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The 'Future' Of Movies? Critic Says It's Not So Bright
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The 'Future' Of Movies? Critic Says It's Not So Bright

In his new book, New Yorker film critic David Denby bemoans what digital and global filmmaking has done to the industry. "[Movies] have to play in Bangkok and Bangalore ... as well as Bangor, Maine," he says. "The local flavor has gone out of them."

The 'Future' Of Movies? Critic Says It's Not So Bright

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'Looper' Director: Memory A Form Of Time Travel

Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play different versions of the same character in the time-travel thriller Looper. Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures hide caption

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Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures

'Looper' Director: Memory A Form Of Time Travel

Director Rian Johnson is known for his 2005 high school noir flick Brick. His new movie, Looper, jumps 30 years into a grim future for a twisty thriller involving time traveling assassins. Johnson says time travel stories are intensely relatable, because everyone wonders about their past.

'Looper' Director: Memory A Form Of Time Travel

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'Flight': A Few Million Little Creatures That Could

"Supergenerations" of monarch butterflies migrate over 2000 miles from Canada to Mexico. SK Films hide caption

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SK Films

'Flight': A Few Million Little Creatures That Could

More than 30 years ago, a couple answered a scientist's newspaper ad — and spent two years searching for a monarch butterfly sanctuary in Mexico. The new IMAX film Flight of the Butterflies chronicles how they helped solve the mystery of the monarch's migration.

'Flight': A Few Million Little Creatures That Could

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Parsing Fact From Fiction In 'Won't Back Down'

Nona Alberts (Viola Davis) and Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal) share a triumphant moment with Nona's son Cody (Dante Brown) and Jamie's daughter Malia (Emily Alyn Lind). Kerry Hayes/20th Century Fox hide caption

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Kerry Hayes/20th Century Fox

Education

Parsing Fact From Fiction In 'Won't Back Down'

With a star-studded cast and a catchy title, Won't Back Down tells a powerful story that champions charter schools, vilifies teachers unions and lionizes parents who organize to take over a bad school. But how much of the movie is accurate and how much is fiction?

Parsing Fact From Fiction In 'Won't Back Down'

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'Looper' Is 'Wild' And 'Wears Its Crazy Lightly'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis star as the present and future versions of a skilled assassin in Rian Johnson's mind-bending thriller Looper. Not to be missed is Jeff Daniels, who gives an electric performance as Abe, a man from the future fed up with living in the past

'Looper' Is 'Wild' And 'Wears Its Crazy Lightly'

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'Vulgaria': Raunch Comedy With An Asian Accent

Guangxi gangster Brother Tyrannosaurus (Ronald Cheng, left) agrees to back a film for producer To Wai-Cheung (Chapman To) — with a few conditions. China Lion Entertainment hide caption

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China Lion Entertainment

Review

'Vulgaria': Raunch Comedy With An Asian Accent

Hong Kong cinema's wild man, director Pang Ho-Cheung, brings his eye for the unconventional to his movie-biz satire. Critic Mark Jenkins explains that while some of the Cantonese slang may be lost on an American audience, bawdy jokes share a universal language.

'Solomon Kane,' Hellbound And Down In Old England

William Crowthorn (Pete Postlethwaite) and his Puritan family earn the respect of master warrior Solomon Kane (James Purefoy), the brooding antihero of a bleak comic-book adaptation. RADiUS-TWC hide caption

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RADiUS-TWC

Review

'Solomon Kane,' Hellbound And Down In Old England

Adapted from Robert E. Howard's comic of the same name, Michael J. Bassett's film falls flat in its bid for the big screen. Critic Scott Tobias says the film gets bogged down in its bloodshed, wiping away all trace of the fun the pulp original offered.

'Hotel Transylvania': Vampire Gags, Minus The Bite

Murray the Mummy (Cee-Lo Green), The Invisible Man (David Spade), Frankenstein (Kevin James), Eunice (Fran Drescher), Dracula (Adam Sandler), Wayne (Steve Buscemi) and Wanda (Molly Shannon) are only a few of the ghoulish guests in Hotel Transylvania. Sony Pictures hide caption

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Sony Pictures

Review

'Hotel Transylvania': Vampire Gags, Minus The Bite

An all-star cast, a veteran director and writers with proven comic chops serve up tired laughs and a grating lead character in Hotel Transylvania. Critic Ian Buckwalter wants the animated comedy staked through the heart.

Time And Crime, Thoroughly Crossed Up In 'Looper'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis star as present and future versions of the same man in Looper. Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures hide caption

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Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures

Review

Time And Crime, Thoroughly Crossed Up In 'Looper'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis star as the present and future versions of a skilled assassin in Rian Johnson's mind-bending thriller. Critic Jeannette Catsoulis says the film's offbeat performances and stylized nihilism make up for the plot holes left in most time-travel stories.

'Looper': Time-Travel Nonsense, Winningly Played

Old Joe (Bruce Willis) and his younger self (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), two iterations of the same assassin, play a particularly personal game of cat and mouse in the time-travel thriller Looper. Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures hide caption

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Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures

Review

'Looper': Time-Travel Nonsense, Winningly Played

Rian Johnson's action-thriller can't dodge the frustrating elements of most time-travel tales, but the film's characters, performances and stylization add up to an experience that critic David Edelstein believes is the right amount of happy and tragic.

'Looper': Time-Travel Nonsense, Winningly Played

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From Sweet To Steely: Amy Adams In 'The Master'

Adams is also currently starring in Trouble with the Curve as a lawyer with the makings of a pro baseball scout. Warner Brothers hide caption

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Warner Brothers

Oscars 2013: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

From Sweet To Steely: Amy Adams In 'The Master'

The Oscar-nominated actress plays the forbidding wife of a cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. She tells Fresh Air it was an opportunity to play a character type she'd never played before.

From Sweet To Steely: Amy Adams In 'The Master'

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Actor Herbert Lom, Exasperated 'Pink Panther' Police Chief, Dies

Herbert Lom, left, as police chief Charles Dreyfus and Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Keystone/Getty Images hide caption

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Keystone/Getty Images

The Two-Way

Actor Herbert Lom, Exasperated 'Pink Panther' Police Chief, Dies

Driven mad by the comic incompetence of Inspector Clouseau, Lom's police chief Charles Dreyfus grew increasingly unstable (and increasingly funny, many would say) in seven Pink Panther movies.

Movie Interviews

Health Care Meets Humanity In 'The Waiting Room'

The new documentary The Waiting Room chronicles a day in the emergency room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. The film has no narration or expert interviews, but instead the camera shows interactions between hospital staff and patients, many of whom lack health insurance. Guest host Celeste Headlee speaks with filmmaker Peter Nicks.

Health Care Meets Humanity In 'The Waiting Room'

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'Won't Back Down' Takes A Too-Easy Way Out

Nona (Viola Davis), a well-meaning teacher, teams up with warrior mom Jamie (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to fix the education system that failed their children. Kerry Hayes/Twentieth Century Fox hide caption

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Kerry Hayes/Twentieth Century Fox

Review

'Won't Back Down' Takes A Too-Easy Way Out

Writer-director Daniel Barnz aims to convey the idealism of a community fighting for its children's education. Critic Ella Taylor believes that the film is better described as a propaganda piece focused more on pointing fingers than offering believable solutions.