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Movies
'Sweet Smell Of Success': Gossip With A Cutting Edge
March 7, 2011 The classic 1957 film about the gossip industry has been remastered and rereleased on DVD and Blu-Ray. Critic John Powers says the movie's Manhattan is a "seamy, deglamorized world in which small men destroy lives to make themselves big."
Movies
Unexpected Excitement In 'Cold Weather' & 'Poetry'
February 17, 2011 Aaron Katz's mumblecore flick Cold Weather is set in Portland, Ore.; Lee Chang-dong's Poetry is from South Korea. Critic John Powers says both films are wonderful, in part because the stories they tell are so unpredictable. (Recommended)
Movies
'The Mechanic': A Crisp Thriller From Mr. Man-Crush
January 28, 2011 British actor Jason Statham plays a professional hit man in The Mechanic, based on a 1972 Charles Bronson thriller. Critic John Powers says the film offers a revealing look at Statham's distinctive appeal.
Movies
Must-See Movie Selections For The Giving Season
December 2, 2010 Critic John Powers has a theory about movies: The best gifts to give aren't necessarily the most recent hits. His 13 picks for the 2010 holiday season include a Charlie Chaplin classic, a Charles Laughton masterpiece and one of the greatest documentaries ever produced.
Movies
'Elia Kazan Collection' A Must-Have For Film Fans
November 12, 2010 The late director Elia Kazan had a profound influence on American film in the decades after World War II. Critic John Powers says a new box set featuring 15 of his films, including On the Waterfront and Wild River, is a "terrific collection anchored by some of the most mythic performances in film history."
Movies
Carlos And Zuckerberg: The Men, Myths, Movies
November 1, 2010 In the past few weeks, two films have explored the careers of men who have found a place in the pantheon of popular mythology. Critic John Powers says seeing Carlos and The Social Network side by side made him think about how much social values have changed in recent decades.
'To The End' A Solemn Exploration Of Israeli Identity
October 20, 2010 David Grossman began working on his novel To the End of the Land while his son Uri was in the Israeli Army. He hoped it would protect him. It didn't. Uri was killed, and Grossman's fiction explores the fragility of families, nations and life itself.
Book Reviews
A Kafkaesque Spy Thriller Straddles Two Koreas
September 30, 2010 Young-ha Kim's latest thriller, Your Republic Is Calling You, is about a North Korean spy living covertly in Seoul for two decades — when he's suddenly called to return to Pyongyang. Critic John Powers says the suspenseful novel offers a gripping look inside modern Korean culture.
Movies
Taking 'Last Train Home' Shows Changes In China
September 14, 2010 Filmmaker Lixin Fan's Last Train Home documents the journey 130 million migrant workers make back to their rural villages every Chinese New Year. But the movie is not only about families traveling home — it's about China's modernization. Critic John Powers says the images in the "epic and intimate" movie are "absolutely ravishing."
Movies
Mesrine: A Ruthless Crook, A 'Killer' Film
August 27, 2010 The French outlaw Jacques Mesrine, who terrorized France and killed 39 people, is the subject of the thrilling Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which stars Vincent Cassell as Mesrine and Gerard Depardieu as a Parisian crime boss. Critic John Powers applauds Cassell's acting, saying it "ranks with the best of DeNiro or Pacino or, more recently, Daniel Day-Lewis."
Movies
'Inferno': A Catastrophic Film Finds Redemption
August 2, 2010 In 1963, French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot decided to make a movie that would reinvent the movies. It was called Inferno, and the unfinished film was an enormous failure. But a new documentary about the disastrous project is anything but — critic John Powers says Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno is "cinematically thrilling."
Pop Culture
Two Ladies: Are You Team Bella, Or Team Lisbeth?
July 19, 2010 Critic John Powers compares the heroines featured in this summer's two cultural juggernauts — Twilight and the Millennium Trilogy. And despite being almost diametrically opposed, the characters Lisbeth Salander and Bella Swan have more in common than you may think.
Movies
'I Am Love': A 'Madame Bovary' For Our Century
July 2, 2010 Tilda Swinton stars as a wealthy wife and mother who gets involved with a younger man in Luca Guadagnino's acclaimed new film I Am Love. Fresh Air's critic-at-large John Powers says the movie offers grownup audiences something they've been missing. (Recommended)
Book Reviews
Nazi Noir Ventures To Havana In 'Dead Rise Not'
June 15, 2010 If the Dead Rise Not, the latest book in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther detective series, shifts the saga from prewar Nazi Germany to 1954 Havana. Critic John Powers says the Chandleresque novel kept him glued to his deck chair for days.
Television
'Lord Peter' Returns, And It's No Mystery Why
May 10, 2010 Dorothy Sayers' genteelly dapper detective, portrayed by Ian Carmichael in the '70s BBC miniseries, returns in a newly released DVD set. Critic John Powers reviews the first two episodes of a murder-mystery collection whose success on American TV paved the way for PBS's popular Mystery franchise.
