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The New Yorker

Books & Culture

Infinite Scroll

A TikTok Ban Won’t Fix Social Media

You can take the platform away from American users, but it is far too late to contain the habits that it has unleashed.
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The Weekend Essay

The Hidden-Pregnancy Experiment

We are increasingly trading our privacy for a sense of security. Becoming a parent showed me how tempting, and how dangerous, that exchange can be.
Cultural Comment

Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-Comfort Movie

“The Boy and the Heron” finds the filmmaker revising—and sometimes upending—the themes that have defined his career.
Cultural Comment

“Challengers” Is Essentially a Well-Shot Commercial

Because the film has so little to say, viewers are free to simply focus on the vibes—which happen to be the area where Luca Guadagnino, its director, has most distinguished himself.
Infinite Scroll

The Revenge of the Home Page

As social networks become less reliable distributors of the news, consumers of digital journalism are seeking out an older form of online real estate.

Books

Under Review

The Best Books We’ve Read in 2024 So Far

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

Briefly Noted

“Shakespeare’s Sisters,” “Limitarianism,” “Rough Trade,” and “Leaving.”
Books

Claire Messud’s New Novel Maps the Search for a Home That Never Was

“This Strange Eventful History” traces three generations of an itinerant French family with roots in colonial Algeria.
Books

What the Origins of Humanity Can and Can’t Tell Us

There’s still much to be learned about our prehistory. But we can’t help using it to explain the societies we have or to justify the ones we want.

Movies

The Front Row

How Does “Challengers” Make a Love Triangle Feel So Empty?

The fussy structure of Luca Guadagnino’s film dissipates the erotic charge on which the drama relies.
The Current Cinema

The Beautifully Unnerving Gaze of “Evil Does Not Exist”

The Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi follows his Oscar-winning “Drive My Car” with a hauntingly ambiguous drama of nature and capitalism in conflict.
The Front Row

“I Saw the TV Glow” Is a Profound Vision of the Trans Experience

In Jane Schoenbrun’s new feature, two teens search for their true selves through their shared obsession with a horror TV series.
The Front Row

“The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” Is a Deceptively Plain Masterpiece

Joanna Arnow’s new film mines the comic potential of distance and framing, in an examination of degradations large and small.

Food

Photo Booth

When Babies Rule the Dinner Table

In the past two decades, American parents have started to ditch the purées and give babies more choice—and more power—at mealtime. 
Page-Turner

Fifteen Essential Cookbooks

The kitchen guides that New Yorker writers and editors can’t do without.
The Food Scene

The Return, Again, of the Power Lunch

Four Twenty Five, a luxe new dining room from the mega-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten, takes square aim at the expense-account crowd.
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.
Listen to lively debates about the art of the moment.Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts »
Photo Booth

In Justine Kurland’s Photographs, a Mother and Son Hit the Road

Some of the portraits in “This Train” have an Edenic quality to them, as if Kurland is asking: What if my kid and I were the only two people in the world?

Television

On Television

“The Contestant” Is More Than a Cautionary Tale

The new Hulu documentary charts the rise of one of the earliest reality-TV stars and the ethically queasy production choices that cemented his fame—but it’s elevated by its interest in what came afterward.
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.

The Theatre

The Theatre

Three Broadway Shows Put Motherhood in the Spotlight

Paula Vogel’s “Mother Play,” Shaina Taub’s “Suffs,” and Amy Herzog’s “Mary Jane” strike back at the mother-as-monster dramatic trope.
The Theatre

“Stereophonic” and “Cabaret” Turn Up the Volume on Broadway

David Adjmi’s cult-hit play features seventies-inspired rock songs by Will Butler, while Eddie Redmayne presides over a demonic version of the Kit Kat Club.
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.

Music

Pop Music

Dua Lipa Devotes Herself to Pleasure with “Radical Optimism”

In an era of postmodern, self-referential music, there’s something refreshing about the artist’s new album—short songs, big hooks, and a celebration of delight.
Cultural Comment

Why Normal Music Reviews No Longer Make Sense for Taylor Swift

Critics argue that “The Tortured Poets Department” sounds too much like Swift’s previous albums. Fans argue that that’s the whole point.
Pop Music

The Tortured Poetry of Taylor Swift’s New Album

“The Tortured Poets Department” has moments of tenderness. But it suffers from being too long and too familiar.
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.

More in Culture

The New Yorker Documentary

Laughing in the Face of Dying Young, in “Cherry”

The actor Marie-Lise Chouinard faces her terminal-cancer diagnosis with grace and comedy in Laurence Gagné-Frégeau’s short documentary.
Cover Story

Mark Ulriksen’s “Shotime”

For many fans, the real harbinger of spring is the beginning of baseball season.
Postscript

The Indestructible Art of Frank Stella

The artist, who has died at eighty-seven, rattled standards of modernist abstraction rather as Bob Dylan did those of folk music.
Annals of Gastronomy

The English Apple Is Disappearing

As the country loses its local cultivars, an orchard owner and a group of biologists are working to record and map every variety of apple tree they can find in the West of England.
Goings On

Hilton Als on the Sui-Generis Films of Charles Atlas

Also: “Uncle Vanya” and “Staff Meal” reviewed, superstar pianists at Carnegie Hall, and more.
The Art World

The Dead Rise at the Venice Biennale

Stifled by a weird and desperate present, the show finds some life in the treasures of the past.
The Current Cinema

“The Fall Guy” Is Gravity-Defying Fun, in Every Sense

Starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, this action-comedy about a stuntman, by the stuntman turned director David Leitch, sticks its landings, but don’t expect characterization.
Under Review

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
Postscript

Helen Vendler’s Generous Mind

The professor and critic will be remembered for her brilliant books, but teaching brought her genius to the fore.
Culture Desk

An Acclaimed D.J. Who Is Ready to Sing Again

The Welsh artist Elkka made her name with buoyant dance music. Now she’s reintroducing her voice.