New Sincerity: How Irony Shapes Modern Emotional Expression

“Take that beta blocker, girl,” actress and comedian Rachel Sennott said in a red carpet interview at the 2025 Academy Awards. She was asked what her event preparation looked like. The interviewer giggled, “Numbness is in,” earning an emphatic, “Numbness is in!” from Sennott. Her dispassionate expression, sleek bob, and tepid, self-aware quips are apt for the image. The moment is illustrative of the cynical, too-cool-for-joy generational humor of the modern zeitgeist. 

This is not to suggest Sennott created this disaffection. She toys with it as any performer would, particularly one as strongly marked by the Gen Z stamp. Rather, this fleeting moment of press coverage is debris from the impact of irony culture. A lexicon that slipped right into fashion without room for weariness.

Irony and cynicism crept into the collective unconscious as a Trojan Horse. Self-deprecating humor. Recognition of the continuing states of global suffering and unrest. Blunt admissions of our pointless endeavors in this mortal coil. All painful truths are softened by irony’s blinding touch.

Of course, no Trojan Horse is without its victims and casualties. To name one, we look at the growing discomfort we witness in response to affection and openness. We see it even in the plight of pop culture giants. Just last year, vertical video viewers found the teary-eyed Wicked press tour of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo mystifying. Many felt the actresses’ feelings were, “too much,” or even entirely that they were fabricated. This point is especially pessimistic. Plenty of successful, less weepy press interviews are conducted each year without negative repercussions in box office sales.

The distrust of and inability to accept raw emotion is the consequence of promoting a culture that continually distracts and deceives. New age concepts like “toxic positivity” and flippant language surrounding prescription medication are a few of its horsemen. Complicated, real, unpredictable emotions have the potential to inconvenience the fast-paced lives we are encouraged to lead. But how can we undo this generational irony deeply embedded into the collective psyche? We begin to recognize sincerity as a muscle. Not as an intrinsic feature we either have or lack, but as something we exercise daily to reap its benefits, lest we smother it altogether.

Culture critics and artists are taking notice of how pervasive cynicism and apathy are. New Sincerity, a literary and artistic criticism first identified in the 1990’s, is being gradually reintroduced into the temper of the times. Commonly associated with the ideologies of Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace (notably he never used the term himself), New Sincerity describes a pull back into sensitivity, empathy, and earnest emotion. It rejects postmodern irony and embraces the illustrious, painful realities in the depth of human emotion.

While one’s impulse during a time of social dissension and unprecedented challenge is to turn into despair, we know it is unproductive. Or worse, it’s counter-human. Oftentimes, we feel inclined to rationalize or excuse such impulses. 

French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas wrote of the face-to-face encounter in developing his ethical framework. He wrote that we only understand our moral obligations to one another through staring directly into the faces of what he calls, the “Other.” A meaningful gaze forces us to recognize each other as fellow humans. It is a call to action, a reminder of our moral duties to one another. Once we are literally awakened to the existential conditions of those around us, Levinas ideates, it becomes increasingly more difficult to enact harm upon them or endorse actions which will certainly contribute to their harm.

Levinas’ ethical framework is extreme, melodramatic even. But I am attracted to the idea that honest encounters with others compel us towards better, more thoughtful action. Art is one mechanism conducive to these kinds of encounters, empathy machines, if you will. Literature, film, music: they are all windows into the lives, thoughts, and hopes of the other. 

They work to break down that barrier, to show audiences how they aren’t so removed from the people they read about or watch. If art becomes detached or morbidly ironic, we lose a critical tool for exercising our sincerity. And when our immediate response to difficult emotions is to suppress, or when our first impulse to intimate interactions is to scrutinize, we know we’ve lost entirely.

Below, I’ve listed a few recent films, television shows, and albums in no particular order. I officially ordain them as members of our twenty-first century New Sincerity. Our culture is ready for a shift back into the genuine, and the success of these selections stands testament to that. These examples are unafraid of looking into the eyes of the other; of long silences and meaningful eye contact. They stare directly at Numbness and ask, “can’t you understand what you’re missing?” I hope they help you stretch your sincerity muscles.

FILM

1. A Real Pain (dir. Jesse Eisenberg, 2024)

Jesse Eisenberg is a master of dialogue. Every single line in this film clings to truth. So often in screenwriting we hear the rules of subtext, but it does not work without balance. Sometimes, people can articulate what is exactly on their mind. And that is allowed!

2. Past Lives  (dir. Celine Song, 2023)

This film is dripping in sincerity. It is about seventy percent completely comfortable, prolonged silences. We are invited to sit inside of these moments with the characters as they reflect on their lives and relationships with a feeling far more nuanced than regret. It would be near impossible to observe this movie without thinking back on one’s own history.

TELEVISION

1. Somebody Somewhere (2022-2024)

A, dare I say bucolic, series following a few wonderfully normal individuals through their beautifully normal lives in a Kansas small town. What this show does brilliantly as a slice-of-life, is prove once and for all, how many wonderful moments are created in everyday life. It also showcases some of the most believable friendships on television in a long time.

2. Joe Pera Talks With You (2018-2021)

Joe Pera shows us how the absurd does not function solely to confuse, but also as a warm blanket against the harsh winds of realism. His former Adult Swim show is the best fever dream. He tipped the ordinary scale so far that it became surreal–and oh so pleasant.

ALBUMS

1. Ants From Up There (2022) – Black Country, New Road

Cascading chords and heart wrenching lyrics, this album surpasses mere listening. It is a full-bodied, wholehearted opera of life. Cacophonous anthems that should be listened to while driving with the windows down, in a car full of the people you love, hopefully under starry skies. If Jack Stauber were the lead singer of Arcade Fire. 

2. Escaper (2024) – Sarah Kinsley (2024)

If Fiona Apple were perpetually soaked in blue light, Sarah Kinsley exists in an unending, golden sunbeam. Exhilarating beats are reminiscent of summertime, Florence + The Machine, and blackberries. Kinsley celebrates drowning in love as much as she does plunging head-first into it. 

3. Swimmer (2020) – Tennis

Wife and husband duo compose dreamy, ethereal pop sounds in this album. Every song sounds like a promise of passion. While saying, “main character moment,” is a cute catchphrase, it’s often a patch over embarrassment or boredom. We don’t literally feel like characters in a film, at least not many of us do. But maybe, with Swimmer as an echoey, transcendent score, we finally can.