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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

Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

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.

Read the full article.

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

A diver explores an underwater cave in the Yucatán Peninsula. (Alvaro Herrero [Mekan] / UPY2025)

Take a look at the winning entries in this year’s Underwater Photographer of the Year contest.