The Culture

Top Picks: Tony Molina's 'Kill the Lights,' PBS's 'Ancient Invisible Cities,' and more

A new National Geographic video explores the biggest wholesale market in the world, Marvel’s various heroes join together to fight a powerful foe in 'Avengers: Infinity War,' and more top picks.

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Landmark cast, high expectations for 'Crazy Rich Asians'

The film, which opens Aug. 15, is an extreme rarity – the first movie from a major Hollywood studio with Asian-Americans at its center since “The Joy Luck Club” in 1993. According to a study released by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, 4.8 percent of speaking characters in Hollywood films in 2017 were Asian.

First Look Fans, artists advocate against sexual misconduct at festivals

The #MeToo movement has emboldened music fans and artists to voice their concerns about sexual harassment and groping at music festivals. With increased attention but little data on the issue, they are pushing the industry to make real change.
'BlacKkKlansman' tells a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story about the KKK

In the early 1970s, African-American police officer Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) joins the Ku Klux Klan, with fellow officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), who is white and Jewish, impersonating Ron.
‘What Will People Say’ presents a cultural divide with urgency

Nisha (Maria Mozhdah) is a 16-year-old girl who lives on the outskirts of Oslo with her tightknit Pakistani immigrant family until her misbehavior causes her father to take her to live in Pakistan.
Top Picks: John Coltrane's 'Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album,' 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' on Netflix, and more top...

Astronaut Drew Feustel has been posting fun updates via Twitter about plants that fellow astronaut Ricky Arnold has been growing on the International Space Station, director Steven Spielberg helmed the adaptation of Ernest Cline’s bestselling novel 'Ready Player One,' which is available on DVD and Blu-ray, and more top picks.
What are you watching? Readers recommend 'Parks and Recreation,' 'NewsRadio'

Monitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.

What are you watching? Readers recommend 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,' 'Antiques Roadshow'

Monitor TV and movie fans share what they've been watching lately.
First Look Fueled by #MeToo, women get behind the TV camera

Nearly a year after the start of #MeToo, networks are requiring women in the director's chair, studios are running mentoring programs, and actresses are taking on producing roles to ensure more creative control. Still, industry players say Hollywood has a long way to go.
First Look Aretha Franklin stirred America's soul

At a time of rebellion and division in the 1960s, Aretha Franklin's hit records were a musical union of the church and the secular, man and woman, black and white, North and South, East and West. Ms. Franklin's legacy spans a half century and dozens of hits showing her sophisticated and eccentric taste.
In a Word The many ways ‘-ing’ makes a word

A reader recently asked why a building is called a building. The answer has to do with the great variety of functions that '-ing' performs in modern English.
Can ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ help redefine how Hollywood portrays Asians?

Historically, Hollywood has misrepresented Asians. Understanding how offers lessons on more authentically portraying minorities, eventually making movies like ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ expected rather than exceptions.
Notes to my garden denizens

Feeding birds, planting asparagus – even sleeping at night – are hardly routine.
In MoviePass morass, lessons about risks, opportunities of industry change

MoviePass hoped to fundamentally change the moviegoing experience. A series of problems has put the company in jeopardy, but its bold experiment may help disrupt the movie theater industry.