Kidnapping As A Family Business In The True Life Thriller 'The Clan'
The Clan is an Argentine thriller about the real-life Puccio family, which kidnaps for profit. NPR film critic Bob Mondello finds it an unnerving allegory.
Movies
'City Of Gold,' Patchwork Of Cultures: A Tour Of LA's Food Scene
Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Gold is as much a culinary anthropologist and cultural philosopher as he is a food critic. A new documentary follows him across Los Angeles.
'Krisha' Offers A Vivid, Unique Portrait Of Family Dysfunction
Writer-director Trey Edward Shults cast his own family in his home-for-Thanksgiving psychodrama. Reviewer David Edelstein says Krisha "marks the arrival of a truly adventurous, humanist filmmaker."
'Midnight Special' Promises A Smart, Dark Sci-Fi Thriller
Jeff Nichols has made a few other films, but his latest, Midnight Special, is him moving up to another level — reminiscent of Steven Spielberg, says our film critic.
'Allegiant' Explains Itself, But Who Really Cares?
The third film in the Divergent series expends great effort to render the faction system on which it relies easier to understand, but that doesn't necessarily make it more entertaining.
A Family Holiday And A Familiar Face
Director Trey Edward Shults expands his highly praised short into Krisha, a film drawn in part from his own family's story — and starring some of his relatives as well as himself.
A Personal Tale Evokes A Sense Of The Past
Twenty years after the first time we met writer-director Arnaud Desplechin's protagonist, we leap backward in time to visit with him as a younger man.
'The Bronze' Is The Story Of A Mighty, Nasty Gymnast
Starring, and co-written by, Melissa Rauch of The Big Bang Theory, The Bronze wants to be a tale of the rare unlovable female lead, but its tilt toward redemption makes it less interesting than that.
'We Couldn't Save Them': Lessons From A Film About Family And Addiction
"Our job was to love them," says actress Krisha Fairchild. She plays a recovering addict in Krisha, a film written and directed by her nephew, and inspired by her family's struggle with addiction.
In Tackling Bias In Policing, 'Zootopia' Veers Into The Uncanny Valley
The hit animated Disney movie is an ambitious look at racial profiling and policing. It's also evidence that these issues don't neatly lend themselves to pop culture.