The Rise of CliffsNotes Cinema
Oversimplified literary remakes miss the point of the works they are adapting.
Culture
Why Justin Bieber Played YouTube Onstage for Thousands of People
The pop star transformed the normal act of browsing your laptop into something interesting—and unsettling.
The New Age of Performance Anxiety
With the rise of screen culture, all the world has stage fright.
Where Did ‘Let Them’ Come From?
Years before Mel Robbins published her best-selling self-help book, a struggling writer posted a poem with a similar message.
The Many Resurrections of Marianne Faithfull
No matter how many times she was counted out, the late singer knew how to imbue her mythology with new energy.
The Modern Voice of War Writing
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque reinvented a genre.
A Novelist Who Looks Into the Dark
Ali Smith scrambles plotlines, upends characters, and flouts chronology—while telling propulsively readable stories.
A Horror Movie That Already Gave Away Its Twist
The new film Companion can’t keep its big secret to itself, but it has others in store.
Music’s New Generation Is Here
This year’s Grammys ceremony celebrated a new class of willful, distinct talents.
Hanif Kureishi’s Relentlessly Revealing Memoir
How a tragic accident helped the author find his rebellious voice again
In Search of the Book That Would Save Her Life
Sarah Chihaya’s unconventional memoir charts her troubled relationship with the literature that formed her.
/media/img/mt/2025/01/VHS/original.gif)
The Stranger Things Effect Comes for the Novel
A crop of stories is responding to the fakery of the digital age by embracing the realness of analog objects.
What on Earth Is Eusexua?
The sensation you get when dancing or making a really good cup of tea? FKA Twigs wants to bottle that.