Books & Culture
The Weekend Essay
The Surreal Simulations of a Reality-TV Restaurant Empire
It’s a reunion every night at the “Vanderpump” establishments in Los Angeles.
By Naomi Fry
The New Yorker Interview
Maya Rudolph Is Ready to Serve
The actress and comedian on motherhood, studying the lives of billionaires for her show “Loot,” and her “S.N.L.” portrayals of women in the spotlight—from Beyoncé to Kamala Harris.
By Michael Schulman
The New Yorker Interview
Kevin Costner Goes West Again
The actor and director, whose film “Horizon: An American Saga” has been in the making for decades, thinks of the Western as America’s Shakespeare.
By David Remnick
The New Yorker Interview
Why Jerrod Carmichael Turned His Life Into a Reality Show
The comedian discusses “artists’ lib,” putting a billboard in his home town to get his mother’s attention, and his new effort to “Truman Show” himself.
By Andrew Marantz
Infinite Scroll
TikTok’s Favorite Camera
By mimicking classic film aesthetics, the Fujifilm X100 has become a digital hit.
By Kyle Chayka
Books
Flash Fiction
“A Children’s Story”
“I want a happy ending,” the mother says, folding up the story and setting it on her nightstand. “You don’t know how to write happy.”
By Weike Wang
Under Review
The Best Books We’ve Read in 2024 So Far
Our editors and critics review notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
By The New Yorker
Page-Turner
The Agonies of Intimacy
Two new graphic books by Charles Burns capture the pleasures and discomforts of human connection and self-expression.
By Charles Burns
Books
The Seditious Writers Who Unravel Their Own Stories
“Consent,” by Jill Ciment, and “Change,” by Édouard Louis, revisit the past with an eye for distortion and error.
By Parul Sehgal
Movies
The Front Row
“Fly Me to the Moon” Lacks Mission Control
This rom-com about the marketing of the Apollo space program, starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, has an inconsistent tone and a vague point of view.
By Richard Brody
The Front Row
An Ingenious New French Comedy of Art and Friendship
The director Pascale Bodet works wonders in “Vas-Tu Renoncer?,” based on the relationship of Édouard Manet and Charles Baudelaire.
By Richard Brody
The New Yorker Interview
Nicolas Cage Is Still Evolving
The actor talks about the origins of “Adaptation,” his potential leap to television, and the art of “keeping it enigmatic.”
By Susan Orlean
The New Yorker Interview
Rashida Jones Wonders What Makes Us Human
The actor discusses the encroachment of A.I., her adolescent tiff with Tupac, and her enduring love of philosophy.
By Michael Schulman
Food
The Food Scene
The Central Park Boathouse Is Back, and It’s Perfectly Fine
Recently reopened under new management, the pricey tourist-bait canteen is more satisfying than it has any right to be.
By Helen Rosner
On and Off the Menu
The Era of the Line Cook
In a dinner series called the Line Up, line cooks, sous-chefs, and chefs de cuisine from buzzy New York restaurants get to be executive chefs for a night.
By Hannah Goldfield
The Food Scene
One Weird Night at Frog Club
If a self-consciously clubby restaurant suddenly becomes easy to get into, what’s the point of going at all?
By Helen Rosner
The Food Scene
A Pitch-Perfect Ode to Korean “Drivers’ Restaurants”
Kisa is a brand-new spot on the Lower East Side that does an astonishingly good job of seeming like it’s been there forever.
By Helen Rosner
Photo Booth
The Unfiltered Charm of Jet’s Beauties of the Week
Decades before Instagram, the magazine’s legendary column democratized the thirst trap.
By Jennifer Wilson
Television
On Television
Kendrick Lamar’s Freedom Summer
In his new video for “Not Like Us,” the hip-hop artist claims victory in his long battle with Drake.
By Vinson Cunningham
On Television
“Clipped,” Reviewed: A Romp Back Through an N.B.A. Racism Scandal
The FX series about the fallout from a leaked recording of the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner is extremely entertaining, especially if you are not hoping to learn anything about race.
