Movies

Natalie Portman plays an astronaut whose life begins to come undone following her spaceflight in Lucy in the Sky.

Arts

Natalie Portman Is 'Lucy In The Sky,' With An Existential Crisis

8:02am October 06, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

The star of a new movie and director Noah Hawley say that their film — based on the life of astronaut Lisa Nowak — aims to keep a woman in psychological decline from becoming a punchline.

In Dolemite Is My Name, Eddie Murphy leads the star-studded biopic about Rudy Ray Moore whose iconic alter ego became a Blaxploitation legend.

Arts

A Breezy Look At The Making Of A Blaxploitation Classic: 'Dolemite Is My Name'

7:01am October 06, 2019

by Chris Klimek

In this 'buoyant but slight' Netflix film, Eddie Murphy plays comic Rudy Ray Moore, who found blaxploitation stardom in the persona of the swaggering Dolemite.

Why so serious?: In Joker, failing stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is done being the butt of the joke.

Arts

'Joker' Is Wild ... ly Dull

5:16pm October 05, 2019

by Glen Weldon

Todd Phillips' film features a bravura central performance and a style that, while dutifully imitative, engenders a claustrophobic sense of dread. But it's all in service of precisely nothing.

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'Joker' Opens To Controversy Over Film's Depiction Of Violence

6:25pm October 04, 2019

As Joker rolls into theaters, NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson about the film's controversial depiction of violence.

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How Spanish Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar Drew From His Own Life For 'Pain And Glory'

4:59pm October 04, 2019

by Bilal Qureshi

Pain and Glory is the latest from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. It tells the story of an aging filmmaker unable to make films — to tell his stories — until the past nudges him forward.

Willie Ito at his home studio in Los Angeles in the late 1970s.

National

Before He Animated For Disney, He Sketched Cartoons In An Internment Camp

5:12am October 04, 2019

As a child, Willie Ito spent nearly three years in a Japanese American internment camp. At StoryCorps, he tells his son how he went from doodling on Sears catalogs to animating for Walt Disney.

James Franco, shown here at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2018, has been served with a lawsuit alleging sexual exploitation and fraud.

Arts

James Franco Sued By Former Students For Alleged Sexual Exploitation And Fraud

8:32pm October 03, 2019

by Elizabeth Blair

A lawsuit has been filed against the actor and others, alleging unsafe and unnecessary sex and nudity at an acting school that he ran. The two plaintiffs spoke with NPR.

Antonio Banderas plays a film director searching for meaning after his physical decline interferes with his ability to create.

Arts

Almodóvar Looks Back With Regret, And Conviction, In The Elegiac 'Pain And Glory'

5:59pm October 03, 2019

by Ella Taylor

Pedro Almodóvar's wonderful, mature drama sees an aging director (Antonio Banderas) ruminating on his mortality while attempting to rouse himself into making another film.

In Low Tide starring Jaeden Martell, three teens pay a heavy price after finding a hidden stash of golden coins.

Arts

In Taut Heist Film 'Low Tide,' Teens Find Treasure, Things Go Wrong

5:00pm October 03, 2019

by Scott Tobias

In writer-director Kevin McMullin's skillful and efficient debut feature, teen burglars on the Jersey Shore discover a bag of gold coins, inciting a string of twists, turns and betrayals.

Arts

'Joker': A Piercing Psychological Portrait Of Batman's Notorious Nemesis

1:38pm October 03, 2019

by Justin Chang

Joaquin Phoenix renders the iconic villain on an intimate, human scale in Joker, a disturbing film about one man's psychological destruction and a city's descent into criminal anarchy.

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