The history of a Britney Spears masterpiece
Books and ArtsBlackout laid the foundation for the EDM revolution, Lady Gaga’s self-referential debut album and the rest of the past fifteen years of pop
Culture
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
Taking in Good Night, Oscar and New York, New York
Books and ArtsGood Night, Oscar takes us back to a time when, for better or worse, both foibles and felonies were targets for humor
What the Old Masters can teach us about contemporary life
Books and ArtsIn many of their most enduring images, the Old Masters did not shy away from asking ‘Why?’ in the face of suffering and trauma
The surreal life of Leonora Carrington
Books and ArtsThe artist and writer’s life is the story of the twentieth century in microcosm
June 17, 2023
To honor Cormac McCarthy, release the Thornton Cut
Billy Bob Thornton still has his cut of All The Pretty Horses . It’s time the world got to see it
June 15, 2023
The Flash and the downside of hype
This is not an isolated example of hype over achievement
June 14, 2023
Pat Sajak’s next big spin
He will likely focus his retirement on promoting Hillsdale College, where he’s board chairman
June 13, 2023
The Sign in Sidney Brunstein’s Window is never comfortable
The play deals with so many hot-button issues it is hard to keep up
June 10, 2023
Georgia O’Keeffe wants you to take your time
The new exhibition at MoMA relies on viewers being willing to hone in on detail
June 8, 2023
The expendable Expendables: how has Hollywood’s least essential franchise persisted?
It is unclear who the target audience of these desperately unnecessary films is
June 7, 2023
I’m a forty-year-old male Swiftie. No, I’m not ashamed
Taylor Swift is the finest tune crafter of the last generation — maybe even the last two
June 5, 2023
Can Armie Hammer stage a comeback?
The LA County DA’s office said he will not be charged with any crimes
Taylor Swift dumps British man, again
1975 singer and controversial podcast guest Matty Healy has been cast onto the slag heap
June 4, 2023
The Idol and the art of smut
Sam Levinson knows he’s not an academic or intellectual
June 3, 2023
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dodges all the MCU virtue-signaling
The animated Sony sequel is darker, but nonetheless a Marvel to behold
Opening a bottle with: the French co-founders of Lisbon’s MOGA Festival
It’s a five-day celebration of world-class electronic music, elevated fast food, wellness and the plugged-in local community
June 2, 2023
Tears of the Kingdom is the unifier America needs
Gaming has long been a battlefield in the raging culture war, but not with the new Zelda
Bama Rush fails as anti-Greek life propaganda
Lacking a decent angle, the director uses herself as filler
June 1, 2023
What Succession got right about Rupert Murdoch
Andrew Neil on how, like Logan Roy, Murdoch runs his company ‘like a king’
May 29, 2023
Succession gets the satisfying finale it deserves
The Roys bow out in style
May 25, 2023
Tina Turner was greater than a rock star
She was something much more universal: a survivor
Aaron Sorkin’s new Camelot has nothing to say
Scenes are rushed and hidden — and in the end, the musical is empty
May 24, 2023
Poet laureate can’t define a ‘ban’
Amanda Gorman’s poem got moved from the elementary-school section of a library to a middle-school one
Mrs. Davis makes getting off grid seriously tempting
The show is a prophetic a warning about AI and the pervasiveness of the internet
May 23, 2023
Rock ’n’ roll Dolly Parton’s political wake-up call
Her new song is more fire and brimstone than climate anthem
What Succession gets wrong about politics
The show’s election night was gripping and realistic. Everything that follows is a hot mess
Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra girlbosses against historical fact
Watching it felt alarmingly like witnessing the death of scholarship
May 21, 2023
Bringing back Stephen Sondheim and enduring a new Andrew Lloyd Webber
Books and ArtsBad Cinderella is a pumpkin, while Parade becomes an exercise in emotional torture porn
How Madonna turned pop culture Catholic
Books and ArtsOn the fortieth anniversary of her debut album, Madonna remains a good Catholic girl at heart