July 20, 2020 Issue
“Palm Springs” and the Comedy of Eternity Following in the footsteps of “Groundhog Day,” Max Barbakow’s spirited film turns a wedding into Purgatory, with bumbling speeches and so-so canapés on endless repeat. 6:00 A.M. The Unruly Genius of Joyce Carol Oates In an era that fetishizes form, Oates has become America’s preëminent fiction writer by doing everything you’re not supposed to do. June 29, 2020 Michaela Coel’s Chaos and Charisma in “I May Destroy You” The HBO series about the aftermath of sexual assault is a hangout vehicle, a detective story, and a comic bildungsroman. June 29, 2020 Musicians and Composers Respond to a Chaotic Moment The pandemic and the protests inspire works of lamentation and rage. June 29, 2020 What Happens When David Mitchell Writes a Rock Novel? A conventional story of a band’s rise turns into a book on another plane entirely. June 29, 2020 Briefly Noted Book Reviews “Humankind,” “Scandinavian Noir,” “Blue Ticket,” and “Seeing the Body.” June 29, 2020 A Cynical View of Heartland Politics in “Irresistible” Is Jon Stewart’s new comedy a sendup of big-time political operatives or of small-town America? June 26, 2020 Briefly Noted Book Reviews “Death in Her Hands,” “The Taste of Sugar,” “Prophetic City,” and “The Price of Peace.” June 22, 2020 The Lockdown Lessons of “Crime and Punishment” A college class weathering the pandemic finds Dostoyevsky’s savage inwardness and apocalyptic feverishness uncomfortably resonant. June 22, 2020 Frank Kameny’s Orderly, Square Gay-Rights Activism An astronomer for the Army Map Service was an unlikely, but crucial, combatant for erotic freedom. June 22, 2020