Movies

Arts

A Visceral, Inventive Blockbuster Roars To Life In 'Mad Max: Fury Road'

4:05pm May 15, 2015

by Chris Klimek

More than 35 years after the release of the original Mad Max, a new chapter emerges, starring Charlize Theron in what Chris Klimek calls a doomsday reinvention like nothing since The Matrix.

The romance between Victor (Rafael Spregelburd) and Sophia (Dolores Fonzi) is a checklist of cliches that the titular character would hate.

Arts

A Film Critic Gets Meta (As Does Ours) In 'The Film Critic (El Crítico)'

2:21pm May 15, 2015

by Bob Mondello

NPR Film Critic Bob Mondello trips down the rabbit hole as he reviews a film that's both a winning romance and a gentle wake-up call for reviewers who forget their role.

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Chloe (Brittany Snow), Flo (Chrissie Fit), Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), Beca (Anna Kendrick), Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) and Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) are the Barden Bellas in Pitch Perfect 2.

Arts

Staying In Tune Isn't So Easy In 'Pitch Perfect 2'

2:06pm May 15, 2015

by Andrew Lapin

Where the original college a cappella comedy felt fresh and unexpected, the overproduced sequel has the greasy fingerprints of commercial expectations all over it.

Charlize Theron as Furiosa, alongside Tom Hardy's Max Rockatansky in the new Mad Max: Fury Road.

Arts

The Women Pull No Punches In Fiery, Feminist 'Mad Max'

1:06pm May 15, 2015

by Mandalit del Barco

Mad Max: Fury Road reboots a testosterone-fueled franchise with some tough new female characters. Director George Miller says women were an organic element as he rethought the original movies.

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Arts

Blythe Danner Lands First Leading Film Role In 'I'll See You In My Dreams'

9:35pm May 14, 2015

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with Blythe Danner about her new film, I'll See You In My Dreams. It is the 72-year-old's first leading role in a film.

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A scene from the 1941 Nazi propaganda film Homecoming by Gustav Ucicky. As seen in Felix Moeller's Forbidden Films.

Arts

Why 'Forbidden Films' Remain Officially Locked Away

5:01pm May 14, 2015

by Mark Jenkins

A new documentary looks at the history of quarantined Nazi propaganda films and considers the consequences of trying to keep them away from the public eye.

Arts

Bad Karma In 'Every Secret Thing'

5:01pm May 14, 2015

by Ella Taylor

A thriller directed by noted documentarian Amy Berg and written by Nicole Holofcener is stacked with plenty of talent, but it can't quite live up to the promise of its twisty-sounding plot.

Filmmakers Launch Campaign To Complete Unfinished Orson Welles Film

7:22pm May 12, 2015

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to producer Filip Jan Rymsza and director-actor Peter Bogdanovich about the 40-day crowdfunding campaign to complete The Other Side of the Wind.

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The world's oldest operating cinema, the Eden, in La Ciotat, southern France, screened some of the first films of the Lumiere brothers in 1895.

Still Playing: The Theater That Saw The Birth Of Cinema

1:22pm May 12, 2015

by Eleanor Beardsley

Not far from the film festival in Cannes is a town with even deeper ties to cinema. La Ciotat is home to the oldest working movie house in the world and was used by the inventors of moving pictures.

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Scarlett Johansson plays Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

Arts

Black Widow, Scarce Resources And High-Stakes Stories

12:14pm May 12, 2015

by Linda Holmes

While there are certainly issues with the Black Widow story in the new Avengers film, we don't just need to get to exactly the right one female Avenger. We need more than one female Avenger.