Movies Love Blooms Late, But Sweet, For 'Elsa And Fred' June 30, 2008 • In the summer, with school out, teen flicks abound. But occasionally a bit of counterprogramming, like the Spanish film Elsa and Fred, finds its way through. It's a romance — about folks who meet when they're in their 70s. Love Blooms Late, But Sweet, For 'Elsa And Fred' Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/92028459/92013987" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
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Movies 'Wall-E,' Speaking Volumes with Stillness and Stars June 27, 2008 • Crazily inventive, deliriously engaging, emotionally true, Pixar's latest is a gratifying look back at the silent-film twilight of 70 years ago — and a cautionary look 700 years ahead, at what our silent planet's twilight might be. 'Wall-E,' Speaking Volumes with Stillness and Stars Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91894500/91975507" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Movies Crazy Love: In Paris, a Fatally Attractive 'Mistress' June 27, 2008 • L'amour fou has rarely been crazier than in Catherine Breillat's splendidly perverse period romance, whose kisses come dipped in poison — and whose lead (the mesmerizing Asia Argento) is no lady.
Movies From a Trash-Heap Future, a Romance for the Ages Fresh Air June 27, 2008 • Pixar has always focused on loss, decay, and the dark side of materialism. Here that theme extends to the ruination of the planet — and Wall-E ranks among the most sublime feature-length works of animation ever made in this country. From a Trash-Heap Future, a Romance for the Ages Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91946048/91970803" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
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'Wanted' Man: A Milquetoast Gets His Burn On June 27, 2008 • Walter Mitty meets Lara Croft, and then both pretend they're in The Matrix. That's Hollywood's latest hymn to hit men, a brutal but lazily plotted actioner from Russia's Timur Bekmambetov.
Movies 'Wall-E': A Robot Love Story with Heart to Spare June 27, 2008 • Robot love story and human cautionary tale, the film is daring and traditional, groundbreaking and familiar, apocalyptic and sentimental. It's a tonic in these times — and it proves Pixar still has its touch. 'Wall-E': A Robot Love Story with Heart to Spare Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91896053/91955560" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Movies 'Tell No One' a Twisty Tale, and Worth Untangling June 26, 2008 • The French box-office smash is overstuffed with conspiracies, but beautifully constructed and thematically rich — so it remains a pleasure even as the story becomes increasingly implausible.
Movies 'Get Smart' Goes Hollywood, with Mixed Results Fresh Air June 20, 2008 • The '60s sitcom was often a one-joke affair; the film's starry-eyed geek has room for nuance. You can make a case for both Maxes, but critic David Edelstein misses the tube's lovable boob. Anne Hathaway's Agent 99, now ... that's another matter. 'Get Smart' Goes Hollywood, with Mixed Results Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91729930/91735706" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
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Arts & Life 'Get Smart': Still Inept, But in All the Wrong Ways June 20, 2008 • TV's beloved secret-agent spoof gets a big-screen update — but like its bumbling hero, the film is constantly trying to be something it's not. The result: an unfunny comedy spliced with an unexciting spy caper. 'Get Smart': Still Inept, But in All the Wrong Ways Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91646133/91724063" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Movies 'Love Guru': From Mike Myers, an Unholy Mess June 19, 2008 • Insist on seeing it? You may well recoil from sports comedies, Bollywood musicals, self-help spiritualists, puns and even characters with beards for the foreseeable future.
Movies On London's 'Brick Lane,' a Tale of Culture Clash June 19, 2008 • Monica Ali's best-selling 2003 novel gets the big-screen treatment from director Sarah Gavron. It's a cautious, almost timid take on the story — with a few pleasant surprises.
Movies In 'War, Inc.,' It's Not Just Villains Throwing Bombs June 19, 2008 • John Cusack's war-for-profit satire sets an emotionally hobbled hit man loose in the fictional Turaqistan — amid a war run by a multinational company (cough, Halliburton, cough) with ties to a former U.S. vice president.
Movies Stop the Presses: 'Kit Kittredge' Is Pure Kid Stuff June 19, 2008 • Director Patricia Rozema may once have courted controversy (with her revisionist Mansfield Park, for instance), but she doesn't take any risks with this kiddie-franchise film about the American Girl heroine.
Movies In 'Operation Filmmaker,' an Unscripted Outcome June 17, 2008 • Actor Liev Schreiber had what he thought was a good idea: He'd reach out to a Baghdad film student, offering him an internship on a shoot. But as Nina Davenport's documentary proves, good intentions don't always end in good outcomes. Critic-at-large John Powers has a review. In 'Operation Filmmaker,' an Unscripted Outcome Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91583157/91583290" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
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Latest 'Hulk' Something Less than Incredible June 13, 2008 • Sure, it's fun to watch Bruce Banner lose his cool. You'd care more about his getting it back if his character were as developed as his alter ego's biceps. But mostly, Louis Leterrier's film is all brawn, no brain.