The Atlantic3 hours agoThe Grotesque Envy at the Heart of Menverified_publisherThe Atlantic - David SimsWhat on earth is going on in those final scenes? This story contains spoilers for the film Men. Alex Garland’s film Men has a deceptively simple premise: A woman rents a home in the English countryside to recuperate after a personal tragedy but is soon stalked by several residents of the town. The …
The Atlantic1 day agoDon’t Look Away From Philip Guston’s Cartoonish Paintings of Klansmenverified_publisherThe Atlantic - Lily MeyerThe artist’s depictions of bumbling “hoods” lure viewers into considering the proximity of evil. Anybody who has seen one of Philip Guston’s representational paintings knows the rest of them. I mean that in a strictly literal sense: The visual universe that Guston began creating in the late 1960s, …
The Atlantic6 days agoThe Fight to Decouple Sex From Marriageverified_publisherThe Atlantic - Megan GarberSixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown’s best-selling book promised women sexual freedom. Today, it reads like an omen. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. In …
The Atlantic1 day agoWhat Hacks Understands About the Myth of Self-Bettermentverified_publisherThe Atlantic - Shirley LiThe HBO Max show’s second season is refreshingly free of easy epiphanies and life lessons. Deborah Vance, the caustic stand-up played by Jean Smart in HBO Max’s Hacks, likes to live large. Take her new ride, for instance: It’s a gussied-up tour bus with her initials emblazoned in hot pink on the …
The Atlantic2 days agoWhat Kate McKinnon Gave to Saturday Night Liveverified_publisherThe Atlantic - Amanda WicksOf the show’s big cast departures, this one will hurt the most. From Kate McKinnon’s first sketch on Saturday Night Live, in 2012, it was evident she’d be a star. Appearing in a Pantene commercial as Penélope Cruz, alongside then-host Sofía Vergara, McKinnon delivered Cruz’s Castilian Spanish accent …
The Atlantic2 days agoThe Book That Said the Words I Couldn’t Sayverified_publisherThe Atlantic - Lauren LeBlancAs a teen, I didn’t always know how to express myself. A now-forgotten novel helped me find my voice. Coming of age in the early 1990s, I was part of the last cohort of teenagers to grow up without ubiquitous internet. We had pen pals and zines, but mostly we had one another. Girlhood was a time of …
