Alex Barasch
@alexbarasch.bsky.social
features writer @nymag.com; formerly @newyorker.com
After seven years (!) at The New Yorker, I’m heading to New York Magazine to write full-time, and I couldn’t be more excited. My first day is Monday, but I’m already running around NYFF—say hi if you’re there.
New York Magazine@nymag.com · last mo.New York editor-in-chief David Haskell announced that Alex Barasch is joining the magazine as a features writer, with a focus on the business of culture. He will cover film, television, theater and more, writing across the print magazine and Vulture.
A24’s new research partnership with DeepMind has sparked controversy within the film community—but its interest in A.I. predates this alliance. In 2025, Alex Barasch reported on the studio’s aims to use the technology. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A24’s Empire of Auteurs
The studio is brilliant at selling small, provocative films. Now it wants to sell blockbusters, too.
newyorker.com
Curry Barker got his start on YouTube as a teen sketch comedian. Now he’s following in the footsteps of Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger to become the next great horror auteur. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/hRa7Yf
The Twenty-Six-Year-Old Behind “Obsession,” a Terrifying Tale of a Crush Gone Awry
The filmmaker Curry Barker got his start online as a teen-age sketch comedian. Now he’s making his name as Hollywood’s next great horror auteur.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
Sharing my profile of Curry Barker now that Obsession is out in the world! We talked about the moral dimension of the story, his influences (from early-aughts prank shows to Jordan Peele), what he’s working on next, and much more: www.newyorker.com/culture/pers...
The Twenty-Six-Year-Old Behind “Obsession,” a Terrifying Tale of a Crush Gone Awry
The filmmaker Curry Barker got his start online as a teen-age sketch comedian. Now he’s making his name as Hollywood’s next great horror auteur.
newyorker.com
A24 executives are infamously press-shy, but I interviewed dozens of people who’ve worked with them—directors, producers, at least one Satanist—and eventually persuaded the people inside to talk to me, too. My piece about the studio’s rise and where it’s headed: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A24’s Empire of Auteurs
The studio is brilliant at selling small, provocative films. Now it wants to sell blockbusters, too.
newyorker.com
Trump is purging the federal web in a digital book burning of unprecedented scale. I wrote about the librarians and “data hoarders” who are backing it up as fast as they can www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
The Volunteer Data Hoarders Resisting Trump’s Purge
Can librarians and guerrilla archivists save the country’s files from DOGE?
newyorker.com
Erotic thrillers from the 1980s and ’90s had been a revelation for the young Halina Reijn, but the director of “Babygirl” knew that an erotic thriller in 2024 had to look different. “I want to use the tropes but twist them . . . to have fun with them,” she said.
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.”
newyorker.com
For this week’s @newyorker.com I profiled the great Halina Reijn, the director of Babygirl. We talked about her past life as a stage actress in Ivo van Hove’s company, her wild, off-the-grid childhood, her relationship with Nicole Kidman, and much more: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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.”
newyorker.com
Wonderful, dryly funny piece by Alex Barasch about Mattel’s affords to toyify Hollywood: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/after-barbie-mattel-is-raiding-its-entire-toy-box
