Books & Culture

If the world seems to waste our time, it’s partly because we view time itself as a resource to be extracted and optimized.

And no one’s the wiser.

There is nothing that speaks more to our perma-tabloid social environment than the advent of the live stream, which has allowed ordinary people to become both the celebrity and the paparazzi of their own lives.

Rummaging through the classics.

Maybe there’s still hope for a new morning, for clouds that cluster like ripe grapes which, when squeezed, will release from the heavens the sweet streams of enchanted days.

In “Triage,” the writer explores how we should respond—or, perhaps, not respond—to a world in crisis.

The Larry McMurtry novel is back in rotation; we asked our critics what book to pick up next.

The writer’s political ideal—citizens appearing before one another as equals, engaging in dialogue and debate—had a counterpart in her spirited gatherings on the Upper West Side.

Dave Green’s film about Wile E. Coyote’s quest for compensation sounds a note of zany triumph, having escaped, Road Runner-like, Warner’s attempt to cancel it.

A young auto racer brings speed and passion to small-town life in an unsung American auteur’s latest work.

The protagonists of two films, an Anthony Bourdain bio-pic and a drama about a neglected poet, find themselves struggling with their writerly destinies.

The kerfuffle over Christopher Nolan’s fidelity to Homer’s Odyssey reflects major questions in the history of cinema.

Somssi, from a veteran of the restaurant group behind Atomix, knows how to reel you in without trying too hard.

Sanwits, in the old Rowdy Rooster flagship spot, serves a glorious mashup of American sandwich styles and frank Filipino flavors.

Zoli, which now anchors the sprawling East Williamsburg art space Amant, earns its experimental flourishes by delivering pleasure at every turn.

How a nutritional trend brought bathroom talk into the realm of food culture.

Season 3 of the “Game of Thrones” prequel ends with yet more bloodshed—and less of the charm that’s made Westeros worth visiting.

The director’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s metafictional thriller-slash-gay-awakening story is a “Glee”-ified version of its source material.

Elizabeth Meriwether’s new series, which follows a female killer seeking vengeance against a network of abusers, is brutal, nuanced, and, at times, surprisingly funny.

The new adaptation, though visually exquisite, swaps the story’s much-loved comfort for dutiful tedium.

The actor on meeting Stephen Sondheim, staging “Godspell” for the Pope, and the thrill, in the new Anthony Bourdain bio-pic, of playing someone “good.”

Her eponymous one-woman show was the seed of her Hollywood stardom, which a new revival now frames as the source of something matrilineal, passed down to two generations of Black actresses.

The “S.N.L.” cast member partners with Liva Pierce in a musical revue about best friends with bad jobs and no girlfriends.

The plays explore interpersonal rifts over Israel, but only one lets the ugliness linger.

The Grammy-winning singer talks about “Hazel Eyes,” which marks a departure for them: these love songs are very much requited.

The 1997 album marked a crossroads for hip-hop, as the genre was being torn between elaborate mythmaking and a kind of true crime.

The 2013 Daft Punk track was uncannily evocative of the late nineteen-seventies, when I was young and dancing was my creed.

Both as a young busker and as a famous singer-songwriter, Hansard understood how to make people stop and listen and feel one single thing.