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 Pitt Is a Brilliant Portrait of American Failure
The HBO Max show has a moral clarity that’s hard to find of late on television.
Stand-Up Comedy, All Joking Aside
A new movie from Bradley Cooper turns confessional humor into offstage drama.
How Sweetgreen Became Millennial Cringe
The salad chain is in free fall, along with a certain kind of optimism.
A New Understanding of Human Beings’ Most Basic Desire
The philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s latest book looks beyond happiness as the goal of a well-lived life.
The New History of Fighting Slavery
What we learn by tracing rebellions from Africa to the Americas
Six Books You Can Get Lost In
These novels highlight the power—both good and bad—of unchecked fantasizing.
A Deeply Personal Film, but Not in the Way You Might Think
In Sentimental Value, the writer-director Joachim Trier probes the real purpose of confessional art.
Why Authors Can’t Let Go of Greek Myths
The fascination with these stories reflects an existential interest in what in life is inevitable, and what we can control.
January First
A poem
What Dante Is Trying to Tell Us
A colloquial translation of Paradiso might make people actually read it.