Movie Reviews

Arts

'Invisible Woman' Charts Charles Dickens' Hidden Relationship

9:02pm February 21, 2014

by David Edelstein

A new film explores the affair between Dickens and a young actress for whom he left his wife, but who for years never showed up in biographies of Dickens. It's the second film directed by Ralph Fiennes, who also plays Dickens.

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In the film, which Miyazaki says is his last, the wind carries off the parasol of a fragile girl, Nahoko, into the hands of Jiro — who will fall in love with her.

Arts

'Wind Rises' Is Exquisite, And Likely To Be Hayao Miyazaki's Last

6:57pm February 21, 2014

by David Edelstein

The new film from the acclaimed Japanese animator spans 30 years and centers on a young man who dreams of designing the perfect airplane in the early 1930s. (Recommended)

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In 1975, Shoah director Claude Lanzmann (left) interviewed Benjmain Murmelstein, the last surviving Elder of the Jews of the Czech Theresienstadt ghetto, at his home in Rome. The resulting film is The Last of the Unjust.

Arts

For A Rabbi Who Worked With The Nazis, Is Judgment 'Unjust'?

2:38pm February 19, 2014

by John Powers

Claude Lanzmann's documentary profiles a Viennese rabbi put to work in a Czech concentration camp. Although Benjamin Murmelstein was himself not a free man, he was despised by fellow Jewish prisoners.

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Critic David Edelstein says that The Monuments Men has "an all-star cast" — including Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett — but that "the stars are all low-wattage."

Arts

Masterpieces In Peril, 'Monuments Men' Protects, But Also Panders

3:32pm February 07, 2014

by David Edelstein

George Clooney's film tells the largely true story of a World War II squad of art experts assigned to protect European masterworks from Nazi theft and Allied bombardment. Critic David Edelstein says the film is engaging and earnest, but a little formulaic.

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Arts

Middle-Aged And Divorced, 'Gloria' Takes On Life's Uncertainties

4:23pm January 24, 2014

by David Edelstein

Gloria is a new film from Chile that centers on a late-middle-aged divorced woman whose life is full of ambiguity. She's played by Paulina Garcia, who won the top acting prize — the Silver Bear — at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, where the movie was a surprise hit. It opens this week in New York and Los Angeles, and wider next month.

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Chris Pine and Keira Knightley anchor Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, opposite Kevin Costner as a CIA veteran and Kenneth Branagh as the story's big bad.

Arts

Jack Ryan Gets A Makeover, And A Quick Trip To Moscow

3:05pm January 17, 2014

by David Edelstein

Tom Clancy's wonkish spy returns in a new thriller from Kenneth Branagh, with Star Trek's Chris Pine in the title role and the director playing a menacing Russian bad guy out to bring the U.S. to its knees.

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Chiwetel Ejiofor (left) plays Solomon Northup, a New York freeman kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and eventually resold to plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

Arts

For A Free Spirit, A Grim '12 Years' In Chains

12:39pm January 16, 2014

by Bob Mondello

A brutal corrective to gauzy portrayals of the antebellum South, this true story of a man kidnapped into slavery took home the top audience prize at the Toronto Film Festival. NPR's Bob Mondello says it emphatically deserved the honor. (Recommended)

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Before protesting in The Square, Khalid Abdalla (left) acted in such films as The Kite Runner, Green Zone and United 93.

Arts

Three Protesters, One 'Square': Film Goes Inside Egypt's Revolution

12:46pm January 14, 2014

by John Powers

As we approach the third anniversary of the demonstrations in Egypt, Fresh Air critic John Powers reviews a documentary that captures the story of Cairo's Tahrir Square. He says the film "is less a final reckoning than an exciting bulletin from the front lines of an unfinished revolution."

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Music & Culture

Fiennes Brings Dickens To 'Perfect' Life In 'Invisible Woman'

9:35am January 07, 2014

by Kenneth Turan

The works of Charles Dickens have been made into literally hundreds of films and TV episodes, but almost nothing has been done with the great author's life, until now. Our reviewer says The Invisible Woman is an exceptional film about love, longing and regret.

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In the sci-fi romance Her, a lonely man (Joaquin Phoenix) finds love in a rather unexpected place — with a computer operating system named Samantha.

Arts

In A 'Miraculous Year' For Movies, Edelstein Picks His Favorites

4:44pm January 02, 2014

In 2013, "you really feel as if directors are taking chances in their storytelling," says film critic David Edelstein. He loved the movie Her, and says the biggest surprises of the year were All Is Lost and Much Ado About Nothing. He also explains why 12 Years a Slave didn't make his top 10.

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