Movie Interviews
'Polisse' Shows Child Abuse Cases With Gritty Realism
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Movies
Elena (Nadezhda Markina), a dutiful wife to her wealthy husband and a burdened mother to her layabout son, manages to balance the needs of the two, until she learns her husband plans to leave her family nothing in his will.
'Elena': A Femme Fatale, In The Rubble Of Perestroika
()Two families united by marriage but divided by class are the focus of an intensely compelling slice of noir about moral rot and class warfare in post-Soviet Russia. Critic Ella Taylor says the film by director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return) smolders with existential unease.
Movie Reviews
A 'Hysteria' Epidemic, And A Notably Electric Cure ()
The invention of the vibrator is the focus of a romantic comedy set in 1880s London and starring Hugh Dancy, Felicity Jones and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Critic Jeannette Catsoulis says the film is disappointingly limp, turning the story of a device that rocked sexual politics into coy costumed farce.
Movie Reviews
Board Game + Explosions + Aliens = 'Battleship'()
Inspired by the popular board game, the summer blockbuster pits the U.S. Navy against an invading force of hostile aliens. NPR's Bob Mondello says the Transformers-like mayhem that ensues is more or less incoherent.
Movie Reviews
'The Dictator' Rules With A Satirist's Fist()
May 16, 2012 There was Ali G, Borat and Bruno — and now, in The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen has a new character to add to his repertoire: the capricious ruler of an oil-rich country who travels to the U.N. to assert his right to have nuclear warheads.
Monkey See
Home Video Picks: 'Being John Malkovich'()
May 15, 2012 Bob Mondello recommends the Criterion Collection's Blu-ray release of Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze and starring Malkovich, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener.
Movie Reviews
'Dark Shadows': A Retro Redo Lacking Life And Luster()
May 11, 2012 Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's latest collaboration adapts the vintage Gothic soap opera, focusing on aristocratic vampire Barnabas Collins as a fish out of water in the 1970s. NPR's Bob Mondello says that except for Depp's clever turn as Barnabas, there isn't much to sink your teeth into.
Television
Johnny Carson: 'King Of Late Night,' A Man Unknown()
May 13, 2012 This year marks the 50th anniversary of when Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show. For 30 years, Carson reached a nightly audience 15 million people, but he was also intensely private. Guy Raz talks with Peter Jones, director of a documentary looking at the Carson's public and personal lives.
