Category Culture

 Master and Commander’s box office failure was a harbinger of the cultural decline to come. Credit: Comefilm I like to think that I first saw Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World under near ideal circumstances—ideal…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In December of 2021, Jaswant Singh Chail, a nineteen-year-old in the United Kingdom, told a friend, “I believe my purpose is to assassinate the queen of the royal family.” The friend…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Alex BaraschCulture editor You’re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. Last year,…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyYou’re reading the Food Scene newsletter, Helen Rosner’s guide to what, where, and how to eat. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. Some skepticism is warranted whenever a restaurant has…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story When Britney Jean Spears was sixteen years old, she put on a pleated skirt and channelled an archetype: the schoolgirl, underage temptress. It was a persona Spears wore like a polyester…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story My parents were unhappy immigrants, who made few connections in their new land and lived in an enclosed world of three, which unhappily included me. Family life managed to be cold…

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon says the usual things about America’s racial demons, and says some of them well. Credit: gettyimages/Patricia De Melo Moreira Martin Scorsese in his old age has pulled off a remarkable feat: He has…

Could the pawpaw heal America? Credit: Regnidei America’s edible avant-garde spotlights Appalachia every fall. Though under the radar, the humble pawpaw has become a symbol of the region. Festivals have spread throughout its range. Organizers share the gospel about this…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Woe betide the critic trying to take notes at a screening of “Orlando, My Political Biography.” It would require the stenographic skills of a court reporter to do justice to this…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Poor Ivanka! Just when she thought she was out, they pulled her back in. I am referring, of course, to her recent appearance at the civil fraud trial of her father,…