More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.

One day last summer, around noon, I called Athena, a 13-year-old who lives in Houston, Texas. She answered her phone—she’s had an iPhone since she was 11—sounding as if she’d just woken up. We chatted about her favorite songs and TV shows, and I asked her what she likes to do with her friends. “We go to the mall,” she said. “Do your parents drop you off?,” I asked, recalling my own middle-school days, in the 1980s, when I’d enjoy a few parent-free hours shopping with my friends. “No—I go with my family,” she replied. “We’ll go with my mom and brothers and walk a little behind them. I just have to tell my mom where we’re going. I have to check in every hour or every 30 minutes.”

Those mall trips are infrequent—about once a month. More often, Athena and her friends spend time together on their phones, unchaperoned. Unlike the teens of my generation, who might have spent an evening tying up the family landline with gossip, they talk on Snapchat, the smartphone app that allows users to send pictures and videos that quickly disappear. They make sure to keep up their Snapstreaks, which show how many days in a row they have Snapchatted with each other. Sometimes they save screenshots of particularly ridiculous pictures of friends. “It’s good blackmail,” Athena said. (Because she’s a minor, I’m not using her real name.) She told me she’d spent most of the summer hanging out alone in her room with her phone. That’s just the way her generation is, she said. “We didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people.”