Film offers 'Hard Truths' about why some people are happy — and others are miserable
Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives a phenomenal performance as a profoundly unhappy woman. There isn't a lot of plot, but director Mike Leigh builds his stories from the details and detritus of daily life.
'Camera Man' unspools the colorful life of silent film star Buster Keaton
By age 5, Keaton was a star in his family's vaudeville act; he went on to star in and direct silent films, performing jaw-dropping stunts. Slate film critic Dana Stevens profiles Keaton in a new book.
!["[The West is] about as far from my lived experience as you can imagine," Cumberbatch says. He plays a cattle rancher in Jane Campion's film, The Power of the Dog.](http://wfdd-live.s3.amazonaws.com/images/story/Fresh-Air-Weekend-Benedict-Cumberbatch-Succession-actor-Brian-Cox-1074726546-1642871724.jpg)
The collision of old and new money is on glitzy display in HBO's 'Gilded Age'
Set in New York City the early 1880s, this ten-part costume drama is basically an American Downtown Abbey, complete with rich and poor, power brokers and household workers.
Remembering André Leon Talley, a titan of the fashion world
The former creative director at Vogue magazine and larger-than-life fashion influencer died Jan. 18. Talley spoke to Fresh Air in 2018 about growing up in Durham, N.C., and discovering fashion.
Remembering Ronnie Spector, lead singer of the Ronettes
Spector, who died Jan. 12, was part of the 1960s girl group that gave us "Be My Baby." She left the music business for some years but returned to recording in the 1970s. Originally broadcast in 1988.
'Barn' is Neil Young's best album in quite a while
Young has long been a nature writer, composing pastorals about the environment. Barn finds him composing lyrical hymns to the earth and sky, or raging against destruction on the horizon.
This Marine-turned-journalist interviewed the Taliban commander he had fought against
Thomas Gibbons-Neff served two tours in Afghanistan, and is now a New York Times reporter. He recently interviewed a high-level Taliban commander about a battle they had both been engaged in.
!["[The West is] about as far from my lived experience as you can imagine," Cumberbatch says. He plays a cattle rancher in Jane Campion's film, The Power of the Dog.](http://wfdd-live.s3.amazonaws.com/images/story/Benedict-Cumberbatch-digs-into-toxic-masculinity-in-The-Power-of-the-Dog-1074072160-1642623309.jpg)
'To Paradise' is an inspired and vivid puzzle that doesn't quite come together
Hanya Yanagihara's much anticipated 700-page novel is a deliberately difficult work, made of up dazzling moments that tend lose their luster when pressed together.