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Rachel Handler

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Rachel Handler is a features writer at Vulture and New York Magazine who covers movies, TV, music, pop culture, and bucatini. She was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2020.

  1. the vulture transcript
    ‘We’re All Going to Die, and I Think About It a Lot’His Three Daughters star Elizabeth Olsen on why she keeps doing movies about grief and dying and why she’s decided, “Marvel, done.”
  2. emergency discussion
    We Have Urgent Questions About the Unholy Provenance of Netflix’s Hot FrostyWho built this ripped, anatomically graphic snowman? Is there a world of snowmen offscreen waiting to be turned into sex objects for widows?
  3. profile
    Trust the Kieran Culkin ProcessFirst, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
  4. a long talk
    A Night Out With the Strippers of Sean Baker’s AnoraThe breakout stars reflect on making it in Hollywood “not in spite of being a sex worker but because of it.”
  5. cannes 2024
    The Substance Is Disgusting, Twisted, and Instantly DivisiveThe graphic body-horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley is lighting up debate at Cannes.
  6. pop culture syllabus
    Welcome to New MILF Cinema2024 is the year of onscreen moms climbing atop a youthful stud and running off into the sunset.
  7. vulture investigates
    Was Josh Hartnett a Millennial Gay Stepping-Stone? An Investigation.In Happiest Season, Clea DuVall shouts out to Hartnett, who perhaps unintentionally helped millions* of young women along on their queer journeys.
  8. role call
    Helen Hunt Answers Every Question We Have About TwisterThe actress on performing with Bill Paxton, what it was like to be temporarily blinded on set, and what her future with the franchise looks like.
  9. encounter
    June Squibb Made ItShe yelled at Woody Allen in her 60s, earned an Oscar nod in her 80s, and at 94, has her first starring role.
  10. venice 2023
    Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border Is an Urgent Warning“I never had such a strong experience with audience reaction like I did with this film.”
  11. cannes 2024
    The 12 Best Movies We Saw at Cannes This YearA Brighton Beach stripper saga, an absurdist Canadian satire, a body-horror fable, and all the movies we’ll be yelling about in the months to come.
  12. cannes 2024
    Judith Godrèche Breaks Open France’s Moi Aussi Movement at Cannes“They wish I would fall, I’d make a mistake. Once you are someone who is a whistleblower about sexual violence, you need to be perfect.”
  13. cannes 2024
    Yorgos Lanthimos and Jesse Plemmons Love Their Filmmaking CultAnd their new movie Kinds of Kindness, an anthology of abject debasement starring fellow cult members Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe.
  14. cannes 2024
    Emilia Pérez Is the Breakout Movie of Cannes 2024Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón on making the Jacques Audiard film that’s taking this year’s festival by storm.
  15. cannes 2024
    Franz Rogowski Explains Bird’s ‘Fantasy of a Naked Man Standing on a Skyscraper’The actor sat down at Cannes to talk nude spas, fame, and his dreamlike character in Andrea Arnold’s new film.
  16. cannes 2024
    Nicolas Cage Is at His Maniacal Best In The SurferThe sunburnt thriller-comedy, which premiered at a midnight screening at Cannes, also birthed a new Cage catchphrase.
  17. cannes 2024
    What Even Is Megalopolis?What’s going on with the guy who stands up in the audience and talks to the screen? Is Francis Ford Coppola broke now? And many other questions.
  18. cannes 2024
    Anya Taylor-Joy Says It ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense How Safe Furiosa Was’“Every day we all wake up, especially George, with the reality that we could injure or kill somebody,” said the film’s producer at Cannes.
  19. cannes 2024
    Everything You Need to Know About Young(er) Furiosa in FuriosaAfter director George Miller, teen actor Alyla Browne received the loudest applause at the movie’s Cannes premiere.
  20. cannes 2024
    What If Meryl Streep and Juliette Binoche Held Each Other and Wept in France?“You make me want to love again. To feel the need. To lose control. To become obsessed.”
  21. cannes 2024
    Greta Gerwig’s Cannes Jury Faces Tense Questions on Opening DayAbout France’s fledgling Me Too movement, a seasonal-workers’ strike, and the horrific conditions in Gaza.
  22. cannes 2024
    What’s at Cannes? Furiosa, Francis Ford Coppola, Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump.This year’s Cannes Film Festival is filled with big-name auteurs, big-name stars, and visions of doom.
  23. starburned and unkissed
    Caroline Polachek Explains Her ‘Straight-Up Grunge’ Moment“Starburned and Unkissed,” Polachek’s song for the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack, was inspired by Kurt Cobain and “temporary celibacy.”
  24. a long talk
    ‘Making a Movie About Religion Feels Dangerous Right Now’Ethan and Maya Hawke discuss closet Christians, American sins, and making a film about faith.
