New Years Resolution

The filmmaker Alexander Payne returns to his home state for Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte as a father and son on a fateful road trip. Kurt Andersen talks with them and scene-stealing co-star June Squibb. We’ll explore the newest-oldest trend in movies: black-and-white. And Ornette Coleman breaks the rules of jazz and sets […]

Kurt Andersen talks with the writer and musician James McBride, whose novel The Good Lord Bird recently won the National Book Award. McBride also brings his gospel quintet into the studio for a live performance. Kate Manning tells the story of one of 19th century New York’s most infamous, and perhaps misunderstood, women. Plus, we’ll […]

The director Julie Taymor walks away from a high-profile flop and into a dream. She tells Kurt Andersen what went wrong on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and how she reinvented A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a new production off-Broadway. We look back on the year in culture: from Beyonc to Miley to Macbeth. And […]

Leonardo DiCaprio talks with Kurt Andersen about how much greed is good — he stars in Martin Scorsese’s new film The Wolf of Wall Street. Ben Stiller brings Walter Mitty’s daydreams to the screen in the feel-good movie of the season. And we revisit the golden age of musical theater productions that never saw the […]

This week, Kurt Andersen talks with Matthew McConaughey, who set out to transform his career with a string of dark, thorny roles. He just won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for his edgy antihero Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club. Plus, a Texas tinkerer believes that he’s uncovered the secret of […]

A stage play riffs on Three’s Company to talk about homophobia and drugs; is it fair use? Not to the copyright holder, who’s trying to block its publication. Kurt Andersen talks with comedian BJ Novak, who made his mark in The Office (as the know-it-all Ryan), and has published a book of sharp short stories […]

For the first time in a decade, Jesus is starring on the big screen, and the creators of Son of God are determined to avoid the bad blood from last time. Producers of the final Hunger…

Kurt Andersen talks with Seth Rogen, whose amiably foul-mouthed man-boy characters have transformed American comedy, about finally writing a decent role for a woman. (Hint: It helps to be married.) And a new study ranks movie critics from harsh to gushy; Kurt asks one of the hatingest critics why so many movies are overrated. Plus, […]

Are young people getting less creative? New research suggests teens’ fiction is a lot less interesting than it was in the 1990s. Performance artists tell what they really think of Shia LaBeouf and James Franco muscling in on their turf. A new trend in stripped-down, minimal motorcycle design harkens back to classic British bikes without […]