Movies

"Literally I show up in the morning and I say, 'Who's dead?'" obit writer Bruce Weber explains in the film. "And somebody puts a folder on my desk and that's ... what I do that day." Weber took a buyout from The New York Times in 2016.

Arts

'Obit' Follows The 'Times' Team Charged With Turning Lives Into History

3:29pm April 29, 2017

by Neda Ulaby

A documentarian spent six days filming The New York Times obit desk at work. One staffer describes the process of writing an obituary as "equal parts exhilaration and terror."

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In 1967, Frederick Wiseman's controversial documentary Titicut Follies exposed conditions at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts. Fifty years later, the filmmaker, now 87, has adapted the work into dance.

A Haunting '60s Film About Mental Illness And Incarceration Becomes A Ballet

4:31pm April 28, 2017

by Euan Kerr

Frederick Wiseman's controversial 1967 documentary Titicut Follies exposed conditions at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts. Fifty years later, the filmmaker, now 87, has adapted it to dance.

Arts

'Obit' Documentary Follows Journalists Who Tell Lively Stories Of Death

4:31pm April 28, 2017

by Bob Mondello

NPR movie critic Bob Mondello reviews Obit, a documentary about obituary writing at The New York Times.

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Arts

Listening Back To A 2009 Conversation With Director Jonathan Demme

2:22pm April 28, 2017

The Oscar-winning filmmaker, who died Wednesday, directed The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Married to the Mob and Stop Making Sense. We'll hear a clip of his 2009 conversation with Dave Davies.

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Tom Hanks stars in The Circle as a tech CEO who is part Steve Jobs and part Mark Zuckerberg.

Arts

In 'The Circle', What We Give Up When We Share Ourselves

2:12pm April 28, 2017

by Laura Sydell

The film, based on the book by Dave Eggers, presents a dystopian view of where Silicon Valley is taking the world and captures the tech industry's failure to acknowledge the downside of its creations.

Arts

Film Adaptation Of 'The Circle' Is Part Satire, Part Moralistic Melodrama

1:29pm April 28, 2017

by David Edelstein

Emma Watson and Tom Hanks star in the remake of Dave Eggers' novel about a giant social media company. Critic David Edelstein says he found much of the acting overheated and the ending confusing.

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Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Drax (Dave Bautista) in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Arts

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Our Great Big Summer Movie Preview

10:43am April 28, 2017

by Linda Holmes

Every year at this time, we sit down to make reckless box office predictions and talk up the films we're most excited to see. This time around, we're joined by Audie Cornish of All Things Considered.

Zooler (Tomer Kapon) bonds with his grieving neighbor Eyal (Shai Avivi) in One Week and a Day.

Arts

An Israeli Couple Haltingly Navigate Grief Over 'One Week And A Day'

5:00pm April 27, 2017

by Ella Taylor

They've lost their son. The shiva is over. Now, Eyal (Shai Avivi) and Vicky (Jenya Dodina) "veer off on separate tracks of crazed non-coping" says critic Ella Taylor.

Bert Berns (left) and Jerry Wexler (right) wrote The Drifters' "I Don't Want to Go On Without You" in 1964. (But when the music business drove them apart, they did anyway.)

Arts

'BANG! The Bert Berns Story': The Complicated Man Behind 'Twist And Shout'

5:00pm April 27, 2017

by Mark Jenkins

A new documentary examines the short life — and shady business practices — of the songwriter/producer behind hits like "Tell Him," "Here Comes the Night" and "Hang On Sloopy."

Howard and Lillian: A True Hollywood Love Story chronicles the marriage of Lillian and Howard Michelson, who triumphed over challenges that have doomed many Hollywood couples.

Arts

A Behind-The-Scenes Couple Get Star Treatment In 'Harold And Lillian'

5:00pm April 27, 2017

by Scott Tobias

A new documentary charts the long and loving marriage of a production designer and a film researcher; critic Scott Tobias calls it "sublime and inspiring."