Rachel Handler Author Archive
Give A Gift
MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Rachel Handler

Staff Writer
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
@rachel_handler
[email protected]

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. sundance 2021
    The Indie-Film Pandemic Is Upon UsThe at-home Sundance Film Festival offers up visions of our isolated present, if you can stomach them.
  2. a long talk
    Rose Glass on What’s Real and What’s Imagined in Saint MaudIs this a horror film? The director herself isn’t so sure. But she attempts to explain her unholy film ending anyway.
  3. remember that time
    The Only Cinema I Can Handle Is Zac Efron Prancing in High School Musical 2Nothing captures the futility of the human condition like the cursed artifact that is the “Bet on It” sequence.
  4. cult followings
    Let Ari (Grande) and Ari (Aster) Make Something Weird TogetherThe most depraved creative minds of our time simply must collaborate.
  5. a long talk
    John Patrick Shanley on His Trio of Unhinged Rom-ComsThe playwright and writer-director talks Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Wild Mountain Thyme.
  6. it was complicated
    I Got High and Made Croissants Like Meryl StreepCan a layperson make fancy baked goods high? Or is this a skill bestowed exclusively upon Meryl Streep in Nancy Meyers’s It’s Complicated?
  7. action!
    What’s It Like to Be Directed by Nancy Meyers?Diane Keaton, Steve Martin, Cameron Diaz, Robert De Niro, and more help explain what makes the Nancy Meyers Cinematic Universe tick.
  8. q&a
    Rene Russo Explains the Perfectionism of Nancy Meyers“I’ve never seen a director go in and f–k up, f–k around with the set like she did. I thought, ‘Wow! She is involved in everything!’”
  9. role call
    Miffy Englefield Answers Every Question We Have About The Holiday The actress recalls Mr. Napkin Head, how the movie helped pull her family out of debt, and the last time she heard from Jude Law.
  10. q&a
    Cameron Diaz Remembers Running in Heels Through the Snow for The Holiday“Oh, girl. I was running, like, seven miles a day in heels. That whole scene took a week to shoot. That wasn’t even in the script.”
  11. q&a
    A Kooky Conversation With Nancy Meyers Muse Diane KeatonThe star of Baby Boom, Father of the Bride, and Something’s Gotta Give breaks down the genius of her longtime collaborator.
  12. nmcu
    A Chaotic Taxonomy of the Nancy Meyers Cinematic UniverseOver four-plus decades, the filmmaker has created a very specific visual language. Here is the key.
  13. #stayhome
    Let Nancy Meyers Inspire You to Self-QuarantineSome social-distance-spo from Nancy Meyers: Stay home, make a chocolate croissant, and put it under your face like a beard.
  14. nancy meyers week
    Nancy Meyers Searches for Her Own ComfortFor decades, she’s been the foremost purveyor of onscreen hygge. Now she’s ready to retire it all.
  15. old testament sh*t
    Black Swan Is a Hanukkah MovieAnd I will prove it.
  16. the quarries
    The First (And Dear God, It Better Be the Last) QuarriesIn which we award the most original, absurd, scrappy, and ingenious works that shaped our year in quarantine.
  17. what is the self
    The Princess Switch: Switched Again: Make It Make SenseWe discuss Netflix’s latest Christmas Vanessa Hudgens movie, a taut psychological thriller that explores disturbing ideas about identity and the self.
  18. role call
    Eva Green Answers Every Question We Have About The Dreamers“Even though there were lots of nude scenes, I was desperate to do it. I was like, ‘I don’t care!’”
  19. role call
    Brooke Smith Answers Every Question We Have About The Silence of the Lambs“I know I’ll forever be the girl in the pit. For sure. And I’m okay with that.”
  20. beef
    Why Does Netflix Hate Chicago?Holidate, Emily in Paris, and The Princess Switch all make the city seem like a mall-clogged wasteland of Cubs bars and hats that read “Chicago.”
  21. horny theater kid
    Positions Is Ariana Grande’s Most Theatrically Horny Album YetThe new music is a fantastical fairy-tale journey into Ariana’s depraved mind, her kinky King Lear.
  22. role call
    Muse Watson Answers Every Question We Have About I Know What You Did Last SummerThe career character actor on getting paid to scare the shit out of 1997’s hottest young actors and the chats he had with his “psychotic” villain.
  23. friday night movie club
    The It Follows Sex Demons, RankedFor this week’s Friday Night Movie Club, we are honoring the villain in David Robert Mitchell’s 2015 indie-horror sleeper hit.
  24. role call
    Diane Lane Answers Every Question We Have About Under the Tuscan Sun“The [scene] where she’s like, ‘I’m still considered a viable sexual entity!’ — I’m like, ‘You can still have 12 babies, what are you talking about?’”
  25. tv
    Would Emily in Paris’s Bot-Like Instagram Actually Go Viral?Three Parisian influencers weigh in.
