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Close Reads

  1. close reads
    Is Tom Ripley Gay?The question has challenged every adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s book, including the latest — and best — from Steven Zaillian.
    By Mark Harris
  2. love is blind club
    Clay’s Parents Are Love Is Blind at Its BestThe season six finale gives us something much rarer than shock or emotion: legitimate insight.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  3. love is blind club
    Is This What Heterosexuality Is?Unpacking the subtext of Chelsea and Jimmy’s wine-bars-and-breweries clash.
    By Jason P. Frank
  4. award szn
    Who Was Up to What at the Oscar Nominees Lunch?When did Sterling K. Brown and Diane Warren become besties?
    By Jason P. Frank
  5. books
    Sarah J. Maas Is the Mortal Queen of Faerie SmutHer massively popular series, including “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” mix fantasy lore with soft-core romance — and a whole lot of trauma.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  6. close read
    This Image Is ImportantKillers of the Flower Moon’s most famous image — the subject of a whole meme life cycle — carries surprising weight in the context of the film.
    By Siddhant Adlakha
  7. close read
    Rap Sh!t Hits the ‘Seduce and Scheme’ CeilingIn season two, Shawna and Mia’s anthem transformed from a symbol of empowerment to one of limitation.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  8. timmy wéek
    Timothée Chalamet Has Been Playing Great Bad Boyfriends Since HomelandHis performance as Finn Walden was a sign of roles to come.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  9. feuds
    What’s Going On in This Vicious Kardashian Phone Call?You know you’re watching kwality reality TV when an on-camera feud ends with one sister calling the other a [bleep] witch.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  10. close reads
    A Horror Fan’s Guide to the Ever-Expanding Conjuring UniverseThe Nun II marks the ninth movie in the Patrick Wilson–Vera Farmiga series. Here’s how they all connect.
    By Jordan Crucchiola
  11. unfortunately close reads
    Travis Scott’s Utopia Is Full of Unserious Lyrics“I’m loyal, bitch / I got Ye over Biden,” etc.
    By Zoe Guy
  12. close reads
    The Winners and Losers of Prince Harry’s SpareWinner: Stewie.
    By Devon Ivie
  13. close reads
    Holy Spider’s Ending Uncovers a Tangled Web of MisogynyHoly Spider is at its most precise and upsetting in the film’s final scene.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  14. year in culture 2022
    This Year’s TV Female Friendships Were KillerIn their final seasons, Dead to Me and Kevin Can F*** Himself made misandry look a lot like love.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  15. close reads
    Carol Is Not the Romance of Your MemesTodd Haynes’s drama gets embraced online in a manner that doesn’t jibe with the nature of its story.
    By Frankie de la Cretaz
  16. close reads
    Misreading Octavia ButlerThe slavery interpretation the author couldn’t escape.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  17. close reads
    Netflix’s Falling for Christmas Is a Dante’s Inferno-esque AllegoryIt’s the only reading of the film and its title that makes any sense.
    By Rachel Handler
  18. close reads
    The Velveteen Rabbit Was Always More Than a Children’s BookWritten for her daughter, Margery Williams Bianco’s hundred-year-old story is a memorial to what we all lose in exchange for adulthood.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  19. close reads
    Baz Luhrmann’s Tortured ArtistsElvis makes a point about exploited artists that Luhrmann first approached in Moulin Rouge!
    By Roxana Hadadi
  20. close reads
    Natalie Portman Put on a Cape for This?Thor: Love and Thunder lets down Jane Foster, who never makes it past a catchphrase in her return to the MCU.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  21. close reads
    The Best Scene in Heat Just Isn’t the Same Without These TwoIf you ever wanted to see what one of the most iconic scenes in film history would look like with, well, two other guys, now’s your chance.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  22. book review
    Ottessa Moshfegh Is Praying for UsThe author has been hailed as a high priestess of filth. Really, she wants to purify her readers.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  23. close reads
    E.T. and Close Encounters Told the Same Sad Story From Different EyesLooked at one way, they’re companion pieces: One tells the story of a father who leaves, and the other stays with the family he left behind.
    By A.A. Dowd
  24. close reads
    Outer Range Goes Off the Rails in the Best WayThe show’s closing stretch leans into its weirdo instincts, illuminating something interesting and true about the American West.
