Movies

Roger and Chaz Ebert attended a benefit awards dinner in Chicago in October 2011. Just over a year later, Ebert agreed to be filmed for a documentary. And then his cancer returned.

Arts

'Life Itself': An Unflinching Documentary Of Roger Ebert's Life And Death

4:05pm July 03, 2014

In late 2012, filmmaker Steve James and Roger Ebert began talking about filming a documentary based on Ebert's memoir. Ebert's wife, Chaz, agreed. They didn't know that he would die within months.

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Arts

In Charming Film 'Begin Again,' Music Can Save A Life

2:14pm July 03, 2014

by David Edelstein

Keira Knightley plays a heartbroken singer-songwriter who teams up with a drunken producer in Begin Again. Irish director John Carney, who had a surprise hit with the musical Once, hit his mark again.

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In Earth to Echo, Brian "Astro" Bradley, Ella Wahlestedt, Reese Hartwig and Teo Halm play a group of kids whose neighborhood is being destroyed by a highway construction project, forcing their families to move.

Arts

Sci-Fi Kid Flick 'Earth To Echo' Broadens The 'E.T.' Formula

7:20pm July 02, 2014

by Bob Mondello

First-time feature filmmaker Dave Green sets his movie apart from Steven Spielberg's classic with found footage, an African-American protagonist and a more central female co-conspirator.

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Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker Paul Mazursky Dies At 84

7:53am July 02, 2014

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Paul Mazursky earned his first Oscar nomination for his debut feature film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, in 1969. His An Unmarried Woman was nominated for Best Picture.

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Arts

Remembering Paul Mazursky, A Filmmaker With An Ear For His Era

7:37pm July 01, 2014

by Robert Siegel

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Paul Mazursky has died at the age of 84. As seen in his films Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and An Unmarried Woman, Mazursky had a way of mixing comedy and drama that captured the 1960s and '70s.

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Comedian Joel McHale spoke at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in May. He says everyone wanted to see his jokes ahead of time, but he likes keeping them a secret.

Arts

Comedian Joel McHale Talks Dyslexia, Bad TV And Filming A Thriller

10:19am July 01, 2014

The host of The Soup co-stars in the thriller Deliver Us From Evil. "I felt like a 12-year-old getting to be in an action film," McHale tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

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Spike Lee directed, wrote and starred in "Do the Right Thing." The landmark film prompted a national conversation about racial tension.

'Do The Right Thing' Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

4:22pm June 30, 2014

by Shereen Marisol Meraji

The film tells the story of how an Italian-owned pizzeria becomes a flashpoint for racial unrest in one of New York City's poorest neighborhoods, the heavily black and Puerto Rican Bedford-Stuyvesant.

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Voice actor Peter Cullen has reprised his role as Optimus Prime in the series of live-action Transformers movies, including the latest, Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Arts

Behind Optimus Prime (And Eeyore), One Man's Signature Voice

8:20am June 30, 2014

by NPR Staff

Peter Cullen, whose oeuvre ranges from Sonny and Cher to Winnie the Pooh, voiced the heroic robot-truck in the 1980s Transformers cartoons. He returned to the role for the series of live-action films.

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Arts

In The Mood For Apocalypse? Skip 'Transformers,' See 'Snowpiercer'

1:25pm June 27, 2014

by David Edelstein

Film critic David Edelstein says Snowpiercer — a dystopian film based on a French graphic novel — is far more invigorating and potent than Transformers 4: Age of Extinction.

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Director Gillian Robespierre (left) co-wrote Obvious Child as a short film in 2009 with an empowered female lead in mind. Jenny Slate, who stars as Donna in the feature film, says she was excited about the role.

Arts

The Women Behind 'Obvious Child' Talk Farts, Abortion And Stage Fright

4:16pm June 26, 2014

For her first feature film, director Gillian Robespierre says she wanted to cast Jenny Slate in the role as an empowered, funny woman. They tell Fresh Air what shaped them as women in comedy.

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