Channing Tatum Sexiest Man Alive: A Recap of the Top Culture Stories of the Week

Culture

The holiday season is nearly upon us, and the PolicyMic cultural coverage just keeps on getting better and better. In case you missed it, check out the top stories, reviews, and features on the site this week. And see what future events already have the interwebs abuzz. 

Top Feature Stories in Culture:

Cooking for Millennials: As a Generation Obsessed with Food, We Should Really Learn to Cook (Serena Wolf) – “Ironically, despite millenials’ obsession with food, very few of us are actually cooking it. Unlike our parents, who grew up on old-school home cooking, this generation of pretty young things was raised on take-out and quick-fix meals. We don’t have binders full of family recipes, and most of us can barely scramble eggs, let alone roast a chicken.” 

9 Reasons Why a 57-Year-Old Man is Still America’s Favorite Action Hero (Pete D’Alessandro) – “1. Sticking to Type: While we’ve watched Will Smith transform into Ali and Tom Cruise bawl his eyes out at his father’s bedside in Magnolia, Bruce Willis has stayed far closer to a singlular personality, role after role. While John McClane does not appear in The Sixth Sense, it’s not a drastically different performance. But doesn’t that show a lack of range? I bet you $2.5 billion no one cares. (That’s how much money Bruce Willis movies have made over the years.)”

TIME to Wake Up: Why TIME’s Person of the Year Matters to Millennials (Adam Hogue) – “A genuine fear of mine is that the world has been reduced to lists. It is the go-to method for blogging and articles. People like lists. But a list is very bleak. It says what is what in ten bullet points or less. Though the internet has become list central, TIME is the list master, and their “person” of the year is at the top.”

How "New Girl" Captures Young Adulthood in a Post "Friends" World (Agatha Gilmore) – “Like another iconic TV show featuring a group of unlikely roommates living in big, brightly colored apartments (ahem, Friends), New Girl speaks to a targeted generation of up-and-comers looking to make it or break it in the big city, with only their roomie friendships to help them through. The difference is that today, that generation is older — and, I’d argue, more immature.”

 

Reviews of the Week:

“Silver Linings Playbook”: Love in the Age of Prozac (Morgan Davies) – “Like Ishiguro’s novel, Silver Linings Playbook is essentially a story about a man coming to terms with himself: with the twists and turns his life has taken, with the things he could have had and lost, and with what he wants and whether he feels he deserves it. But where Ishiguro’s protagonist was looking back on his life from middle age, all opportunities at happiness wasted, Pat (Bradley Cooper in a revelatory performance) is still very much in the prime of life.”

An Anthem for Lonely Kids: Dolfish's New Album "I'd Rather Disappear Than Stay the Same" (Andy Boyd) – “The first thing you notice is his voice. Max Sollish, the sole member of the band Dolfish, sings with a slightly whiny, slightly pitch warble, the sort of voice easy to dismiss as undeveloped or self consciously twee or just bad. It’s only on the third or fourth listen to his new album I’d Rather Disappear Than Stay the Same that you realize he knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Books

“Sweet Tooth”: Ian McEwan’s New Novel Walks a Familiar Path (Spencer Lenfield) – “A common complaint about recursive storytelling — books about books — is that it strips fiction of its relationship to the rest of the world, and therefore deprives it of its ethical relevance. When novels are ultimately about other novels and the experience of being a novelist, why bother reading them unless you're a novelist yourself (or a professor, or a critic)? This complaint verges on alleging narcissism — and even if we stop short of that, Sweet Tooth is undeniably fixated on the life of its author.” 

Art

Picasso at the Guggenheim: "Picasso Black and White" Displays an Artist You Thought You Knew (Emilie Hall) — “As you may have guessed, the exhibit features only works in monochrome; black, gray, white. Picasso is meant to have said that “color weakens” and he dispensed of it in order to stress form, structure, and line. Many of the works are on private loan and five have never been exhibited before. For the uninitiated, to whom the name “Picasso” connotes only "Guernica" or his more famous Cubist works (I am one of you), there will be lots of surprises.”

People Around the Web are Talking About:

Thanksgiving: The day of mass consumption is nearly upon us. Binge eating will ensue, as will family togetherness. As you get ready for the holiday, here are the 10 best things about the holiday. Hopefully they'll get you in the spirit. 

Early Oscar Buzz: The Oscars aren't until February but with all the year's best films in theaters right now (hello Lincoln) the who-will-be-nominated buzz has already begun. We put together a few guesses here.

Life of Pi: The film is coming out on Wednesday, and people are pretty fired up. Not sure why? Check out the trailer: 

Channing Tatum’s Year: The most talked about man of the week was movie star Channing Tatum (Magic Mike). He was named People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" as well as GQ's "Movie Star of the Year." Was it deserved?