Podcast Summary: Critics at Large | The New Yorker

Episode: Does “Hamlet” Need a Backstory?
Date: December 4, 2025
Hosts: Alex Schwartz, Nomi Fry, Vincent Cunningham

Episode Overview

In this lively episode, the Critics at Large team takes a critical, engaging dive into the Oscar-hopeful film Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao, and its relationship to the enduring power of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The hosts explore not just the film’s merits as a meditation on grief, art, and nature, but also debate whether providing a fictionalized backstory for Hamlet deepens or cheapens Shakespeare’s original work. The conversation opens out into larger questions: Why does Hamlet continue to captivate, and what does the character say about masculinity, grief, and interpretation in our current cultural moment? Through a mix of fresh analysis, personal anecdotes, and a look at various adaptive versions of Hamlet, the critics interrogate what these 400-year-old stories mean for us today.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions of "Hamnet" (02:34–03:02)

• Alex Schwartz: “Hated it.”
  • Found the film’s take on Agnes (Shakespeare's wife) overly romanticized and the overall effect shallow, lamenting what felt like forced modern iconography in a historical tale.
• Nomi Fry: Surprisingly enjoyed it, finding the film’s restraint, atmosphere, and “pastoral” beauty appealing, though felt the second half faltered.
• Vincent Cunningham: “Loved it.”
  • Praised the performances (especially Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal) and the film's dual focus on nature and artifice as larger meditations on grief and creation.

2. Plot and Themes in "Hamnet" (04:38–08:13)

• Setup Recap (Nomi Fry):
  • Shakespeare depicted more as a man than genius.
  • Agnes’ "witchy" background; romance with Shakespeare; heavy focus on nature and wordless moments.
  • Family tragedy struck by plague; son Hamnet dies; Shakespeare supposedly processes grief by writing Hamlet.
• Nomi’s Take:
  • Enjoyed the subtle and visual storytelling: “As I get older, I find myself more in touch with a pastoral.”
  • Liked the Scandinavian, evocative qualities before the film’s explicit turn to Shakespearean drama.

3. Critical Reactions and Riffs on "Hamnet" (08:53–15:36)

• Alex’s Main Critique:
  • The film is “romantasy adjacent”; “strong, noble heroine” trope feels forced.
  • Problem with presenting Hamlet-the-play as mere art therapy for Shakespeare; the play’s complexities are reduced:
    “Hamlet is art therapy is what this movie says.” (15:36, Alex)
  • Argues the real play’s dark edges (Ophelia’s fate, Hamlet’s mother) are ignored or overwritten.
• Vincent’s Defense:
  • Sees the film less as an attempt to explain Hamlet and more as an exploration of art’s consoling or meaning-making place in life.
  • Sees the “two act system”—nature and artifice—as intellectually stimulating and sensitively drawn.
  • Admits the film’s direct use of Hamlet’s lines occasionally falters.

4. Art and Manipulation (14:30–15:29)

• The group briefly discusses whether Hamnet is “manipulative” art (a critique circulating in reviews).
  • Alex: “Well, art—duh. It’s supposed to manipulate.”
  • Yet she didn’t feel emotionally drawn in, despite the explicit grief.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Vincent: “Hamlet, to me, is all about how the common difficulties of life...strike each of us with a unique and particular pain.” (03:02)
• Nomi, on the rural beauty of Hamnet:
  “As I get older, I find myself more in touch with a pastoral...this is like some Scandinavian movie from the 80s.” (08:13)
• Alex, critiquing tropes:
  “God forbid she’s an ordinary woman… she’s gotta be someone who modern women look at and think, if I had lived in 1595, I would have been her.” (09:29)
• Vincent: “There’s a moment where [Agnes’] mother-in-law...has an almost direct to camera monologue...that it can go away any moment and therefore...maybe the connection between love and nature, that we are not in control over those items which we love.” (12:40–12:49)
• Alex, on the film’s ambitions:
  “I don’t understand what is concretely being said anyway. Go ahead, charge at me.” (17:05)

Deep Dive: What’s Our Relationship to Hamlet?

