Theatrical release poster for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (2026) (Wikipedia/Sony Pictures) By ALISSA WILKINSON Spider-Man’s story has always been, on some level, about the terrifying experience of growing up. One morning, you discover your body is changing and doing things you can’t quite control, and you have to figure out what to do with that. As winningly played by Tom Holland, Peter Parker has been a kind, openhearted teenager who wants to do the right thing and is horrif

“The Infinite Husk” By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI This month’s recommendations include a dreamscape space opera, a dark time-travel diner comedy and an existential alien thriller. ‘Per Aspera Ad Astra’ The premise of a decades-long hibernation to endure an interstellar trip is pretty familiar at this point, but Han Yan’s demented epic adds a great wrinkle: To prevent the sleeping travelers’ brains from atrophying, they are kept active with incredibly vivid dreams. When something

Samantha Morton as Circe in a scene from “The Odyssey” (2026). In director Christopher Nolan’s “dark, succinct telling,” “Circe is an obstacle [Odysseus] must overcome, just like the other women in the film have very specific ways to round out the hero’s tale of triumph,” the Times’ Maya Phillips writes. (Universal Pictures) By MAYA PHILLIPS When the men under the charge of the brave Odysseus arrive at Circe’s home in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” the film shifts from se

Carly Simon in Vineyard Haven, Mass., June 4, 2018. The singer and songwriter has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she announced on Monday, July 27, 2026. (Elizabeth Cecil/The New York Times) By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR Singer and songwriter Carly Simon has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she announced earlier this week. “It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it and to decide how much I wanted to say about it,” Simon, 83, said in a

Theatergoers at the State Theater in Minneapolis, just a block from First Avenue, the music club Prince once owned and where the “Purple Rain” movie was mostly filmed, Oct. 16, 2025. “Purple Rain” ran for nearly six weeks last year in Minneapolis, where one critic called it “a convergence of raw creative genius and sophisticated stagecraft.” (Jenn Ackerman/The New York Times) By MICHAEL PAULSON “Purple Rain,” a new musical based on Prince’s seminal film from 1984, will arrive

Copies of several translations of Homer’s “Odyssey” in New York, July 15, 2026. The market for the epic poem is as crowded as a certain Ithacan palace, and publishers have had to get crafty to attract readers to their editions. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times) By MJ FRANKLIN It’s the climax of the “Odyssey.” Odysseus, back in Ithaca at long last, finds his home swarming with suitors vying for the hand of his wife, Penelope, and for his throne. He needs to overthrow the inte

‘Ulee’s Gold’ (1997) By MAYA SALAM Christopher Nolan recently told The New York Times that “The Odyssey,” Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem, was his “ur-text,” saying, “It’s in everything I’ve done before.” That’s the thing about this ancient, enduring saga, which chronicles the Greek hero Odysseus’ treacherous 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War: It’s the ur-text for much of modern storytelling. Like Nolan’s new adaptation, many retellings have been dir

“Evil Dead Burn” is the second in a series of fresh reboots intended to give promising early-career horror directors a shot at flexing their meanest muscles. By BEATRICE LOAYZA Heads are severed and mutilated yet again in the latest “Evil Dead” installment, which understands, at the very least, that any inheritor of the 1981 cult classic by Sam Raimi must strive to unleash a torrent of shamelessly nasty thrills. The blood feast “Evil Dead Burn” is the second in a series of fr

Actress Irene Sofía Lucio By THE STAR STAFF Puerto Rican actress Irene Sofía Lucio announced this week that she will star in the play “Disruption,” an off-Broadway production to be staged at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York. “Bringing Mia to life in ‘Disruption’ at the Pershing Square Signature Center promises to be an intense journey,” Lucio said in a written statement. The San Juan native will play Mia, the central character in the thriller written by Andrew

Lido Pimienta in Burlington, Ontario, Canada on July 13, 2026. On Pimienta’s new album, “Caribenya,” the Colombian Canadian musician sought a warmer, more complex depiction of Caribbean culture. Creating it helped her rediscover the beauty of living. (Tommy Keith/The New York Times) By CAROLINA ABBOTT GALVÃO Chinchorros, hammocks traditionally handwoven by the Wayuu Indigenous community, hang in many homes in La Guajira, the arid peninsula straddling Colombia and Venezuela wh