    By Nicholas Quah
  25. all the pieces matter
    We Own This City Asks Us to Look BackwardWhile David Simon and George Pelecanos’s new series has plenty to say on its own, considering it as a sequel to The Wire enriches the experience.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  26. close reads
    Let’s Unpack That Diabolical Incest Scene in The NorthmanA prince creates an unalterable image of his mother and takes it with him into her bedchamber — where she destroys it.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  27. exit review
    Black-ish Was No Televised RevolutionThe show always aimed for the third rail, but it played it safe more often than not.
    By Craig Jenkins
  28. album review
    Syd’s New Love StoryThe singer-producer’s latest album, Broken Hearts Club, sheds the hedonistic visions of her earlier work.
    By Tirhakah Love
  29. close reads
    Bridgerton Needs to Decide Whose World It’s Living InThe Netflix series fashions itself as a Regency theme park, but its historical fantasy is built on shaky ground.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  30. close reads
    An Ode to Drive to Survive’s Saddest ManThe perennial loser of Netflix’s F1 series, Guenther Steiner faces new troubles in the latest season that nod to the sport’s dark underbelly.
    By Nicholas Quah
  31. endings
    Pam & Tommy’s Misplaced ForgivenessIn giving unearned absolution to Rand Gauthier, the miniseries also provides it for itself.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  32. trends
    The Limits of the Women’s Redemption PlotYou know the story: A previously maligned public figure gets an eight-episode empathy tour.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  33. the other ava
    A Plea to Abbott Elementary: Let Ava Stay TerribleJanelle James’s scene-stealing principal gives the breakout comedy a hard edge that doesn’t need to be softened.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  34. parallel story lines
    Attack on Titan Echoes Game of Thrones’ Death RattleThe controversial anime’s final season rings “The Bells.”
    By Eric Vilas-Boas
  35. close reads
    Euphoria Found Its Focus, and It Was GoodIt was also excruciating, but that’s the point.
    By Jen Chaney
  36. close reads
    The Fundamental Flaw in And Just Like That …Sex and the City made life over 30 look fun. And Just Like That … makes life over 50 seem confusing and sad.
    By Jen Chaney
  37. close reads
    Trinity Valley Deserved Better From CheerThe scrappy team with the gigantic chip on their shoulders and a simmering dislike of Navarro should have been season two’s central focus.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  38. endings
    The Yellowjackets Finale Gave Us All It Needed to GiveNot all mystery-box shows are built to sustain the speculation and scrutiny they invite, but this one has laid a strong foundation.
    By Jen Chaney
  39. close reads
    Search Party’s Millennial Horror Was Always Going to End This WayAt its end, a series that’s always been defined by fear turns the subtext into the whole damn text.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  40. close reads
    Eternals Is Just the Plot of Steven Universe But BadLet’s talk about Celestials and gem clusters.
    By Rebecca Alter
  41. reboots
    The Wonder Years Is Exactly What a Good Reboot Should BeThis week’s “Brad Mitzvah” episode is a great example of how a show can honor its predecessor while charting its own course.
    By Jen Chaney
  42. close reads
    Hanya’s BoysThe novelist tends to torture her gay male characters — but only so she can swoop in to save them.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  43. meta analysis
    2021 Was the Year of Too Much MetaverseWhen everything is a part of something else and nothing ever ends, it all feels so much cheaper.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  44. close reads
    Station Eleven Finds the Sublime in the ApocalypseThis pandemic story’s winter 2021 debut seems almost perfectly wrongly timed, but that’s precisely what makes it so perversely satisfying.
    By Hillary Kelly
  45. close reads
    The Elves Just Can’t Catch a BreakFrom The Lord of the Rings through The Witcher, fantasy has long positioned elves as victims of humanity’s selfishness.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  46. close reads
    Succession’s Sincerity ConundrumIn a world where caring for another person might mean harming your own interests, does love between the Roys matter?
    By Roxana Hadadi
  47. it was tom-atha all along
    Tom Wambsgans Finally Becomes a Real Person, InvolvedThe Roy family’s biggest outsider has turned his chief weakness to his advantage.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  48. hello & goodbye
    The Arrivals and Departures of And Just Like That …Farewell to those who were written out of the Sex and the City revival series, and hello to those who have arrived to fill their places.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  49. close reads
    That Succession Moment Is About a Lot More Than Roman’s ‘Item’Once you manage to stop cringing, there’s a lot to unpack here.
    By Jen Chaney
  50. close reads
    What Is the Allure of Kendall Roy?Succession’s would-be No. 1 boy is a deeply broken soul, and the sympathy he inspires is anything but simple.
    By Jack King
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