Arts & Life 'The Rocket' November 30, 2007 • The career of Quebec-born hockey legend Maurice "The Rocket" Richard — first NHL player to score 50 goals in 50 games — gets a handsome if conventional look in this biopic; Roy Dupuis stars.
'The Savages' November 30, 2007 • Siblings John and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) have managed to reach middle age without growing up; now they're dealing with their long-estranged father (Philip Bosco), who's been diagnosed with dementia. (Recommended.)
Movies 'Diving' into a Personal Story Fresh Air November 30, 2007 • The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a French film by Julian Schnabel (Basquiat and Before Night Falls), is based on a memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, an Elle magazine editor who suffered a stroke. Afterward, a therapist taught him to communicate by blinking his left eye. 'Diving' into a Personal Story Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16772769/16778690" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
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Movies With a Sad Subject, 'Diving Bell' Surprisingly Funny November 30, 2007 • Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's 1997 memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an unexpectedly funny film. It was written after a stroke left Bauby almost completely paralyzed. With a Sad Subject, 'Diving Bell' Surprisingly Funny Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16763767/16763717" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
With a Sad Subject, 'Diving Bell' Surprisingly Funny Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16763767/16763717" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Arts & Life 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' November 29, 2007 • A womanizing fashion editor is felled by a stroke, then learns to communicate again by blinking. Months later, he has dictated a memoir — the inspiration for this wildly creative film by neo-expressionist Julian Schnabel. (Recommended)
Arts & Life 'Enchanted,' a Spellbinding Self-Parody from Disney November 23, 2007 • The film, about an animated princess thrust unprepared into the gritty reality of New York City, is what happens when wised-up meets happily-ever-after. Amy Adams is the indispensable star. 'Enchanted,' a Spellbinding Self-Parody from Disney Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16478729/16571585" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
'Enchanted,' a Spellbinding Self-Parody from Disney Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16478729/16571585" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Movies 'This Christmas' November 21, 2007 • A sprawling, contentious African-American clan gets together for the holidays — and all but unravels on the way to discovering that the true meaning of Christmas is family. With Delroy Lindo, Loretta Devine, Mekhi Phifer and Chris Brown.
Arts & Life 'I'm Not There' November 21, 2007 • Todd Haynes' quasi-biopic assigns six Dylanesque personae to his cast; some do outright imitations, while others offer symbolic takes. Meanwhile the director cycles through his own stylistic personae.
Movies 'Beowulf' Sexes Up, Dumbs Down an Epic November 16, 2007 • Forget Grendel: The monster here is director Robert Zemeckis, who has turned an ancient literary classic into a blood-soaked, 3-D fanboy fantasy that panders with demonic energy to the young male demographic. 'Beowulf' Sexes Up, Dumbs Down an Epic Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16334109/16349293" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Arts & Life 'Love in the Time of Cholera' November 15, 2007 • Director Mike Newell turns a literary classic — about a lad who moons over his lady love for 51 lovesick years — into something cinematically lush and visually handsome. But the tone is off: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's famous love story ends up feeling more overripe than overheated.
Movies 'Southland Tales' November 15, 2007 • The first five minutes of Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly's apocalyptic epic are so arresting that it takes a while for the spell to wear off. But then the film shifts from sci-fi thriller to campy kitsch nonsense. At least it's pretty.
Arts & Life 'Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium' November 15, 2007 • Toys come to life but the story never does in this lumbering holiday "attraction." Director Zach Helm seems to want to enchant the 6-year-old in all of us, but whimsy has seldom seemed so strenuous.
Arts & Life 'Margot at the Wedding' November 15, 2007 • A comedy from dysfunctional-family expert Noah (The Squid and the Whale) Baumbach, starring Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh as sisters who loathe each other — what's not to like?
Arts & Life Coen Brothers Return with 'No Country for Old Men' November 9, 2007 • A big-screen adaptation of the blood-soaked Cormac McCarthy novel is the latest from the creators of Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Barton Fink. Coen Brothers Return with 'No Country for Old Men' Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16153234/16153252" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Coen Brothers Return with 'No Country for Old Men' Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16153234/16153252" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Arts & Life Violence Overwhelms 'No Country' November 9, 2007 • Set in Texas in the 1980's, the film No Country for Old Men narrates a chase for stolen drug money. It's the latest from brother filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, whose films have always had violence as a theme. But this new movie is darker and more violent than ever before. Violence Overwhelms 'No Country' Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16143451/16142147" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Violence Overwhelms 'No Country' Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/16143451/16142147" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript