Author: NY TIMES

Back in, say, 2019, if a filmmaker signed a deal with Netflix, it meant that he or she would be well paid and receive complete creative freedom. Theatrical release? Not so much. Still, the paycheck and the latitude — and the potential to reach the streaming service’s huge subscriber base — helped compensate for the lack of hoopla that comes when a traditional studio opens a film in multiplexes around the world.But those days are a thing of the past.Dan Lin arrived as Netflix’s new film chief on April 1, and he has already started making changes. He laid off…

“What I noticed about these three films, specifically, is also that they’re all funny and light,” Glass said. “But inevitably, I think a lot of the discussion around it is very somber. And I think what puts a lot of people off, particularly if they’re not queer themself — people get very defensive and get this idea that it’s about ticking boxes, or some kind of ‘eat your greens’ sort of thing, which is bollocks.”Emma Seligman, who directed “Bottoms” and wrote its screenplay alongside Sennott, had a tougher time getting the film picked up. Her critically acclaimed debut, “Shiva Baby,”…

For decades, Israel and Iran have fought a shadow war across the Middle East, trading attacks by land, sea, air and in cyberspace. The barrage of drones and missiles Iran launched at Israel on Saturday — though nearly all were shot down or intercepted — marked a watershed in the conflict.It was the first time that Iran directly attacked Israel from its own territory, according to Ahron Bregman, a political scientist and expert in Middle East security issues at King’s College in London, who called it an “historic event.”Iran has largely used foreign proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia to…

The start of a direct military confrontation between Iran and Israel has brought renewed attention to Iran’s armed forces. Early this month, Israel attacked a building in Iran’s diplomatic compound in the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing seven of Iran’s senior commanders and military personnel.Iran vowed to retaliate, and did so about two weeks later, starting a broad aerial attack on Israel on Saturday involving hundreds of drones and missiles aimed at targets inside Israel and the territory it controls.Here’s a look at Iran’s military and its capabilities.Why is Iran’s military relevant right now?Israeli officials had said they would respond to…

When Ms. Cyrus’s album “Can’t Be Tamed” came out in 2010, it was far from a critical success. The years that followed were tumultuous and didn’t always foretell the Grammy-winning artist she would later go on to become. It’s a notoriously tricky transition that has ensnared plenty of young people — Britney Spears, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, to name a few.Now a familiar trope in the pop-culture canon, this shift can feel stilted when it’s happening in real time. That may be unavoidable.“You don’t need to pretend that there’s this organic or authentic self that is somehow out there,”…

Housing gloom The higher-for-longer inflation predicament has hit the U.S. housing market like a thunderbolt. Home prices and mortgage rates are climbing again, dashing hopes that financing costs would fall this year and adding another economic question that could hang over the presidential election campaign.More economists are paring their bets that the Fed will cut rates after the latest Consumer Price Index report. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs forecast two rate cuts (instead of three) this year; Bank of America and Deutsche Bank shifted from two cuts to one. They all argue that sticky inflation will force the Fed to keep…

An important plot point in “Arcadian,” a domestic postapocalyptic drama bearing a close resemblance to “A Quiet Place,” revolves around medicine: people needing it, others hoarding it and so on. What kind of medicine is it? What is it for? The movie doesn’t say. It comes in an aspirin bottle, and the characters just call it “medicine,” and we have to take it on faith that it’s important.“Arcadian” is fashionably oblique, implying more than it explains. (An improvement over the expository whiteboard in “A Quiet Place,” which offered bullet-form creature data like a PowerPoint presentation.) The story is told in…

The United States military said it had shot down dozens of the drones and missiles that Iran fired at Israel on Saturday, as other allies affirmed support for Israel or pledged to help defend it.Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesman, said that Israel had intercepted most of the 200 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles launched by Iran with “some assistance” from its allies.Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said late Saturday that U.S. forces had intercepted dozens of missiles and attack drones launched at Israel from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The United States did not provide…

Nearly half of the exhibitors had created special timepieces for the event. There was, for example, a one-off creation from Mr. Smith: a 38-millimeter wristwatch with a single-wheel coaxial escapement in a red gold case. It was sold by lottery, with a reserve price of £297,500; the brand declined to reveal the final price.Many options were considerably less pricey. Clemence Watches of Edinburgh created a version of its automatic Munro watch with the word “Britain” added to the dial; all four of the 37.5-millimeter stainless steel timepieces, each priced at £650, were sold during the event. And Beaucroft, headquartered in…

Xavier Cruz and JP Gomez, a married gay couple, knew discrimination against the L.G.B.T.Q. community had become widespread. But as owners of Barba Grooming Boutique, a salon in Manhattan, they thought their industry was largely immune.So in 2016, when they read a story about a trans man suing a California barbershop for denying him a haircut, they were spurred to action: With the help of Terri & Sandy, an ad agency, the two set up Strands for Trans, a nonprofit group that maps salons and barbershops that have explicitly pledged their support for transgender clients.Mr. Cruz, 55, and Mr. Gomez,…