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.
Sympathy for a Handsome Devil
Noah Baumbach’s new film, Jay Kelly, takes a gamble with its fantastically successful protagonist.
The End of Naked Locker Rooms
What we lose when casual nudity disappears
Well, That’s Definitely Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation is a feat of design but not of story.
The Accidental Trailblazers of a New Global Condition
A new book about Chernobyl’s child victims shows the human cost of seeking technological dominance.
The Coolest Girl on Earth Seeks God
Rosalía’s new album mirrors the modern quest for salvation, in all its thrilling and frustrating contours.
Do You Want the House Tour?
On MTV Cribs, celebrities packaged and sold their wealthy lifestyles to the world.
Pay Attention to the First 10 Minutes of SNL
James Austin Johnson’s catchall monologues have become an ideal format for the recent onslaught of political news.
Edward Burtynsky’s Warning
What the photographer found in a tire pile in Modesto, California, and on the shores of Western Australia
When Scarcity Blurs the Line Between Right and Wrong
Megha Majumdar’s second novel imagines how climate disaster might scramble our sense of morality.