Arts

Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) is a Parisian painter looking for love in Let the Sunshine In.

Arts

'Let The Sunshine In': A Soulful French Comedy Of Carnality

5:00pm April 26, 2018

by Ella Taylor

In this delightful French tale, Juilette Binoche plays an amorous, tart-tongued artist. Filmmaker Claire Denis seems to have created "a fresh sub-genre: the looking-for-love comedy procedural."

Esti (Rachel McAdams) and Ronit (Rachel Weisz) reignite their forbidden of childhood affection in Disobedience.

Arts

In An Isolated Community, Questions Of Faith And 'Disobedience'

5:00pm April 26, 2018

by Andrew Lapin

Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio follows up A Fantastic Woman with a film set in an Orthodox Jewish community, about a forbidden romance between Esti (Rachel McAdams) and Ronit (Rachel Weisz).

Naima (Alia Shawkat) and Sergio (Laia Costa), two women fed up with half-hearted attempts at dating and relationships, decide to spend twenty four straight hours together in an attempt to conjure something meaningful.

Arts

'Duck Butter': A Relationship In Fast-Forward Keeps Nuance On Pause

5:00pm April 26, 2018

by Scott Tobias

Two young women (Alia Shawkat and Laia Costa) launch into a relationship, resolving to be completely truthful with each other. The film's insistent nature lacks subtlety or modulation.

Mel Brooks' office is lined with awards — he's in the elite EGOT club, having won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.

Mel Brooks Says It's His Job To 'Make Terrible Things Entertaining'

3:46pm April 26, 2018

by Susan Stamberg

Brooks, 91, has made a career of poking fun at topics that normally wouldn't make you laugh. "The comedy writer is like the conscience of the king," Brooks says. "He's got to tell him the truth."

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Jake Tapper is CNN's chief Washington correspondent and the host of The Lead and State of the Union. His novel, The Hellfire Club, is set in 1954 Washington, D.C.

CNN's Jake Tapper On McCarthyism, Trump And The 'Jar Jar Binks Principle'

2:04pm April 26, 2018

by Terry Gross

Tapper's new novel, The Hellfire Club, takes place in 1954 during Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Communist "witch hunt" — a time he describes as "very resonant" with the current political climate.

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L to R: Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland), Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Drax (Dave Bautista), Star-Lord/Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff).

Arts

In 'Avengers: Infinity War,' The Superheroes Have Their Work Cut Out For Them

11:23am April 26, 2018

by Bob Mondello

Avengers: Infinity War is the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In it, more than two dozen Marvel superheroes come together to try to save the entire universe.

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Kevin Young's 2012 essay collection The Grey Album: On The Blackness Of Blackness was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Books
Arts

Filtering American History Through A 'Brown' Lens

11:00am April 26, 2018

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Kevin Young's new book of poetry, Brown, is colored by memories from his family and childhood, U.S. history and black culture.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Marvel Studios. Here, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige presents at the 2015 D23 Expo in California.

Arts

Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige On The Future Of Marvel Movies

10:13am April 26, 2018

by Mandalit del Barco

The studio president tells NPR, "Black Panther will not be a one-off for us. ... Movies should represent the world in which they are made." Marvel's latest, Avengers: Infinity War, is out this week.

Books
Arts

Superparents Break The Fourth Wall In 'Eternity'

7:00am April 26, 2018

by Etelka Lehoczky

Cosmonauts Abram and Myshka have traveled the universe and gained superpowers — but in Eternity, they face a new challenge: Parenthood. (And an epic conflict over the destiny of their super-kid.)

Robert Hartmann meets with his tutor, Sandy DeLuck, at the public library in Winterport, Maine. Hartmann reads at about a first-grade level.

Casting Aside Shame And Stigma, Adults Tackle Struggles With Literacy

5:00am April 26, 2018

Over the past 25 years, U.S. adult literacy rates have not improved. Learning how to read, one adult learner says, is like "opening up a Christmas present every day."