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The New Yorker

Books & Culture

Infinite Scroll

The Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher

Byung-Chul Han, in treatises such as “The Burnout Society” and his latest, “The Crisis of Narration,” diagnoses the frenetic aimlessness of the digital age.
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The New Yorker Interview

How to Publish a Magazine in a Maximum-Security Prison

For decades, Wilbert Rideau investigated America’s prison system—from the inside.
Persons of Interest

The Heart of Low

Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s marriage was one of the most extraordinary collaborations in rock. Now, a year and a half after Parker’s death, Sparhawk is back on the road.
Cultural Comment

John Cazale’s Barbaric Squawk

He was Hollywood’s master of the everyday, an actor who looked, felt, and even squealed like one of us.
Infinite Scroll

The Dumbphone Boom Is Real

A burgeoning cottage industry caters to beleaguered smartphone users desperate to escape their screens.

Books

Under Review

Trump’s America, Seen Through the Eyes of Russell Banks

In his last book, “American Spirits,” Banks took stories from the news about rural, working-class life and turned them into fables of national despair.
Under Review

The Best Books We’ve Read in 2024 So Far

Our editors and critics review notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Books

The Poet Who Took It Personally

Delmore Schwartz tried to change poetry, often by putting his own painful life on the page. The cost was that failure felt all the more acute.
Books

Briefly Noted

“The Book of Love,” “What Kingdom,” “Rabbit Heart,” and “On Giving Up.”

Movies

The Front Row

The Rediscovery of a Depression-Era Masterpiece

A new restoration of Frank Borzage’s “Man’s Castle,” starring Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy, showcases the visionary Hollywood director’s lusty yet spiritual artistry.
Culture Desk

Can a Film Star Be Too Good-Looking?

Alain Delon and the problem of beauty.
The Front Row

The Counterculture Counter Culture of Kim’s Video

A new documentary revels in the legend of the downtown rental store and seeks to recover its treasures.
The Front Row

“The People’s Joker” Is an Outlaw Vision of the Superhero Movie

Vera Drew’s D.I.Y. parody of “Joker” has all the wild humor and transgressive freedom of John Waters’s films.

Food

The Food Scene

Mexican-ish Fine Dining, with Detours

Corima offers attention-grabbing tortillas, Japanese flourishes, and an ambitious tasting menu that hasn’t quite found its stride.
On and Off the Menu

In the Kitchen with the Grande Dame of Jewish Cooking

Any home cook who’s hosted a Passover Seder or a Rosh Hashanah dinner has likely consulted a recipe by Joan Nathan.
Tables for Two

Hyper-Telegenic Noodles, at Okiboru House of Udon

The beguilingly wide Himokawa udon noodles at this new East Village spot are already famous, thanks to fervent foodie TikTokers.
The Food Scene

Caribbean Staples Made “Healthy as a Motha”

HAAM, in Williamsburg, veganizes Dominican and Trinidadian food without diminishing it.
Listen to lively debates about the art of the moment.Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts »
Photo Booth

The Unseen Sides of Francesca Woodman

A new show at the Gagosian Gallery showcases the photographer’s tragically abbreviated career, including a never-before-exhibited masterpiece.

Television

On Television

“The Sympathizer” Has an Identity Crisis

The HBO adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel is part espionage thriller, part war drama, and part Hollywood satire—wild genre shifts that come at the expense of its protagonist’s interiority.
On Television

“Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” Is Exhibitionism as Art

Two years after “Rothaniel,” the comedian has committed another moving—and deeply entertaining—act of self-exposure.
On Television

“In the Know,” a Promising Satire of NPR That Never Quite Tunes In

The stop-motion comedy from Zach Woods, Brandon Gardner, and Mike Judge lacks the zingy acuity of its creators’ best work.
On Television

The Dark Delights of a Millennial “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star as spies-for-hire posing as husband and wife—and embody their generation’s emotional and economic malaise.

The Theatre

The Theatre

Ralph Fiennes Sidles His Way Into Power as Macbeth

A hit British production of Shakespeare’s ever-timely tragedy arrives in D.C.
Postscript

Christopher Durang’s Stage Directions for Life

The Tony-winning playwright’s dark, antic satires were many people’s gateway to theatre. I was one of those people.
The Theatre

The Avant-Garde Is Back on the Launchpad

The Wooster Group gives the Richard Foreman play “Symphony of Rats” its signature spins.
The Theatre

“The Who’s Tommy” Plays the Old Pinball

The 1993 musical’s already bizarre story, derived from Pete Townshend’s beautiful 1969 album, is even less clear in Des McAnuff’s reanimation for Broadway.

Music

Pop Music

Olivia Rodrigo’s Relatable Superstardom on the Guts Tour

The pop star appears to revel in pleasure—even when she knows that whatever it is she’s thirsting after will probably get her into trouble.
Pop Music

Vampire Weekend Doesn’t Want Your Defeatist Grousing

The band’s new album, “Only God Was Above Us,” is a treatise on inheritance, decay, generational dissonance, and the delicate idea of choosing optimism.
The New Yorker Radio Hour

Alicia Keys Returns to Her Roots with Her New Musical, “Hell’s Kitchen”

In her musical opening on Broadway, Keys tells a story very much like her own life—but don’t call it autobiographical. Plus, Rhiannon Giddens on the Black roots of country music.
Musical Events

The Escher Quartet and Igor Levit Test Musical Limits

The chamber ensemble played all six of Bartók’s string quartets, and the pianist played devilishly difficult transcriptions of symphonic scores by Mahler and Beethoven.

More in Culture

Secret Ingredients

Secret Ingredients

The New Yorker Documentary

An Iranian Woman Finds Her Might, in “The Smallest Power”

Both the subject and the makers of this animated short discover their identities and a new love of their nation.
Blitt’s Kvetchbook

Trump on Trial: The Defense Rests

But is quickly roused awake!
Cover Story

Ana Juan’s “Clickbait”

The artist captures the mesmerizing—and distracting—glow of modern entertainment.
A Critic at Large

Don’t Believe What They’re Telling You About Misinformation

People may fervently espouse symbolic beliefs, cognitive scientists say, but they don’t treat them the same as factual beliefs. It’s worth keeping track of the difference.
Books

How Stories About Human-Robot Relationships Push Our Buttons

Two new novels, “Annie Bot” and “Loneliness & Company,” reflect anxieties about A.I. coming for our hearts as well as for our jobs.
Page-Turner

When Preachers Were Rock Stars

A classic New Yorker account of the Henry Ward Beecher adultery trial recalls a time in America that seems both incomprehensible and familiar.
The Current Cinema

“Civil War” Presents a Striking but Muddled State of Disunion

Kirsten Dunst plays a war photographer in the trenches of Alex Garland’s speculative dystopian thriller.
Goings On

Alex Garland and Park Chan-wook Reckon with America

Also: the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates its centennial, Method Man & Redman play Terminal 5, “The People’s Joker” parodies the Batman universe, and more.
The Art World

Anni Albers Transformed Weaving, Then Left It Behind

Her textiles are quiet revelations, but even her later prints show how restraint can generate ravishing beauty.