Cultural Comment
With “143,” Katy Perry Is No Longer in on the Joke
The artist once made songs that were dexterous and funny. Her latest album includes tracks that sound like they should be in the background of a deodorant commercial.
The Disquieting Dogmas Behind Three Cat Controversies
What can be learned from the collisions between pets and politics this election season?
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In “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” Feeding Your Family Comes First
Fifty years on, the film reads like sociology: assembly lines make the working class deranged, technology makes them irrelevant, and unemployment makes them hungry.
“Weird” Is a Rebuke to Republican Dominance Politics
The Democrats’ new favorite attack line has less to do with their opponents’ distance from the norm than with their desired level of control.
How “The Boyfriend” Distills Gay Romance
The Japanese dating show captures friendship, heartbreak, and the perils of having a hot roommate.
Kamala Harris, the Candidate
The Vice-President, who is set to win the Democratic nomination, has graduated from limbo.
The Summer of Girly Pop
This season’s hits have been exuberant and canny, treating femininity as a kind of inside joke.
Are Hollywood’s Jewish Founders Worth Defending?
Jews in the industry called for the Academy Museum to highlight the men who created the movie business. A voice in my head went, Uh-oh.
The Kamala Harris Social-Media Blitz Did Not Just Fall Out of a Coconut Tree
The memes, riffs, and fancams represent a vaguely hallucinatory near-consensus that the Vice-President’s time is now.
The Right Side of Now
Appeals against the war in Gaza are often framed through the lens of the future: “You will regret having been silent.” What about speaking—and feeling—in the present tense?