  26. pouffe!
    The Save Yourselves! Filmmakers on Their Version of the End of the WorldReal-life couple Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer on the origins and ending of their alien-invasion farce.
  27. encounter
    Sunita Mani Is Taking Up SpaceIn the alien-invasion comedy Save Yourselves!, she finally gets a leading movie role written just for her.
  28. role call
    Gugu Mbatha-Raw Answers Every Question We Have About Beyond the LightsThe star of the classic rom-dram recalls the pop-star training Gina Prince-Bythewood put her through and hanging off that Sofitel balcony at 4 a.m.
  29. role call
    Harold Perrineau Answers Every Question We Have About Romeo + JulietMercutio on the wild off-set nights with Leo, getting caught in a hurricane filming his death scene, and the movie’s second life as a cult classic.
  30. friday night movie club
    Leonardo DiCaprio Won’t Let Himself Be Hot Onscreen Without DyingI am here today to posit a theory about the Romeo + Juliet and Titanic actor’s storied career and his Fibonacci sequence of a face.
  31. dead wives club
    In Stunning Move, Christopher Nolan Allows a Wife to LiveBut not before [redacted: spoiler!] her first.
  32. i was born in the dark
    Wait, Kenneth Branagh’s Villain Made Some Points in TenetIn defense of the world-destroying plot enacted by Kenneth Branagh’s psychopathic Russian oligarch.
  33. q&a
    The Story of Lingua Franca, Isabel Sandoval’s Deeply Personal Indie RomanceThe writer-director-star explains how her third feature, about an undocumented Filipina transgender woman falling in uneasy love, came to be.
  34. know your rights
    Fiona Apple on the Election, What Scares Her, and Her Anti-ICE Short Film“We f- - -ing need to know our rights. Otherwise, we’re just all without protection. We need to protect ourselves and each other.”
  35. side hustles
    Which Erstwhile Disney Star Has the Better Utterly Random TV Show?Selena Gomez and Zac Efron both host series completely unrelated to their previous work. Why? We can’t answer that. But we can say who does it best.
  36. role call
    Holland Taylor Answers Every Question We Have About Legally BlondeThe actress on her iconic line, the joy of playing professional women, and why she’s typecast as elegant, hilarious, and a little bitchy.
  37. horny summer
    We Asked a Gyno About “WAP”Dr. Lauren Streicher weighs in on “macaroni in a pot,” touching that dangly thing that swings in the back of your throat, and more.
  38. role call
    Kate Maberly Answers Every Question We Have About 1993’s The Secret GardenThe actress remembers stalking Roger Deakins on set, squaring off with Maggie Smith, and receiving letters (still) from young fans of the dark film.
  39. vulture lists
    Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked by Whether I’d Risk My Life to See ThemWould I, like most of the women in Nolan’s movies, die for cinema?
  40. emmys 2020
    A Quick Chat with Paul Mescal About His Emmy Nom and His Shorts“They’re unfortunately the standard short length in football.”
  41. folklore
    Taylor Swift’s Freaky folklore Movie Mood BoardLike all of us, Swift has been watching too much Criterion Channel during quarantine, apparently interspersed with some A24 horror.
  42. role call
    Mira Sorvino Answers Every Question We Have About Romy and MicheleThe actress talks taking an R-rated buddy comedy after winning an Oscar, what she changed about the script, and how she came up with that voice.
  43. zac efron
    Toward a Working Theory of Zac Efron’s Down to Earth LooksOn his Netflix show, Zac expresses himself via beanies, beard styles, tight pants, and shark-themed bathing suits. But why?
  44. swedish angst
    An Ingmar Bergman Movie for Every Quarantine MoodLoneliness, dread, descents into madness. Whatever your disposition, our Swedish king of isolation has a film for you.
  45. quantum physics
    Cristin Milioti Explains the Time-Loop Science Behind Palm SpringsTurns out her character, Sarah, had a three-page speech on quantum physics that was cut from the final film.
  46. encounters
    Cristin Milioti, ForeverIn Palm Springs, she plays a furious depressive stuck in a time loop. It’s the rom-com role she was meant to play.
  47. profile
    Alia Shawkat, Through the Looking GlassWhat the Search Party actress has learned from her tabloid year.
  48. role call
    Patrick Fugit Answers Every Question We Have About Almost FamousFugit tells us about his crush on Kate Hudson, the legendary cast parties, and Bijou Phillips’s attempts to “corrupt” him.
  49. friday night movie club
    The Bittersweet Experience of Watching Almost Famous 20 Years OnThe movie is, by Cameron Crowe’s own admission, based on actual things that happened to him. Two decades later, it feels like his biggest fantasy.
  50. remember that time
    Kathryn Hahn and Tamara Jenkins Break Down Private Life’s ‘Vagina-Vagina’ SceneThis one goes out to all the women sitting absolutely pantsless in front of their screens right now.
More Articles