Movies

A handsome, dim-bulb soccer star (Carloto Cotta) takes extreme measures to return to his former state of glory in Diamantino.

Arts

'Diamantino': Portuguese Satire About Soccer, Nationalism And Cloning Scores Goal

5:05pm May 23, 2019

by Danny Hensel

Driven by a standout performance by Carloto Cotta, this Portuguese satire "sizzles with a comic energy rare for a movie with such blunt and weighty political commentary."

Shining? Sure. Shimmering? Yep. Splendid? Um ....: Aladdin (Mena Massoud) and Jasmine (Naomi Scott) in the latest live-action adaptation of the 1992 animated Disney film.

Arts

'Aladdin': A CGI World, Neither Whole Nor New

5:00pm May 23, 2019

by Scott Tobias

Though some elements generate fresh sparks, the remake "mostly has the beat-for-beat quality of the live-action Beauty and the Beast, the current standard-bearer for pointlessness."

Booksmart is the directorial debut of Olivia Wilde, starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever.

Arts

'Booksmart' Is A Wise And Warm Summer Comedy

5:00pm May 23, 2019

by Linda Holmes

Director Olivia Wilde and leads Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever do wonderful work in a film about two high-school best friends who have one night to reverse course.

Jakob Dylan (left) and Tom Petty in a still from Echo in the Canyon.

One LA Community Where Folk And Rock Converged

6:03pm May 22, 2019

Singer-songwriter Jakob Dylan and director Andrew Slater talk about the documentary Echo In The Canyon about music from Laurel Canyon in LA that went on to influence a later generation.

Queue Listen Now

Arts

'The Souvenir' Is A Piercing Portrait Of A Woman Learning To Become An Artist

2:39pm May 21, 2019

by Justin Chang

Joanna Hogg's movie, which centers on a young film student, is the first of a projected two-part drama drawing from Hogg's life. It won the top prize in Sundance's world cinema dramatic competition.

Queue Listen Now

(Clockwise from top left) Toy Story 4, Aladdin, The Kitchen, Dark Phoenix, Men In Black: International, Late Night.

Arts

NPR's Summer Movie Guide: 27 Films Coming Soon To Theaters

10:50am May 21, 2019

Superhero capes and cartoons headline this year's batch of summer flicks, but there's plenty of smaller and weirder stuff, too. Here are the movies we're looking forward to this season.

In Nailed It, director Adele Free Pham — whose father is a refugee from Vietnam — explores how Vietnamese entrepreneurs came to dominate the nail salon business in the U.S.

Arts

How Vietnamese Americans Took Over The Nails Business: A Documentary

8:40am May 19, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

If you got a manicure lately, chances are your nail salon was run by Vietnamese entrepreneurs. In Nailed It, director Adele Free Pham investigates how refugees built a multi-billion dollar industry.

Natasha (Yara Shahidi) and Daniel (Charles Melton) fall in love over the course of a single day in the film adaptation of Nicola Yoon's young adult romance novel The Sun Is Also a Star.

Books
Arts

'Love Is A Thing That Everyone Wants,' Says Author Of 'The Sun Is Also A Star'

9:10am May 17, 2019

by CHRISTABEL NSIAH-BUADI

A Jamaican teen threatened with deportation falls in love over the course of a single day in the film adaptation of Nicola Yoon's bestselling young adult romance novel.

Keanu Reeves is back in the over the top John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum.

Arts

There Is No Spoon, But There's Plenty of Knives In 'John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum'

6:12pm May 16, 2019

by Chris Klimek

The third installment of the Keanu-as-super-assassin series triples down on the gorgeously staged violence, but little things like his character's motivation get hopelessly muddled.

The "we" in We Have Always Lived in the Castle refers to Merrricat (Taissa Farmiga) and Constance (Alexandra Daddario). Charles (Sebastian Stan) is the new guy.

Arts

'We Have Always Lived In The Castle' — And It Feels Like It

5:00pm May 16, 2019

by Andrew Lapin

Shirley Jackson's novel is "a Gothic psychodrama that eats itself from the inside." But this adaptation proves too low-key and repetitive to build suspense and succeeds only in testing patience.