Accessibility links
Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.
thumbnail
Stories By

Kenneth Turan

Review

78th Annual Academy Awards

'Munich': Spielberg's Most Provocative Film Yet

Set after the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Steven Spielberg's film, Munich, follows a secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and kill the 11 Palestinians suspected of having planned the attack. Critic Kenneth Turan says Spielberg's film is about the "murkiest, most divisive of real world issues."

'Munich': Spielberg's Most Provocative Film Yet

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Review

Culture

'Family Stone': Wake Up and Smell the Dysfunction

If you want to escape the holiday fantasies in theaters for a dose of realistic dysfunction, The Family Stone may be for you. The film, starring Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker and Dermont Mulroney, is an offbeat mixture of comic crises and the bite of the real.

'Family Stone': Wake Up and Smell the Dysfunction

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5056524/5056525" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'Lion, Witch, Wardrobe' Preserves Book's Tone

The epic film version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has some flaws, the reviewer says. But in general, he finds the movie true to the "sincerity" of the C.S. Lewis book.

'Lion, Witch, Wardrobe' Preserves Book's Tone

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5045410/5045411" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'Syriana': Provoking Thought on the Fight for Oil

A power struggle over oil in the Middle East is the backdrop for the new film Syriana, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon. Critic Kenneth Turan says the movie is one of "paradoxes, contradictions and complications... it takes numerous risks, and thrives on them all."

'Syriana': Provoking Thought on the Fight for Oil

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5024435/5024436" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'Get Rich or Die Tryin'': Partly Artistic, Partly Pulp

The film Get Rich or Die Tryin' opens in limited release Wednesday. Critic Kenneth Turan says that while director Jim Sheridan turned out a quality film, it's marred by Sheridan's use of salacious material.

'Get Rich or Die Tryin'': Partly Artistic, Partly Pulp

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5005339/5005340" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'Jarhead': Less Than the Sum of Its Parts

Anthony Swofford's memoir of his time as a Marine in the first Iraq war, Jarhead, has been adapted to the screen. Critic Kenneth Turan says the movie has brilliant parts and excellent co-stars, but the picture rarely makes the emotional connection it's after.

'Jarhead': Less Than the Sum of Its Parts

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4989266/4989267" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Movies

'Paradise Now' Is a Life-and-Death Drama

Paradise Now is a powerful and provocative drama about the nightmare of terrorism. It gets its strength from its dispassion. It is uncompromising in its determination to explain, rather than justify, incomprehensible acts.

'Paradise Now' Is a Life-and-Death Drama

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4978214/4978215" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'North Country': A Real Event, Made to Feel Fake

North Country, starring Charlize Theron, is about the sexual harassment class action lawsuit that the women of EVTAC mines in Minnesota filed in the 1980s. Critic Turan says the taint of melodrama affects the entire movie, despite a good performance by Theron.

'North Country': A Real Event, Made to Feel Fake

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4968291/4968292" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'Squid and Whale,' a Model of an Indie Film

The Squid and the Whale won two awards at the Sundance film festival. It's now in theaters. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan says the movie deserves both, calling it "acutely observed [and] faultlessly acted."

'Squid and Whale,' a Model of an Indie Film

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4958280/4958281" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Culture

'Duma': A Boy and a Cheetah

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Carroll Ballard's movie Duma about a boy and a cheetah. He says the film has the same magical qualities as Ballard's earlier films, Fly Away Home and The Black Stallion.

'Duma': A Boy and a Cheetah

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4933611/4933612" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'A History of Violence': A Ticking Timebomb

Film critic Kenneth Turan reviews director David Cronenberg's latest work, A History of Violence. Cronenberg directed films that many consider bizarre, such as Crash, The Fly and Naked Lunch. Turan says this film is less strange, but more disturbing.

'A History of Violence': A Ticking Timebomb

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4860479/4860480" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Culture

'Proof' Makes Winning Jump from Stage to Screen

Film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the movie Proof Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal star in the film version of this Tony and Pulitzer-winning play about a mad mathematician whose daughter may have written his most celebrated proof.

'Proof' Makes Winning Jump from Stage to Screen

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4853784/4853785" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript