Movie Reviews

Though her physical transformation in Judy is hardly definitive, Renée Zellweger manages to capture something more elusive: Garland's emotional truth.

Renée Zellweger Dazzles In A Go-For-Broke Portrayal Of Judy Garland

12:12pm September 27, 2019

by Justin Chang

Though her physical transformation is hardly definitive, the actress's profound empathy for her subject elevates Judy from a standard celebrity biopic to an unusually fascinating film.

Queue Listen Now

Marchánt Davis stars as Moses Al Shabaz in The Day Shall Come, a farcical story of a Miami preacher who is set up as a terrorist by the FBI.

Arts

In Anti-Terror Satire 'The Day Shall Come,' Whimsy Blunts The Cutting Edge

5:00pm September 26, 2019

by Scott Tobias

A Miami preacher becomes the target of an FBI sting operation in director Christopher Morris' disappointing follow-up to his blistering comedy Four Lions.

In a small Alabama town where everybody is in everybody's business, Zeke (Andre Hyland, right) and Earl (Michael Abbott Jr., middle) scramble to hide how their bandmate died.

Arts

Yokels Attempt To Hide A Deadly Mistake In 'The Death Of Dick Long'

5:00pm September 26, 2019

by Andrew Lapin

Daniel Scheinert — half of the team behind 2016's Swiss Army Man — directs this sweet but "lumpy and formless" dark comedy.

Based on the Funny or Die Web series, Between Two Ferns: The Movie sees Zach Galifianakis embarking on a road trip packed with celebrity cameos.

Arts

6 1/2 Reasons 'Between Two Ferns: The Movie' Defies The Sketch-Into-Movie Curse

12:00pm September 26, 2019

by Glen Weldon

The Between Two Ferns movie that dropped last week on Netflix expands on the Web series' proven formula, but its sheer joke density rewards repeat viewings.

Arts

'Ad Astra' Approaches The Sublime With Its Portrait Of Masculinity In Crisis

1:49pm September 20, 2019

by Justin Chang

Brad Pitt is an astronaut who saves the world by traveling millions of miles to reunite with his long-absent dad. It's an unabashedly ridiculous premise, but somehow Ad Astra manages to pull it off.

Queue Listen Now

Review: Is 'Downton Abbey,' The Movie, Worth The Wait?

6:12am September 20, 2019

NPR's David Greene talks to Kenneth Turan, film critic for Morning Edition and the Los Angeles Times, about the new movie based on the popular TV series: Downton Abbey. The film opens Friday.

Queue Listen Now

Jim Carter returns as Charles Carson for a royal visit in Downton Abbey.

Arts

In The 'Downton Abbey' Film, A Royal Visit Proves Rather A Spot Of Bother

8:01pm September 19, 2019

by Glen Weldon

The new film is "less a victory lap than a cakewalk." Everything about the TV series — those aspects you loved, and those you didn't — is reproduced here with astonishing fidelity.

More like DAD Astra am I right? Brad Pitt stars as astronaut Roy McBride chasing the ghost of his father across an unforgiving solar system in Ad Astra.

Arts

'Ad Astra' Soars

6:52pm September 19, 2019

by Chris Klimek

Distance — both interplanetary and emotional — is the subject of James Gray's "stirring sci-fi epic" that stars Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones.

Toni Servillo stars in Paolo Sorrentino's film, which was recut from a two-part Italian TV series about the decadent life of Silvio Berlusconi.

Arts

'Loro': Sorrentino's Portrait Of Berlusconi As A Once-Powerful Lion In Winter

5:01pm September 19, 2019

by Mark Jenkins

This "stylish but overloaded satire is less sober narrative than drunken tone poem — a buzzing, throbbing attempt to simulate" what it was like inside the mogul-turned-prime-minister's circle.

Roy Cohn, pictured here sitting on a senate investigation subcommittee, is remembered as a master political manipulator in Where's My Roy Cohn?

Arts

Documentary 'Where's My Roy Cohn?' Suggests He's Closer Than You Think

5:00pm September 19, 2019

by Ella Taylor

Matt Tyrnaeur's documentary posits that Cohn, a notoriously ruthless and amoral political operative, set the ground rules by which today's politics play out.