Carrie Brownstein on Cat Power. Plus, “Materialists,” “Too Much,” and the Modern Rom-Com.

About this episode

<p>For <i>The New Yorker’s</i> series <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/takes">Takes</a>, Carrie Brownstein—the co-creator of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia”—writes about an iconic rock-and-roll image. In the summer of 2003, the musician Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, was transitioning from an indie darling to a major rock artist, and the staff writer <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/hilton-als">Hilton Als</a> wrote a Profile of her in <i>The New Yorker</i>. Facing his piece was <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/18/cat-power-wayward-girl">a full-page portrait</a> of Marshall by the celebrated photographer Richard Avedon that puts her in the lineage of rock rebels of generations past. With a long ash dangling from her cigarette, a Bob Dylan T-shirt, and her jeans half unzipped, Cat Power “maybe doesn't give a shit about being in <i>The New Yorker</i>,” Brownstein thinks, “which I can't say is usually the vibe.” Avedon’s image reminds Brownstein “to keep remembering … to keep going back to that place that feels sacred and special and uncynical.” </p><p>Carrie Brownstein’s Take on <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/takes/carrie-brownstein-on-richard-avedons-portrait-of-cat-power">Richard Avedon’s portrait of Cat Power</a> appeared in the April 20, 2025, issue. </p><p>Plus, audiences have been bemoaning the death of the romantic comedy for years, but the genre persists—albeit often in a different form from the screwballs of the nineteen-forties or the “chick flicks” of the eighties and nineties. On this episode from the Critics at Large podcast, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss their all-time favorite rom-coms and two new projects marketed as contemporary successors to the greats: Celine Song’s “Materialists” and Lena Dunham’s “Too Much.”</p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>