Arts

Each of the young women in Laura van den Berg's The Isle of Youth is searching for significance in her life, troubled by the choices she's made. Their tales make up a collection of short stories written with cool aloofness. Critic Rosecrans Baldwin says that this book won't be for everyone — but for fans of detached prose, it's spectacular.

The documentary Dear Mr. Watterson explores the world of the classic comic strip. NPR's Don Gonyea spoke with director Joel Allen Schroeder about the film and the strip, which still has devoted fans long after the final panels appeared in the paper.

The online retailer is premiering its first original show — a comedy about four senators bunking together in D.C. NPR's Eric Deggans says the series, which stars John Goodman, isn't quite the sharp comedy you might expect from creator Garry Trudeau.

In Philomena, the British comedian plays a journalist helping an older woman track down the son she was forced to give up for adoption. Coogan tells NPR's Robert Siegel about the project — one with a bit more weight than his usual work.

Critic David Edelstein calls the film, in which an elderly man sets out to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize, a "superb balancing act" from director Alexander Payne.

For many young readers, Dahl is a beloved author. But to Lucy Dahl, he's also Dad. "Matilda was one of the most difficult books for him to write," she says. "I think that there was a deep genuine fear within his heart that books were going to go away and he wanted to write about it."

Food labels have become battlegrounds. Government regulators, companies and food movement activists have been fighting over what belongs on the label. (GMOs? Trans fats? Claims that bran prevents heart disease?) We asked four big thinkers for their dream food label.

Dern's new film follows a man named Woody who is starting to show signs of dementia. When Woody falls for one of those junk-mail sweepstakes come-ons, he becomes convinced that he's won $1 million and sets out on foot to collect the cash. Dern tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "[Nebraska] is the most personal movie I've ever done in my career."