Critics at Large Live: “I Need a Critic!”

On this episode of Critics at Large, recorded live at the twenty-seventh annual New Yorker Festival, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz bring their advice series to the stage for the first time. They advise on a range of topics, including films to introduce children to the magic of movies, art to rekindle a feminist spark, and whether trying to optimize one’s inner life can diminish the capacity for genuine taste.

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:

“Gangs of New York” (2002)

“West Side Story” (1961)

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000)

“Casablanca” (1942)

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)

“Playtime” (1967)

“Duck Soup” (1933)

“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)

“Spirited Away” (2001)

The music video for Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time (youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc)”

The music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller (youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA)”

“War and Peace (amazon.com/dp/1400079985/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=13…),” by Leo Tolstoy

“Plays: The Seagull; Uncle Vanya; Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard (amazon.com/dp/0140447334/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EA8P…),” by Anton Chekov

“The Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979 (amazon.ca/dp/0374539154),” by Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell

“The Black Outside (amazon.ca/dp/1478039833/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3N2GW5…),” by Joy Priest

“Pricks in the Tapestry (amazon.ca/dp/0982617720),” by Jameson Fitzpatrick

“The Morning of the Poem (amazon.com/dp/0374213089?lv=shuf&channelId…),” by James Schuyler

“Mommie Dearest” (1981)

Hole’s “Live Through This”

“Women Talking (amazon.com/dp/163557434X/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=13…),” by Miriam Toews

“Women Talking” (2022)

“How to Say Babylon: A Memoir (amazon.ca/dp/B0BHTL8PQX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MXSC67…),” by Safiya Sinclair

“The Substance” (2024)

“Big Swiss (amazon.ca/dp/B09WT7RGNZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=293K1O…),” by Jen Beagin

“Oreo (amazon.ca/dp/0811223221/ref=sr_1_2?crid=14Q201…),” by Fran Ross

“Life Itself! (amazon.ca/Life-Itself-Elaine-Dundy/dp/18604955…),” by Elaine Dundy

“Eureka Day (amazon.com/dp/B0GTTV9N7S?lv=shuf&channelId…),” by Jonathan Spector

“amazon.com/Middlemarch-Penguin-Classics-George… by George Eliot

“Pride and Prejudice (amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Jane-Austen/dp/0141…),” by Jane Austen

“Looking for Mr. Goodbar (amazon.com/Looking-Mr-Goodbar-Judith-Rossner-e…),” by Judith Rossner

“The Vanishing Half …