“Our first Hamlets” (19:28–22:13)

• Alex: First encountered Hamlet via reading in high school; treasures her annotated copy.
• Vincent: Learned poetic structure and literary devices through studying Hamlet in school.
• Nomi: Her primary memory is the 1996 Kenneth Branagh film: “...I remember dragging my feet through it because I was like, this is important. You know what I’m saying?”

Our Favorite Hamlets: (22:30–34:35)

Vincent: “Hamlet 2000”

• Michael Almereyda’s 2000 film with Ethan Hawke as a mopey film student, packed with meta-cinematic touches.
  • Memorable: “His to be or not to Be occurs in a Blockbuster Video. He’s walking down the aisles and every single one of the little genre markers says ‘action’ on it.” (24:36)

Nomi: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”

• Tom Stoppard’s play/film, focusing on minor Hamlet characters.
  • “It really makes you think about life and death.” (28:21)
  • Enjoys the shift from tragedy to comedy and the minor to major.

Alex: Stage Versions

• Richard Burton’s 1964 Broadway performance, described as “hot-blooded Hamlet” (30:05), and two British stage versions with Andrew Scott and Alex Lawther—especially highlighting the difficulty of making Hamlet’s dithering and thought processes feel fresh and alive on stage.
• On Lawther as a very young Hamlet:
  “Wiry, fidgety quality that reminds you that Hamlet is a college student… It just reminded me of how messed up stuff is when you’re in your early 20s.” (33:24–34:17)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Critics’ First Reactions to “Hamnet”: 02:34–03:02
• Detailed Plot Setup (Hamnet): 04:38–08:13
• Critiquing Modern Tropes in Hamnet: 09:15–11:01
• The Nature vs. Artifice Theme: 12:13–13:31
• Debating Emotional Manipulation in Art: 14:30–15:29
• Core Criticisms of the Hamlet-Hamnet Connection: 15:36–17:05
• Favorite Hamlets (Almereyda, Stoppard, British Stage): 22:30–34:35
• Discussion of Hamlet’s Enduring Appeal and Masculinity: 35:51–44:50
• On Generational Crisis and Hamlet as “Man’s Play”: 39:21–44:50
• Transformation and Resolution in Hamlet: 45:28–47:39

Broader Themes and Final Insights

1. Hamlet as an Endless Mirror

• The group underscores how Hamlet absorbs and reflects the anxieties, cultural obsessions, and crises of each era.
  • Vincent: “Every generation has its version of the incomprehensible… everybody has to deal with their own version of ‘this does not make sense, and yet it is.’” (38:45)

2. Masculinity & Identity

• Alex: “Hamlet is talking to Horatio... He was a man. Take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again, he was a man.” (39:35–40:10)
  • They note the contemporary crisis of masculinity finds a clear echo in Hamlet’s uncertainty, sense of inadequacy, and mythical nostalgia for a lost generation of “real men.”
  • Nomi: “Men, not just men, women too. But the question of like man making the world and whether that ability...is slipping...is a determining question as to how the world looks.” (41:40)

3. The Redemptive Power of Telling

• Alex on Hamlet’s ending: “I know who I am. My father was Hamlet the Dane. He was king of Denmark. I am Hamlet the Dane. I am taking my rightful place. I am coming to bear accountability.” (46:35)
• Vincent: “He also asks Horatio to tell us that...art making itself is a guide through life...the telling is the thing, maybe.” (47:05–47:39)

Concluding Thoughts

Critics at Large closes with a recognition of Hamlet as not just a play but a touchstone for grappling with meaning, grief, gender, action, and the place of art—no matter the century. Their sharp differences on Hamnet show how live and personal these texts remain. As ever, Hamlet becomes what each age, and each critic, needs it to be.

Selected Quotes with Timestamps

• “Hated it.” —Alex Schwartz (02:39)
• “As I get older, I find myself more in touch with a pastoral.” —Nomi Fry (08:13)
• “Hamlet is art therapy is what this movie says.” —Alex Schwartz (15:36)
• “The interpretation is part of the greatness of the play.” —Vincent Cunningham (38:32)
• “There is an era of manhood that has passed.” —Vincent Cunningham (42:09)
• “He also asks Horatio to tell us...the telling is the thing, maybe.” —Vincent Cunningham (47:05–47:39)