Movie Reviews : NPR

Two Ways Of Documenting Uncertainty: 'All This Panic' And 'God Knows Where I Am'

Friends Ginger and Lena in All This Panic. Tom Betterton/Courtesy of Dogwoof hide caption

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Tom Betterton/Courtesy of Dogwoof

Two Ways Of Documenting Uncertainty: 'All This Panic' And 'God Knows Where I Am'

March 31, 2017 • Two documentaries out now flex a bit of moviemaking technique: All This Panic, about young women exploring what life has to offer, and God Knows Where I Am, about a woman who's sure she's seen it all.

Two Ways Of Documenting Uncertainty: 'All This Panic' And 'God Knows Where I Am'

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Caged By Its Noble Intentions: 'The Zookeeper's Wife'

Borne, Freed: Jessica Chastain as the lion-hearted Antonina Zabinski in The Zookeeper's Wife. Anne Marie Fox/Focus Features hide caption

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Anne Marie Fox/Focus Features

Caged By Its Noble Intentions: 'The Zookeeper's Wife'

March 30, 2017 • This historical drama, based on the story of a Warsaw couple who helped hundreds of Jews flee Nazi-occupied Poland, is more interested in their heroism than their humanity.

A Painter, A Novelist And A Contentious Lifelong Friendship: 'Cézanne et Moi'

A Study In Contrasts: Emile Zola (Guillaume Canet) and Paul Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne) in Cézanne et Moi. Magnolia Pictures hide caption

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Magnolia Pictures

A Painter, A Novelist And A Contentious Lifelong Friendship: 'Cézanne et Moi'

March 30, 2017 • It'll help to brush up on your Impressionists before seeing writer-director Danièle Thompson's decades-spanning portrait of Emile Zola and Paul Cézanne, but the film deftly avoids biopic clichés.

In The Documentary 'Karl Marx City,' A Grim But Enlightening Homecoming

Petra Epperlein in the 5th grade, as seen in the documentary Karl Marx City, directed by Epperlein and Michael Tucker. BOND/360 hide caption

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BOND/360

In The Documentary 'Karl Marx City,' A Grim But Enlightening Homecoming

March 30, 2017 • A filmmaker returns to the former East Germany to uncover family secrets and explore how life behind the Berlin Wall traded on civilian informants and an insidious collective obedience.

Young Women Bedeviled By Darkness In Moody 'The Blackcoat's Daughter'

Highway to Hell (and Environs): Joan (Emma Roberts) hitches a fateful ride in The Blackcoat's Daughter. Petr Maur/A24 hide caption

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Petr Maur/A24

Young Women Bedeviled By Darkness In Moody 'The Blackcoat's Daughter'

March 30, 2017 • This impressive debut from director Osgood Perkins, about schoolgirls left at a Catholic school over winter break, "feels like a throat-clearing exercise for a horror prodigy," says our critic.

A Middle-Aged Misanthrope Reconnects With His Long Lost Daughter In 'Wilson'

Fresh Air

March 24, 2017 • Daniel Clowes' angst-ridden graphic novel is the basis for a new film starring Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern. Critic David Edelstein says Wilson's abrasive protagonist is worth getting to know.

A Middle-Aged Misanthrope Reconnects With His Long Lost Daughter In 'Wilson'

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'Beauty And The Beast,' Music, And More From South By Southwest

Emma Watson plays Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, a live-action remake of the 1991 animated film. Laurie Sparham/Disney hide caption

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Laurie Sparham/Disney

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Beauty And The Beast,' Music, And More From South By Southwest

March 24, 2017 • This week, we visit the new Disney live-action adaptation of Beauty And The Beast, and we all report back from Austin about the happenings at South By Southwest.

