A Feminist Director’s Erotic Thriller

Plus: the acquittal of Daniel Penny; Michael Schulman on the best performances of 2024; and Rashid Johnson’s metamorphosis. View in browser | Update your preferences Monday, December 9, 2024 In today’s newsletter, an out-of-style genre makes a comeback, and then: • The acquittal of Daniel Penny • Michael Schulman on the best performances of 2024 • Rashid Johnson’s metamorphosis A Feminist Director Takes On the Erotic Thriller Halina Reijn has always loved the genre—and revelled in creating a steamy melodrama for Nicole Kidman in which the protagonist is “greedy,” “dark,” and “wrong.” By Alex Barasch Halina Reijn photographed by Katie McCurdy for The New Yorker The final day of shooting for “Babygirl,” a new erotic thriller, was devoted to a sequence that the film’s writer and director, Halina Reijn, had deliberately saved for last. In the movie, which will be released on Christmas, Nicole Kidman plays Romy, the hyper-competent C.E.O. of a robotics company, who feigns pleasure in her marriage and flirts perilously with a younger man at work until he tempts her into a kinky affair. In this scene, Romy and her paramour, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), were alone in a cheap hotel room in Manhattan, attempting to define their new dynamic. The environs were unsavory—Reijn had chosen blood-red curtains and carpeting specifically to evoke a womb—but there was a charge in the air. The end of the encounter would be the literal consummation of the couple’s mind games: Romy would orgasm. Keep reading, or listen to the story The Lede Reporting and commentary on what you need to know today. How Daniel Penny Was Found Not Guilty in a Subway Killing That Divided New York Photograph by Yuki Iwamura / AP The trial over the death of Jordan Neely—which made Daniel Penny, the man who choked him, a right-wing cause célèbre—became a flash point in the debate over crime and vigilantism in big cities. Penny has been acquitted. “It is a strange thing to sit in a courtroom and watch a man die over and over and over again,” Adam Iscoe writes, reporting from the trial. Read the story » Our journalism relies on your support. If you believe in fearless, fair, and fact-checked reporting, please subscribe today. Subscribe now In the News Photograph by Anthony Behar / Sipa USA / Reuters A person of interest is being questioned in connection with the killing of Brian Thompson, the C.E.O. of UnitedHealthcare, last week in Manhattan. Read Jia Tolentino on what Thompson’s death means to America. John Cassidy How Long Will the Trump Crypto Boom Last? Photograph by Tyrone Siu / Reuters / Redux After Donald Trump announced last week that he would nominate the cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to head the S.E.C., the price of Bitcoin hit a hundred thousand dollars. Crypto enthusiasts were thrilled, but John Cassidy was put in mind of the dot-com boom—and its inevitable bust. “There was the same giddy excitement, the same predictions that prices could still go higher, much higher,” he writes, “and the same uneasy feelings among some longtime market participants and observers, me included.” Read the column » John Cassidy’s column, The Financial Page, publishes every Monday. The Year in Review 2024 in Review The Best Performances of 2024 A middle-aged, murderous Tom Ripley; a boozy, stagestruck Mary Todd Lincoln; an unlikely pair of singers at the Grammys—these were the acts that broke through the noise of this fractious, tumultuous year. By Michael Schulman Read more New Yorker writers on the highs and lows of the past year. If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please share it. Was it forwarded to you? Sign up. Culture Dept. Profiles The Confident Anxiety of Rashid Johnson Rashid Johnson, who is preparing for a major mid-career show at the Guggenheim, explores depths of masculine vulnerability that few of his contemporaries have touched. By Calvin Tomkins How-To Dept. Can You Write It Better Than Taylor Swift? An appreciator of “Speak Now” and “Folklore” joins a roomful of young writers at the Thurber House, a literary center in Ohio, for a class inspired by the pop star. By Henry Alford Fun & Games Dept. Crossword A Challenging Puzzle Paris-born Surrealist Dora: four letters. By Elizabeth C. Gorski Daily Cartoon Monday, December 9th By Shannon Wheeler P.S. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on TV in the U.S. on this day in 1965. It arrived in an “unsettled season, as the so-called generation gap was rending the cultural landscape,” Jonathan Franzen wrote, in a moving personal history about the deep impression the “perfect silliness” of the comic strip left on his adolescence. Despite the social turmoil, “Charles Schulz’s work was almost uniquely beloved.” 🎄 Hannah Jocelyn contributed to this edition. What did you think of today’s newsletter? Let us know. If you like the daily newsletter, browse more New Yorker newsletters. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.