Movie Reviews

Remembering film director and producer Ivan Reitman

4:26pm February 14, 2022

by Bob Mondello

Film director and producer Ivan Reitman, who tickled moviegoers' funny bones with such '70s and '80s smash comedies as Ghostbusters, Meatballs, Stripes and Kindergarten Cop, has died.

NPR's Culture Desk suggests movies, books and songs for Valentine's Day.

For Valentine's Day, a few of our favorite love stories to read, watch and hear

11:47am February 14, 2022

by Miranda Mazariegos

Valentine's Day reminds us we can relearn and redefine what it means to love and be loved. So, we offer some books, songs, and movies about passion, devotion, and relationships to take on the journey.

Max (Stéphane De Groodt) and Alice (Elsa Zylberstein) are trapped in a house by robots in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's sci-fi satire Bigbug.

Arts

Visually stunning satire 'Bigbug' finds laser-targeted laughs amid a robot uprising

5:00am February 11, 2022

by Glen Weldon

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) returns with a gorgeous, hilarious and slyly warm-hearted sci-fi satire about a machine uprising in a suburb of the future.

Zoe Kravitz is an agoraphobic tech worker who stumbles on evidence of a crime in Kimi.

Arts

'Kimi' is a pandemic-era thriller that's eerily keyed into our current moment

1:25pm February 10, 2022

by Justin Chang

An agoraphobic tech worker stumbles on evidence of a possible murder in Steven Soderbergh's new film. Zoë Kravitz stars in this gripping story of technology, surveillance and isolation.

Arts

'The Worst Person in the World' takes millennial angst to an exquisite new level

1:38pm February 04, 2022

by Justin Chang

At first glance, the commitment-phobic woman at the film's center may seem to embody stereotypes about people her age, but this perceptive Norwegian dramedy doesn't reduce her to those assumptions.

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Julie (Renate Reinsve) overlooks the many life-choices she's about to make in The Worst Person in the World.

Arts

'The Worst Person In The World' is an achingly precise portrait of young adulthood

9:41am February 04, 2022

by Glen Weldon

In Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier's film, Julie (Renate Reinsve) is a young woman who can't decide who she is. As she finds out, she makes mistakes that inspire an ache of rueful recognition.

Seidi Haarla plays a Finnish archaeology student traveling by train through Russia in Compartment No. 6.

Arts

Strangers on a train share a bumpy ride in the Finnish film 'Compartment No. 6'

5:19pm January 20, 2022

by Justin Chang

At times, Juho Kuosmanen's film plays like a scruffier, less romantic version of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise. There's tension to every scene, a sense that anything could go wrong at any moment.

Rahim (Amir Jadidi) tries to reconnect with his son (Saleh Karimai) in A Hero.

Arts

A seemingly good deed goes awry in Asghar Farhadi's gripping moral drama 'A Hero'

11:27am January 14, 2022

by Justin Chang

A media circus ensues when a man on leave from debtors' prison finds a handbag and returns it to its rightful owner. Motives are always more complicated than they appear in Asghar Farhadi's film.

World News

Iranian Oscars entry 'A Hero' explores the complexity of a good deed

5:25pm January 06, 2022

by Bob Mondello

The Iranian film A Hero is about a man who becomes a celebrity after doing a good deed. In filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's hands, what seems to be a black and white morality tale becomes more gray.

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Arts

In 'Parallel Mothers,' Almodóvar hitches unruly passions to women and family

5:06pm December 25, 2021

by Bob Mondello

Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar takes a long, colorful look at motherhood in his melodrama Parallel Mothers, starring Penélope Cruz.