'I, Olga' Charts One Woman's Path From Alienation To Brutal, Senseless Violence

A Grim Portrait of the Murderer as A Young Woman: Mother (Klára Melísková) and Olga (Michalina Olszanska) in I, Olga. Outsider Pictures hide caption

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Outsider Pictures

'I, Olga' Charts One Woman's Path From Alienation To Brutal, Senseless Violence

March 23, 2017 • The film about a young woman who ran her truck onto a Prague sidewalk in 1973, killing eight pedestrians, is tough to sit through, and recent events lend it a chilling sense of relevance.

"The needs of the many ...": Astronauts Rory (Ryan Reynolds) and David (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Life. Courtesy of Sony Pictures hide caption

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Courtesy of Sony Pictures

'Life' Doesn't Quite Find A Way

March 23, 2017 • In space, no one can hear you yawn: Technically impressive but dramatically airless, this monster flick set on the International Space Station is powered by "space-movie cliches old and new."

In The Agreeably Schlocky 'Power Rangers,' 'Transformers' Meets 'The Breakfast Club'

Zack (Ludi Lin), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Billy (RJ Cyler) and Trini (Becky G) check the time, to determine if conditions are yet favorable for morphin', in Power Rangers. Lionsgate Films hide caption

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Lionsgate Films

In The Agreeably Schlocky 'Power Rangers,' 'Transformers' Meets 'The Breakfast Club'

March 23, 2017 • "Go, Go Power Rangers!" - but should you? The film's playful, earnest tone and "gung-ho chintziness" slowly won critic Scott Tobias over.

A Curmudgeonly Know-It-All Meets The Daughter He Doesn't: 'Wilson'

Estrangement on a Train: Wilson (Woody Harrelson), Claire (Isabella Amana) and Pippi (Laura Dern) in Wilson. Wilson Webb/Twentieth Century Fox hide caption

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Wilson Webb/Twentieth Century Fox

A Curmudgeonly Know-It-All Meets The Daughter He Doesn't: 'Wilson'

March 23, 2017 • Director Craig Johnson's film, based on the Daniel Clowes graphic novel, wants us to invest in a misanthrope's grumbling attempts to reconnect to humanity. Yet its uneven tone keeps us at a distance.

With 'T2: Trainspotting,' Director Danny Boyle Proves You can Go Home Again

Fresh Air

March 17, 2017 • More than 20 years after the release of the original film about a band of thieving Scottish junkies, Boyle returns to the same characters. Critic David Edelstein calls the new film "tremendous fun."

With 'T2: Trainspotting,' Director Danny Boyle Proves You can Go Home Again

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A Unlikely Romance Blossoms, Rooted In A Secret: 'Frantz'

Adrien (Pierre Niney) and Anna (Paula Beer) share a graveside moment in Frantz. Jean-Claude Moireau /Music Box Films hide caption

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Jean-Claude Moireau /Music Box Films

A Unlikely Romance Blossoms, Rooted In A Secret: 'Frantz'

March 16, 2017 • French writer-director Francois Ozon adapts Broken Lullaby, Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 melodrama about a mysterious Frenchman and a German war-widow in the aftermath of World War I.

A Family Struggles To Connect In The Rueful, Richly Detailed 'After The Storm'

Ryôta (Hiroshi Abe) and son Shingo (Taiyô Yoshizawa) visit a market in After the Storm. Film Movement hide caption

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Film Movement

A Family Struggles To Connect In The Rueful, Richly Detailed 'After The Storm'

March 16, 2017 • Hirokazu Kore-eda's drama about a stalled writer's attempts to make peace with his extended family is a quiet and meticulously wrought character study.

'T2 Trainspotting': Indulgent Film Reunites Indulgent Characters, 20 Years Later

A Toast! To Absent Ceiling Babies!: Simon (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor) and Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova) in T2 Trainspotting. Jaap Buitendijk/Sony Pictures hide caption

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Jaap Buitendijk/Sony Pictures

'T2 Trainspotting': Indulgent Film Reunites Indulgent Characters, 20 Years Later

March 16, 2017 • The sequel to Danny Boyle's blisteringly original 1997 movie lacks that film's structure and insight, but the cast can still generate fitful flashes of energy and charm.