Movies

The film version of 'Dune' aims to remain true to the sci-fi author's vision

6:13am October 21, 2021

Director Denis Villeneuve's film Dune recreates the desert world of the 1965 sci-fi novel. He tells NPR's A Martínez that Dune has lived in his imagination since he was a kid.

Arts

From Scar to James Bond enemy Safin, movie villains have long shared a harmful trope

7:34pm October 20, 2021

by Avery J.C. Kleinman

The new James Bond film No Time To Die is providing an opportunity for advocates to push back on ways villains are portrayed with scars and other facial differences.

Art critic J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton) lectures in The French Dispatch.

Arts

'The French Dispatch' is a love letter to 'The New Yorker' — and to love itself

6:00pm October 20, 2021

by Glen Weldon

Wes Anderson's meticulously-constructed tenth feature adopts the format of a New Yorker-like Sunday magazine supplement to tell three very different, but equally idiosyncratic, love stories.

Velvet Underground documentary gets to the heart of the band's radical magic

1:23pm October 20, 2021

by John Powers

Todd Haynes' inventive, immersive movie is full of interesting ideas. The Velvet Underground neatly sidesteps the usual rock-doc banalities as it plunges us into the Velvets and their world.

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Arts

How Troy Kotsur of 'CODA' broke barriers as a deaf actor, on stage and on screen

2:29pm October 19, 2021

by Mandalit del Barco

The new film CODA tells the story of a hearing daughter living with her deaf family. It represents a breakthrough for deaf representation on screen and it stars acclaimed actor Troy Kotsur.

'Genius' actor Cynthia Erivo opens up her voice on 'Ch. 1 Vs. 1'

1:20pm October 18, 2021

by Terry Gross

The British actor and singer played abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet, and Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha. Now Erivo has a debut album. "I sing often with a bit of a smile," she says.

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Economy

Books
Arts

It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

7:54am October 17, 2021

The first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book was published in October 1979. Fans are looking back at how the series has endured in popularity and why it's still relevant.