ALL OF Napoleon's best moments are about how the brilliant military commander at its focus is a buffoon. The Napoleon Bonaparte of the film, played by Joaquin Phoenix, dozes off with his eyes open while Directory head Paul Barras (Tahar Rahim) tries to talk to him about a matter of political urgency. When Napoleon's gestures at peacemaking are brushed off by a British ambassador, he yelps back, "You think you're so great because you have boats!" Presented with a mummy while on a campaign in Egypt, he climbs onto a crate to get as close as possible to its desiccated face, as though expecting it to whisper advice in his ear. And during a fight with his wife, Joséphine (a wonderfully bemused Vanessa Kirby, who facilitates what have to be the year's most indifferent sex scenes), over her failure to conceive, he describes the changes in his own body by declaring his appetites to be a matter of providence: "Destiny has brought me this lamb chop!" Phoenix is, at five-foot-eight, slightly taller than the man famously portrayed as diminutive, and he is, at 49, disorientingly mature to be playing someone who's around 24 when the film begins, but he is unfalteringly weird in a way that is its own reward.
Denne historien er fra December 4-17, 2023-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra December 4-17, 2023-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
