Opinion

Light It Up: Director Baz Luhrmann (right, with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan on the set of The Great Gatsby) brought a lush visual sensibility to a tale whose tone not everyone thinks of as epic.

Arts

At The Movies, A Swirl Of Style And Substance

5:41pm May 14, 2013

by Bob Mondello

Special effects date back to the dawn of film, but with today's tools moviemakers can put pretty much anything on-screen — which has NPR film critic Bob Mondello thinking about how movie style affects movie substance.

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Letters: New Orleans, Buzz Aldrin

2:00pm May 14, 2013

NPR's Neal Conan reads from listener comments on previous show topics, including postcards from New Orleans and our talk with astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

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A scene from Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film, My Neighbor Totoro.

Arts

The Movie Mark McKinney Has 'Seen A Million Times'

6:51pm May 12, 2013

by Lily Percy

Writer-comedian Mark McKinney could watch Hayao Miyazaki's anime film My Neighbor Totoro a million times. "It still makes me laugh, it still makes me smile," he says.

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Mothers somehow know when we've been bad, but when times are tough, they also have our back.

Health & Safety

Mom's X-Ray Vision Also Sees The Best In Us

2:10pm May 11, 2013

by Scott Simon

Mothers know us better — sometimes better than we know ourselves. As any child will tell you, they really do have eyes in the back of their heads. When times are tough, they also have our back.

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A young Sarah Polley and her actor father, Michael Polley, on a long-ago day; the photo is one of many family memories that surface in Stories We Tell, a superb meditation on dramatizing memory from the director of Away from Her.

Arts

Polley's 'Stories': A Family Saga Strikingly Spun

5:58am May 11, 2013

by Bob Mondello

A director's film memoir of her theatrical family is transformed by surprising discoveries about her parents' past — and her own heritage. Sarah Polley's film becomes a superb meditation on how we dramatize memory. (Recommended)

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Carol Kirsch and her daughter, Rebecca Posamentier, visited StoryCorps in 2008. Posamentier visited again recently.

Preserving The Motherhood Advice And Memories Of A Mom

8:10am May 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

When Rebecca Posamentier was pregnant with her first child, she visited StoryCorps with her mother, Carol Kirsch. The soon-to-be mother tried to glean all she could about parenting from her own mother, before it was too late.

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Sports

Ladies, Want Women's Sports To Get More Attention? Pony Up

11:47am May 09, 2013

by Frank Deford

Some critics say that women's sports aren't treated the same as men's sports when it comes to coverage, marketing and advertising. Frank Deford has some thoughts about why that is, and how it can change.

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When she's discovered to be a multiracial woman "passing" as white, the Cotton Blossom's star performer, Julie (Alyson Cambridge), is forced to leave the company.

Arts

'Show Boat' Steams On, Eternally American

2:50pm May 08, 2013

by Nina Totenberg

A revival of the Hammerstein-Kern classic showcases once again the rich tapestry and timeless themes of an American saga that changed the course of musical theater — and confronted audiences with painful truths about our history.

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In the new film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the Pakistani-British actor Riz Ahmed plays Changez, a self-described "lover of America" who moves back to Pakistan to educate activists.

Arts

Riz Ahmed: Shifting Across Identities And Roles

3:32pm May 07, 2013

by Bilal Qureshi

Both as the lead character in the film The Reluctant Fundamentalist and in his life outside the cinema, British actor Riz Ahmed navigates many identities.

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The NBA Has An Openly Gay Player: What Changes?

1:40pm May 07, 2013

NBA center Jason Collins announced that he is gay in Sports Illustrated and made history as the first active male pro athlete to come out. Kobe Bryant and even the president chimed in with support. NPR's Neal Conan reads from a variety of opinions on the significance of this moment.

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