  25. i can clean him
    Let Josh O’Connor Be Extremely Filthy in EverythingIf cleanliness is godliness, the Challengers star’s dirtiness is perfectly profane.
  26. babs appétit
    Everything Barbra Streisand Eats in Her 970-Page MemoirFrom peas with sugar to burgers with Brando to guggle-muggle.
  27. look what you made them do
    ‘It Made Me Believe That Love Wasn’t Real Anymore. And I Puked.’Swifties on Cornelia Street took the Joe Alwyn breakup news as well as you’d expect.
  28. ireland innocent
    Irish Wish Is a Crypto-Fascist, AI-Generated Harbinger of DoomNetflix’s latest Lindsay Lohan vehicle is cluttered with right-wing dog whistles and ChatGPT-like dialogue.
  29. once upon a time in hollywood
    ‘I Thought Oppenheimer Was Mediocre’What I saw, overheard, and swallowed behind the scenes at the 2024 Oscars.
  30. a long talk
    ‘We Suck. And We Know It. So We Keep Trying.’Best Actress Oscar Winner Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos explain what makes collaborations like Poor Things work so well.
  31. the jlowicc
    An Attempt to Make Sense of the Jennifer Lopez Wedding Industrial-Complex CanonThe JLOWICC is a complex universe filled with dead mothers, worried best friends, sad dinners, and machetes.
  32. performance anxiety
    The Crying GameHow do actors learn to sob on cue? And can I? Oprah’s acting coach, a soap star, a famous clown-class graduate, and others explain.
  33. a long talk
    Ex-Lovers Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, ReunitedTwenty years after their breakup, the Taste of Things co-stars laugh, argue, and remember why they fell in love.
  34. poor things
    Emma Stone Has Created One of Cinema’s Most Shamelessly Sexual CharactersHer character in Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest movie is her best role yet, one that is primed to earn her another Oscar nomination.
  35. timmy wéek
    Whither Timothée Chalamet’s Bleu de Chanel Commercial?Like all great mysteries, the case of Martin Scorsese’s conspicuously missing perfume ad begins in ancient Mesopotamia.
  36. a long talk
    Brit Marling Knows WhodunitThe actress and writer of mystical sci-fi like The OA returns with something fleshier: a murder-mystery series.
  37. it follows challenge
    The #ItFollowsChallenge Is Sweeping* the Nation*Not yet, but this will be true, definitely, very soon.
  38. champagne problems
    ‘She Eats, She Pays, She Gets the F– Out’Servers, bartenders, and owners explain what happens when Taylor Swift visits their NYC restaurants.
  39. nyff 2023
    All Your Burning Questions About The Curse, AnsweredWhat the hell is this show? Who’s cursed? And what is going on with Benny Safdie’s wig?
  40. strange way of life
    Pedro Almodóvar Can’t Talk About His New Movie (But It Will Be About Death)The director says he is following up his gay-cowboy short with a mysterious film “about two women in a very intimate situation.”
  41. strange way of life
    ‘Pedro, This Is Like the Cover of Playgirl’An afternoon at Cannes with the young hunks of Pedro Almodóvar’s gay cowboy movie, Strange Way of Life.
  42. best of the fests
    The 14 Best Movies We Saw at Venice and TIFF This YearFall festival season has brought a bounty of awards contenders, star-making performances, and must-see masterpieces.
  43. venice 2023
    The Hitmen, Horny Gals, and Hypermasc Bros of VeniceThis year’s film lineup hinted at a collective unconscious obsessed by performed masculinity, killing people for money, horniness, and Willem Dafoe.
  44. venice 2023
    Sofia Coppola’s Elvis Movie Brings Priscilla Presley to TearsThe subject of the dark, complex biopic called Priscilla “amazing” and reaffirmed that the rock star was the love of her life.
  45. venice 2023
    Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s New Movie Is an Anti-Capitalist Parable With a Shocking EndEvil Does Not Exist is a smaller and simpler movie than Drive My Car, and can best be described as a sort of environmentalist folktale.
  46. venice film festival 2023
    Is There Anything Léa Can’t Seydoux?In her latest film at Venice, The Beast, Seydoux stars in three different genres at once.
  47. venice 2023
    We Are Asking the Wrong Question About Bradley Cooper’s Maestro NoseThe more fun question is: Are noses to Bradley Cooper what feet are to Quentin Tarantino?
  48. venice 2023
    The Vibes Are Off at VeniceBring back the movie stars … before it’s too late.
  49. venice 2023
    Adam Driver Wasn’t Allowed to Actually Drive on the Ferrari SetAt the film’s Venice press conference, Driver also questioned why big companies like Netflix and Amazon can’t meet SAG’s demands.
  50. venice 2023
    What’s at Venice Film Festival? Fast Cars, Fake Noses.And (some) movie stars.
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