By Hanif Abdurraqib
On Television
“The Bear” Is Overstuffed and Undercooked
The Hulu series about a Chicago sandwich joint once felt like the best kind of prestige TV—but the new season, like its Michelin-hungry protagonist, has lost sight of what made it great.
By Inkoo Kang
On Television
A Succession Battle Over America’s Largest Ren Faire
A new HBO documentary series follows King George, the eighty-six-year-old overlord of the Texas Renaissance Festival, and the vicious competition to replace him.
By Carrie Battan
The Theatre
The Theatre
“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” Lands on Its Feet
The directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch cross Andrew Lloyd Webber’s juggernaut musical with queer ballroom culture to electrifying effect.
By Helen Shaw
The Theatre
Sandra Oh and a Cast of Downtown All-Stars Illuminate a Period Thriller
The British playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s “The Welkin” exorcises the jury-room drama.
By Helen Shaw
The Theatre
Great Migrations, in Two Plays
Samm-Art Williams’s “Home,” on Broadway, and Shayan Lotfi’s “What Became of Us,” at Atlantic Theatre Company, portray the politics and the emotions of leaving home.
By Vinson Cunningham
The Theatre
Three London Shows Put a New Spin on Old Classics
Superb stagecraft illuminates Robert Icke’s “Player Kings,” Benedict Andrews’s “The Cherry Orchard,” and Ian Rickson’s “London Tide.”
By Helen Shaw
Music
Pop Music
Clairo Believes in Charm as an Aesthetic and Spiritual Principle
The artist discusses her new album, moving upstate, and the wallop and jolt of romantic connection.
By Amanda Petrusich
Pop Music
Ivan Cornejo’s Mexican American Heartache
“Regional Mexican” music is booming, but one young singer is in no mood to celebrate.
By Kelefa Sanneh
Musical Events
Guillaume de Machaut’s Medieval Love Songs
The fourteenth-century composer’s expressions of longing can still leave an audience spellbound.
By Alex Ross
Pop Music
Lizzy McAlpine Wants to Go Offline
The artist, who got famous by going viral, discusses refusing to play the TikTok game with her new record, turning to a life of slowness and privacy, and maybe auditioning for a musical.
By Amanda Petrusich
More in Culture
The Current Cinema
“Sing Sing” Puts a Prison Theatre Program in the Spotlight
Greg Kwedar’s film, starring Colman Domingo and Clarence (Divine Eye) Maclin, brings us deep—though not deep enough—into the process of rehabilitation through art.
By Justin Chang
Goings On
Tadáskía’s Awe-Inspiring Art, at MOMA
Also: Dorrance Dance, “From Here,” Charley Crockett, and more.
The New Yorker Interview
How Lonnie G. Bunch III Is Renovating the “Nation’s Attic”
The Smithsonian’s dynamic leader is dredging up slave ships, fending off culture warriors in Congress, and building two new museums on the National Mall.
By Julian Lucas
The New Yorker Interview
Lena Dunham’s Change of Pace
From her home base in London, the “Girls” creator is working on a new semi-autobiographical TV series and finishing up a memoir. But, she says, “I definitely don’t want to be my own muse.”
By Rachel Syme
The New Yorker Interview
Ira Glass Hears It All
Three decades into “This American Life,” the host thinks the show is doing some of its best work yet—even if he’s still jealous of “The Daily.”
By Sarah Larson
The Weekend Essay
The Knotty Death of the Necktie
The pandemic may have brought an end to a flourishing history.
By Adam Gopnik
Cultural Comment
The Kamala Harris Social-Media Blitz Did Not Just Fall Out of a Coconut Tree
The memes, riffs, and fancams represent a vaguely hallucinatory near-consensus that the Vice-President’s time is now.
By Jessica Winter
Goings On
Jackson Arn’s Summer Public-Art Picks
Alfresco works by Huma Bhabha, Suchitra Mattai, and Cj Hendry.