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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Oscars 2013: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Playing The Big Room: An Oscars Joke-Writer Reflects

Billy Crystal hosts the 84th Annual Academy Awards in 2012. Writing jokes for hosts is a tricky game, says longtime joke writer Dave Boone.

February 13, 2013 After the teary acceptance speeches, the most quotable moments from any Oscars telecast are the jokes. Comedy writer Dave Boone, a regular joke writer for Hollywood's biggest night, offers his tips on how to make 'em laugh in Movieland and beyond.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Oscars 2013: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Harrowing Stories Of 'How To Survive A Plague'

Director and producer David France chronicles the efforts of HIV/AIDS activists in the '80s and '90s in his documentary How to Survive a Plague. Above, AIDS activist Peter Staley is arrested in a scene from the film.

February 12, 2013 Director and producer David France documents the struggle of HIV/AIDS activists as they fought for better care and access to new medicines in the early days of the epidemic. "There are today, 8 million people alive on those drugs that were spearheaded in this remarkable meeting of minds and hearts," France says.

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Oscars 2013: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Beyond The Battlefield, Soldiers Fight An 'Invisible War'

Kori Cioca, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard, and her husband Rob in an emotional interview for The Invisible War.

February 11, 2013 The Invisible War looks at the ongoing issue of sexual assault in the military. Victims document the unsettling repercussions of reporting their assault within the military adjudication system. Part of an ongoing series of conversations with Oscar nominated documentary filmmakers.

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On Talk of the NationPlaylist

Music Interviews

Hollywood's 'Hooray': Hardly A Happy Hymn

Doris Day's somber 1958 version of "Hooray for Hollywood," which was included on an album of the same name, better reflects the song's creatively complicated lyrics.

February 11, 2013 It's Oscar season, meaning that classic toe-tapper "Hooray for Hollywood" will soon be booming out of TV speakers everywhere. But the cheery cinema hymn has a more complicated compositional past, as NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg explains.

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Saturday, February 09, 2013

Movies I've Seen A Million Times

The Movie Roman Coppola Has 'Seen A Million Times'

Charlotte Rampling and Woody Allen in his film Stardust Memories.

February 9, 2013 Writer-director Roman Coppola could watch Woody Allen's Stardust Memories a million times. "It's a film that is endlessly imaginative and has wonderful surprises at every corner," he says.

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Theater

The Scottish Play (The Olivier Way)

Laurence Olivier, seen here in his film adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, also intended to create a film version of Macbeth.

February 9, 2013 British stage and screen legend Laurence Olivier had always hoped to produce his own film version of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Now, decades after Olivier's death, a researcher has stumbled across his lost screen treatment of "the Scottish play."

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Friday, February 08, 2013

Movie Reviews

'Identity Thief': Nearly Two Hours, Stolen

An overextended Sandy (Jason Bateman) must prevent the raunchy Diana (Melissa McCarthy) from continuing to use his identity as a financial crutch in Identity Thief.

February 8, 2013 The individual ingredients that make up Identity Thief could add up to a great movie. But the digital-age mistaken-identity comedy wastes a talented leading actress and a passable plot; it's a predictable trudge of a road movie.

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Movie Reviews

'Caesar' Comes Alive In An Italian Prison

Brutus (Salvatore Striano) fixes a wild stare at the witnesses and conspirators after Julius Caesar's murder, in a scene from Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Caesar Must Die.

February 8, 2013 In Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's new film, Caesar Must Die, a group of prisoners put on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It's barely an hour and a quarter, and it's physically small-scale, but it's so compressed it wears you out — in a good way.

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Movie Interviews

Tyler Perry Transforms: From Madea To Family Man

Perry plays a gun-toting grandma in Madea Goes To Jail.

February 8, 2013 Best known for being the man behind Madea, Perry recently starred in the action thriller Alex Cross which is now out on DVD. We listen back to an October interview, in which he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross that his Madea character is a cross between his mom, his aunt and Eddie Murphy.

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Thursday, February 07, 2013

Movie Reviews

A '70s 'Playroom,' Without Much Room For Fun

Donna (Molly Parker) is the drunk, distracted matriarch to Maggie (Olivia Harris) and her nervous siblings in The Playroom.

February 7, 2013 In the swinging suburbs, a husband and wife nurse their drinks and neglect their kids as their marriage implodes. Critic Scott Tobias says Julia Dyer's film is solidly performed but stultifyingly obvious with its metaphors.

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Movie Reviews

A Sorcerer, A White Snake, And Lots Of CGI Magic

The demon snake sisters (Charlene Choi and Eva Huang) disguise themselves as beautiful women in The Sorcerer and the White Snake.

February 7, 2013 Short on thrills but chock full of dazzling CGI wizardry, the mythical Sorcerer and the White Snake is a centuries-old Chinese story of demon-human love gone wrong.

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Movie Reviews

Sheen's 'Swan' Is One Ugly Duckling

Charles (Charlie Sheen) is a none-too-likeable ladies's man in A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.

February 7, 2013 Notorious playboy Charlie Sheen plays a less extreme — but still essentially disagreeable — version of himself in Roman Coppola's A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.

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Movie Reviews

'Lore': After Hitler, An Awakening For The Reich's Children

A band of virtually orphaned children (Nele Trebs, Mika Seidel, Andre Frid and Saskia Rosendahl) trek through southern Germany seeking shelter —  and answers — at the end of World War II.

February 7, 2013 The Holocaust film is increasingly common, but films and novels telling the stories of German World War II survivors are still relatively rare — making Lore a welcome addition to the cinematic canon of postwar German narratives. (Recommended)

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Movie Reviews

Warning: 'Side Effects' May Include Eye-Rolling

In Steven Soderbergh's medical thriller Side Effects, Emily (Rooney Mara) goes through an emotional crisis — and then a psychopharmacological one — after her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is released from prison.

February 7, 2013 Steven Soderbergh has said Side Effects will be his final film. But the talented director has turned in a stylish but silly thriller — a sad closing chapter for a notable career.

Summary

Movie Interviews

'Warm Bodies' Director: Teen Romance, Undying

Nicholas Hoult, Rob Corddry and Teresa Palmer lurch through a scene in Levine's zombie romantic comedy.

February 7, 2013 Director Jonathan Levine joins NPR's Audie Cornish to explore the ins and outs of young (zombie) love — the subject of his new romantic comedy, which topped the box office in its first week.

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