Arts

Arts

From Family Fare To Oscar Bait, The Big Pictures To See At Year's End

2:04pm December 21, 2015

The final weeks of the year are chock-full of huge movies. People Magazine film critic Alynda Wheat offers reviews of some popular year-enders, including Joy, The Hateful Eight and Concussion.

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Mariah Carey appears in, directed, and provided music for Hallmark's movie A Christmas Melody.

Arts

20 Things You Desperately Need To Know About Mariah's Hallmark Movie

11:24am December 21, 2015

by Linda Holmes

Called A Hallmark Melody, the movie stars Lacey Chabert as a fashion designer who relocates to a small Midwestern town with her adorable child. The shocks continue from there.

Genevieve Buechner (in pigtails), Constance Zimmer (holding microphone) and Craig Bierko star in Lifetime's UnREAL.

Arts

A Little Under-The-Radar TV: 'UnREAL'

10:55pm December 20, 2015

by Linda Holmes

Lifetime's UnREAL is one of the shows that might have gotten lost in the shuffle of television, and it's worth looking for.

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There are so many opportunities to screw up pumpkin pie. But done right, it can win friends and influence people.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie: One Woman's Quest For Custard, Crust — And Glory

10:58am December 20, 2015

by Maanvi Singh

Great pumpkin pie is elusive. You could end up with a soggy crust or a grainy filling. For months, reporter Maanvi Singh has been on a journey to learn the art and science of the ideal pie.

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Arts

The Best Of The Worst: Christmas Films

8:34am December 20, 2015

If you haven't found a Christmas movie on TV yet, you can bet you will in the next week. Author and critic Colin Fleming takes us through the Christmas films that are so bad they're good.

Books
Arts

Last But Not Least: Books To Give This Season

8:34am December 20, 2015

Weekend Edition's Books Editor Barrie Hardymon tells Rachel Martin what books she should buy for everyone still left on her holiday shopping list.

The Wiz Live! featured (from left) Elijah Kelley as Scarecrow, Ne-Yo as Tin-Man, David Alan Grier as Lion and Shanice Williams as Dorothy.

'The Wiz Live!' Defied The Skeptics, Returns For A Second Round

8:05am December 20, 2015

by NPR Staff

Live telecasts of other musicals have gotten attention mostly for the hatred they inspired. But The Wiz Live! — back for an encore Saturday night — seems to have broken that spell.

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According to fan reactions, the Star Wars franchise's latest droid BB-8 from The Force Awakens may have out-cuted the clever R2-D2.

The Intimidating Task Behind This Season's Cutest Breakout Star

12:12pm December 19, 2015

by Neda Ulaby

One of the new characters in the latest Star Wars, BB-8, is one adorable droid. With only a sketch of the final product, its creators didn't know how much fuss would come from the harmless robot.

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Conductor Kurt Masur, seen here performing in Leipzig in 2007, announced in 2012 that he had been suffering from Parkinson's disease. He died at age 88.

Conductor Kurt Masur, Leader Of Orchestras In New York And Beyond, Has Died

12:06pm December 19, 2015

by Bill Chappell

Kurt Masur, the German conductor whose career spanned from leading an orchestra in East Germany to more than a decade of reshaping the New York Philharmonic, has died at age 88.

Arts

'45 Years' Of Marriage Change With One Letter

8:04am December 19, 2015

In the movie "45 Years," a man gets a piece of news that threatens the quiet life he and his wife have built together. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with one of the film's stars, Charlotte Rampling.