This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
In today’s reading list, spend time with our writers’ takes on some of the buzziest movies of the past year.
How to Lose an Oscar in 10 Days
The star of the year’s most nominated film torpedoed her chance to win the trophy—in audacious fashion.
By Shirley Li
Is Anyone Shocked by Babygirl?
Don’t turn to Nicole Kidman for a frank accounting of what sexual domination looks like.
By Caitlin Flanagan
The Oscars Have Left the Mainstream Moviegoer Behind
The Academy found its nominees on the international film-festival circuit, not at the movie theater.
By David Sims
The Movie That Mattered Most in 2024
Blink Twice anticipated the culture shift that defined the year.
By Sophie Gilbert
The Failed Promise of the New Captain America
The first intriguing Marvel sequel in years quickly wastes its potential.
By David Sims
A Horror Movie About an Atheist Who Won’t Shut Up
The hollowness at the center of Heretic
By McKay Coppins
The Film That Rips the Hollywood Comeback Narrative Apart
The Substance is one of several recent movies that scrutinize older female performers’ struggle to stay relevant.
By Shirley Li
The Week Ahead
- The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien (streaming tonight on Hulu)
-
Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s new sci-fi-comedy film about a disposable space worker who dies and regenerates to help colonize an ice world (in theaters Friday)
-
Daredevil: Born Again, a Marvel action series about a blind lawyer who fights crime (out Tuesday)
Essay
Grad School Is in Trouble
By Ian Bogost
Jennie Bromberg was somehow still exuberant last weekend about her future career in public health. In January, she interviewed for a competitive Ph.D. program in epidemiology at the University of Washington, one of several to which she has applied. “I loved them. It was amazing,” she told me by phone while on a walk with her Australian shepherd. But the email that arrived from UW shortly after she got home was not the acceptance letter that she’d hoped for. Nor was it even a rejection. Instead, it said that she’d been placed in grad-school purgatory.
More in Culture
- Here’s who will win at the 2025 Oscars—and who should win.
- There was never a movie star like Gene Hackman.
- America now has a minister of culture.
- Six older books that deserve to be popular today
- Goodbye to baseball’s most anachronistic rule.
Catch Up on The Atlantic
- Did Russia invade Ukraine? Is Putin a dictator? We asked every Republican member of Congress.
- Why MAGA likes Andrew Tate
- The Putinization of America
Photo Album
Take a look at the winning entries in this year’s Underwater Photographer of the Year contest.
The post Seven Stories About Buzzy New Movies appeared first on The Atlantic.
