Baby Driver Is a Tribute to the Magic of the Earbud
Edgar Wright’s car-chase caper explores the wonders—and the dangers—of everyone having their own soundtrack.
-
![]()
Carlos Barria / Reuters Stephen Florida Reveals the Dark Toll of Athletic Greatness
Gabe Habash’s impressive debut novel delves into the mind of a college wrestler determined to win a championship no matter the cost.
-
![]()
Sony / TriStar Baby Driver Is a Rare Heist Movie With a Heart
Edgar Wright’s latest film is easy to dismiss as an exercise in style, but he’s both paying homage to, and subverting, the morality of the getaway driver.
-
![]()
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters What Does 'Community' Mean?
The term’s evolution makes a nice metaphor for the rise of American individualism—and the decline of trust in American institutions.
-
![]()
Sergey Uryadnikov / Shutterstock When Hatred Is a Joke
On Sunday, the president posted a video making light of violence. The move was both highly unusual and completely at home in this turbulent political moment.
-
![]()
Amr Nabil / AP The Story of a Revolution, Told in Real Time
Omar Robert Hamilton’s debut novel, The City Always Wins, follows members of an activist media collective chronicling the aftermath of the Egyptian uprising.
-
![]()
Nintendo Coming of Age With The Legend of Zelda
The franchise’s evolving complexity, its young protagonists, and its accessibility make it a particularly apt reflection of entering adulthood.
-
![]()
Dita Alangkara / AP Serena Williams and Okja: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing
Highlights from seven days of reading about arts and entertainment
-
![]()
Wilson Webb / Sony / TriStar The Atlantic's Week in Culture
A roundup of our recent writing on arts and entertainment
-
![]()
AP / Gerald Herbert Jay-Z's Pitch for Generational Wealth
His new album 4:44 has a confessional thread, but it pushes a deeper message about commerce and racial progress.
-
Poem of the Week: ‘Darling’ by Naomi Shihab Nye
In 1966, at the age of fourteen, Palestinian-American writer Naomi Shihab Nye moved from Missouri to the West Bank with…
-
![]()
Joan Marcus The Vital Role of Political Theater
Diane Paulus, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Robert Schenkkan discuss how the Public Theater’s recent production of Julius Caesar fits into a grand artistic tradition.
-
![]()
Gunpowder & Sky The Little Hours Is an Alt-Comedy Gone Medieval
Jeff Baena’s new film juxtaposes foul-mouthed 21st-century humor with bawdy tales from the Middle Ages.
-
![]()
Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters The Perils of Meritocracy
It’s one of the most loved ideas in American life. Perhaps, though, it should be one of the most resented.
-
![]()
Lucas Jackson / Reuters Hamilton's Peaceful Protest
The show’s producer, Jeffrey Seller, explains how its November statement to Vice President-elect Mike Pence came about.
-
![]()
Warner Bros. Will Ferrell Needs to Be Weird Again
Films like The House, which cast the actor as a frustrated suburban everyman, are a waste of his unique comic talents.
-
![]()
Nathan Congleton / MSNBC Mika Brzezinski and Donald Trump's Penchant for Blood Feuds
American pop culture has worked to normalize women’s bleeding. The American president has missed that memo.
-
![]()
Riccardo Savi / Aspen Institute The Power of Art That Makes You Pause
Culture can change the world, the art historian Sarah Lewis and the architect Michael Murphy argue, if it can get people to slow down.
-
![]()
NRK The Norwegian Teen-Drama Series Loved Around the World
Set for an English-language remake, the recently ended Skam was a wildly popular web show about Oslo high-schoolers that resonated for its realism.
-
![]()
C2 Photography How Activism Can Advocate for Art
Lil Buck and Jon Boogz use their performances to get people to reconsider what movement can do.
-
![]()
ABC The Bachelorette Reveals Itself for What It Is
The show, this season, with exploitative plotlines that treat racism as entertainment, is becoming harder and harder to defend.
