Category News

A Father-Son Racetrack Rivalry in “Supernova”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Damien and Marc Bettinelli’s film follows the stock-car racers Pierryck and Gaspard Dumont, in France. “Can you pass me the nineteen key?” a man in a garage barks to his companion,…

Cormac McCarthy’s Narrative Wisdom

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In 2008, my wife and I asked a friend to read a passage from Cormac McCarthy at our wedding, in England. We may be the only fools in the world ever…

Recap: The Unscripted 2023 Tony Awards

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story “We don’t have a script, you guys,” Ariana DeBose announced on Sunday night, still sweaty and panting from her wordless opening number at the seventy-sixth annual Tony Awards. DeBose was hosting…

Linda Ronstadt Has Found Another Voice

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story It’s been ten years since Linda Ronstadt, once the most highly paid woman in rock and roll, sang her last concert. In 2013, the world found out why: Parkinson’s disease had…

Robert De Niro Is Always Doing Something

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Robert De Niro is, famously, a man of few words. In the past two years, those words have included “punk,” “dog,” “pig,” “con,” “bullshit artist,” “mutt,” “idiot,” “national disaster,” “embarrassment,” “disgrace,”…

Fran Lebowitz Is Never Leaving New York

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Fran Lebowitz is the patron saint of staying at home and doing nothing. She is famously averse to working, and famously resistant to technology; she has no cell phone or computer.…

Anthony Hopkins Remembers It All

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Sir Anthony Hopkins had his breakthrough film role in 1968, as Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn’s power-hungry son in “The Lion in Winter.” Half a century and many roles later—among them…

Mel Brooks Writes It All Down

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story My grandfather Arthur Motzkin, a first-generation American Jew, liked to tell stories about his unlikely cameos in world history. When George Washington was crossing the Delaware and took a wrong turn,…

Roz Chast’s “Fireworks Megastore”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Even as the debt-ceiling crisis has been averted (for now), and even as we continue to emerge from the pandemic with new life, the smoke from Canadian wildfires that blanketed the…