'Into Darkness,' Boldly And With A Few Twists()  

Zoe Saldana is Uhura and Zachary Quinto is Spock in the new J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek: Into Darkness, the 12th installment in the franchise.

May 16, 2013 The 12th film based on Gene Roddenberry's '60s sci-fi TV show is the second to star a new group of actors as Kirk, Spock and their crew. J.J. Abrams returns as director, and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch plays the memorable villain.

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'Re-Emerging': In Nigeria, A People Finds A Faith()  

Shmuel Tikvah (center) leads morning prayers among his congregation in the southern delta city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

May 16, 2013 Jeff L. Lieberman's documentary explores the story of 30,000 Nigerians who claim a Jewish heritage dating back centuries — and who have carved out a singular culture amid the post-colonial turmoil that still affects their country.

Summary

'Augustine' And Her Diagnosis Get Another Look()  

Augustine (the French singer-actress billed as Soko) was a 19th-century Paris housemaid diagnosed with the then-fashionable condition known as "hysteria" — a catchall used to label many ailments women suffered in that age.

May 16, 2013 A 19th-century neurologist develops an intense relationship with an illiterate teenage maid who experiences erotic pleasure during intense bouts of "hysteria." French writer-director Alice Winocour's feature debut is based on an actual 19th-century case history.

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Greta Gerwig, Blithely Spirited As 'Frances Ha'()  

In Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig stars as a young dancer trying to find her way on her own in New York City. Noah Baumbach shot the film in black and white because it helped him "see the city with new eyes," he says.

May 16, 2013 The indie darling returns in a winning collaboration with Noah Baumbach that tracks her developmentally arrested dancer heroine through the transition from protracted adolescence to reluctant adulthood. (Recommended)

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'Bidder 70,' Still Raising His Hand To Be Heard()  

Supporters of environmental activist Tim DeChristopher picket outside his criminal trial. The economics student ran into trouble with the federal government when he bid on — and won — mineral rights he had no intention of exploiting.

May 16, 2013 Scientist Terry Root, author and activist Terry Tempest Williams and filmmaker Robert Redford all turn up in this documentary on eco-activist Tim DeChristopher, who bid on — and won — mineral rights to a chunk of federal land just to tie them up. He was prosecuted and sentenced to federal prison.

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New 'Trek' Goes 'Into Darkness,' But Not Much Deeper()  

Zachary Quinto as Spock, with Chris Pine as Kirk, in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

May 18, 2013 NPR's Bob Mondello says J.J. Abrams' latest Star Trek film knows how to make the sparks and feelings fly, but doesn't bother making the sparks and feeling matter very much.

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Polley's 'Stories': A Family Saga Strikingly Spun()  

A young Sarah Polley and her actor father, Michael Polley, on a long-ago day; the photo is one of many family memories that surface in Stories We Tell, a superb meditation on dramatizing memory from the director of Away from Her.

May 10, 2013 A director's film memoir of her theatrical family is transformed by surprising discoveries about her parents' past — and her own heritage. Sarah Polley's film becomes a superb meditation on how we dramatize memory. (Recommended)

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Luhrmann's 'Gatsby': Bracingly Novel()  

Leonard DiCaprio as Gatsby and Carrey Mulligan as Daisy star in Baz Luhrmann's new interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby.

May 10, 2013 The movie is loud and obvious, but it's not a desecration of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 masterpiece. Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of The Great Gatsby is more like a cartoony Broadway musical version of Gatsby in which no one, alas, sings.

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'Gatsby's' Jazz-Age Excess, All Over The Screen()  

A 'Great Gatsby'? Leonardo DiCaprio suits up to play the mysterious, magnetic title character in Baz Luhrmann's exuberantly turbulent film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

May 9, 2013 If anyone could pull off a multiplex-friendly adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby — a film treatment that might be capable of stepping out of the long shadow cast by the book — it's Moulin Rouge showman Baz Luhrmann, right?

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In 'Sightseers,' A Killing Spree Gone South()  

Tina (Alice Lowe) and Chris (Steve Oram) in the sour social comedy Sightseers.

May 9, 2013 Its tone is ultimately sour, but at its brittle, nasty core, Ben Wheatley's slasher-tourism comedy fits squarely in the tradition of British class-resentment pictures like Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ruling Class.

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'Venus And Serena': Champs Atop Their Game()  

Serena Williams (left) and her sister Venus Williams in action during their first-round doubles match on Day 2 at Wimbledon in 2010.

May 9, 2013 What's left to know about tennis's superstar sisters? Probably not much they'd be willing to share, given how eager the press has been to wedge them into ready-made narratives about race, celebrity or the daughters of a Svengali.

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A Modern 'Maisie,' Still Yoked To Absurd Adults()  

True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard turns in a sensitive performance as a sort of surrogate dad for the poorly parented title character (a restrained Onata Aprile) in What Maisie Knew, a quietly stirring update of the Henry James novel.

May 3, 2013 Henry James' put-upon Victorian heroine is now the child of a present-day rock star and her philandering husband, but the dynamics among the observant Maisie and her feckless parents are as painful and revealing as ever.

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'Iron Man 3': Tony Stark As Home-Brew Hero()  

In Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), and Gwyneth Paltrow reprises hers as his girlfriend, Pepper Potts.

May 3, 2013 Director and co-writer Shane Black kicks Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., out of his comfort zone — a choice that has Stark functioning as a lone gumshoe, thinking like a garage mechanic and, when necessary, straight-up MacGyvering a fix.

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Movies

After Darkness, An Impressionistic Light()  

Post Tenebras Lux is both a restrained marital drama and an impressionistic montage of seemingly unrelated images. The mix is sometimes frustrating, but also powerful; a feeling of dislocation suffuses the film.

May 2, 2013 Carlos Reygadas' beguiling Post Tenebras Lux features a faltering marriage, a glowing red CGI devil and several impenetrable non sequiturs. It's simultaneously beautiful and discordant, comprehensible and elusive; no wonder it earned both boos and the Best Director prize at Cannes.

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About Movie Reviews

Opinions on current offerings at the cinema from a slate of reviewers, including Fresh Air contributor David Edelstein, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Bob Mondello.

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