'Just Mercy': An Earnest, Effective Legal Drama
This adaptation of attorney Bryan Stevenson's book about a wrongly condemned black man dramatizes that case while offering an unflinching look at the death penalty.
Movie Reviews
Review: '1917'
At the height of World War I, two British soldiers are given a seemingly impossible mission. LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan talks with NPR's David Greene about the movie 1917.
'1917' Is A World War I Epic Crafted To Look Like A Single Continuous Camera Shot
The World War I film, 1917, tells of an urgent rush to the front lines and has been designed to look as if it's a single, continuous shot.
'1917' Is Gripping, Visceral And Strangely Beautiful
Sam Mendes' technique — stringing together a series of long takes to seem continuous, as if the story's events unfold in real time — makes for a "wholly absorbing cinematic experience."
A Critic Returns To The Books, TV, Music And Movies He Didn't Get To In 2019
Few things haunt a critic more than loving something and not being able to share it. This year, Fresh Air critic John Powers circles back to Unbelievable, Atlantics, Where the Light Falls and more.
Double Feature: Critic Justin Chang Pairs His Favorite Films Of 2019
In a year where wealth, inequality and class rage were hot movie topics, few had more to say than Parasite and Knives Out — two films that seemed to be in conversation with each other.
Movie Review: 'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker'
The third movie in the third trilogy of the scrappy little space-opera-that-could — Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — opened this weekend.
'Little Women' Again? Greta Gerwig's Adaptation Is Both Faithful And Radical
Gerwig gives us the warm, homespun pleasures of Louisa May Alcott's beloved novel, but she also holds the well-worn text up to the light to consider some of its flaws and compromises.
Two Sisters, Separated By Hardship, Long To Reconnect In 'Invisible Life'
In this unabashedly melodramatic, "intermittently gratifying" tale, two sisters in 1950s Rio de Janeiro follow their separate dreams, not knowing they live close to one another.