Critic’s Notebook
The Banal Provocation of Sydney Sweeney’s Jeans
The American Eagle campaign, with its presentation of Americana as a zombie slop of mustangs, denim, and good genes, is lowest-common-denominator stuff.
A Sensualist’s History of Gay Marriage and Immigration
In a new book, “Deep House,” the author Jeremy Atherton Lin combines memoir and cultural history to expose the varied border crossings involved in same-sex love past and present.
How Rembrandt Saw Esther
What the queen means to Jewish tradition and to resisting tyranny and persecution—in the seventeenth century and today.
What Do Commercials About A.I. Really Promise?
If human workers don’t have to read, write, or even think, it’s unclear what’s left for them to do.
The Tragedy of the Diddy Trial
After being acquitted of the charges that would have put him away for life, Sean Combs likely has a plan to work his troubles into a narrative of redemption.
The Rise of the Anti-Cinderella Story
A pair of recent films, Celine Song’s “Materialists” and Sean Baker’s “Anora,” turn the fairy tale on its head, with mixed results.
Play It Again, Charles Burnett
Over the years, the director’s early films have been lost and found, forgotten and celebrated. But what about the work that came after, or that never came to be?
Is “Thunderbolts*” Marvel’s Attempt to Salvage the Superhero Genre?
The film succeeds in part by flipping the franchise’s standard script: the main characters aren’t embarrassed because they’re superheroes; they’re embarrassed because they’re not.
“The Encampments” and the American College Student
In a new documentary about the pro-Palestine demonstrations on Columbia’s campus, students are in an existential battle of both exploiting and shedding their protagonist status.