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 SNL Sketch That Broke All the Rules
Last night, the show made the host, Ryan Gosling, break character—on purpose.
Misrule Music
A poem
Hollywood’s Star Power Is Shifting
Auteur filmmakers have become as much of a selling point as the actors they work with.
Hollywood Isn’t Directly Attacking Trump. It’s Doing Something More Interesting.
Less “what we need right now” and more “what it feels like to be alive.”
Why on Earth Did Maggie Gyllenhaal Make This Movie?
The Bride! is an incomprehensible genre mash-up.
What America’s Next Top Model Was Really Selling
The long-running reality series taught Millennials that beauty is work. We’re still recovering.
The McDonald’s CEO’s Big Burger-Eating Mistake
If you’re going to eat on the internet, you’d better do it a certain way.
A Novel About a Secret No One Wants to Know
The wildly popular Norwegian novelist Vigdis Hjorth returns to a dark past.
The Sickening Fairy Tale of Yasmin Hanani
Industry is making a point about how power works in a world of interconnected crime.
Connor Storrie Knew What SNL Viewers Wanted to See
An actor known for baring it all on-screen transformed his body into a prop.