Movie Reviews : NPR

'Eternals': A Marvel movie for everyone who complains about Marvel movies

Ikaris (Richard Madden) and Sersi (Gemma Chan) in Eternals. Sophie Mutevelian/Marvel Studios hide caption

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Sophie Mutevelian/Marvel Studios

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Eternals': A Marvel movie for everyone who complains about Marvel movies

October 30, 2021 • Indie director Chloe Zhao's influence is all over the new Marvel outing, a marked departure from the familiar MCU formula.

'Eternals': A Marvel movie for everyone who complains about Marvel movies

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Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' is Good. Period(ical).

Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky and Jeffrey Wright in Wes Anderson's film, The French Dispatch. Searchlight Pictures hide caption

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Searchlight Pictures

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' is Good. Period(ical).

October 26, 2021 • Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch is a love letter to classic French cinema and The New Yorker magazine. Like all of his films, it's highly stylized — this one adopts the format of a magazine. It's an anthology of sorts, featuring three different main stories. The film's actors Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Timothée Chalamet, and Jeffrey Wright.

Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' is Good. Period(ical).

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Movie Review: 'The Harder They Fall'

October 24, 2021 • Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Regina King and Zazie Beetz star in Jeumes Samuel's western, which has a fictional story, but is based on real people.

Movie Review: 'The Harder They Fall'

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Sci-Fi epic 'Dune' is an immersive but incomplete experience

Timothée Chalamet is a royal heir, and Rebecca Ferguson is his mother in Dune. Chiabella James/Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

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Chiabella James/Warner Bros. Pictures

Sci-Fi epic 'Dune' is an immersive but incomplete experience

Fresh Air

October 22, 2021 • Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel is undeniably staggering. But his Dune also feels rudimentary, as if he's managed his source material without fully mastering it.

Sci-Fi epic 'Dune' is an immersive but incomplete experience

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Review: 'Dune' may be on HBO Max, but it's one film you want to see on a big screen

October 21, 2021 • Denis Villeneuve's Dune — based on Frank Herbert's bestselling sci-fi novel — arrives in cinemas and on home screens starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya.

Review: 'Dune' may be on HBO Max, but it's one film you want to see on a big screen

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'The French Dispatch' is a love letter to 'The New Yorker' — and to love itself

Searchlight Pictures/Twentieth Century Fox

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'The French Dispatch' is a love letter to 'The New Yorker' — and to love itself

October 20, 2021 • Wes Anderson's meticulously-constructed tenth feature adopts the format of a New Yorker-like Sunday magazine supplement to tell three very different, but equally idiosyncratic, love stories.

Velvet Underground documentary gets to the heart of the band's radical magic

Fresh Air

October 20, 2021 • Todd Haynes' inventive, immersive movie is full of interesting ideas. The Velvet Underground neatly sidesteps the usual rock-doc banalities as it plunges us into the Velvets and their world.

Velvet Underground documentary gets to the heart of the band's radical magic

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Music Reviews

'The Last Duel' was inspired by a real trial by combat in medieval France

October 18, 2021 • NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to film critic Kenneth Turan about The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott. The story takes place in 14th century France, based on true events about a trial by combat.

'The Last Duel' was inspired by a real trial by combat in medieval France

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'Dune': A sweeping, spectacular spice-opera — half of one, anyway

Paul (Timothee Chalamet) and the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) regard each other warily in DUNE. Warner Bros. hide caption

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Warner Bros.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Dune': A sweeping, spectacular spice-opera — half of one, anyway

October 16, 2021 • Denis Villeneuve's take on Frank Herbert's novel of galactic intrigue and revolution manages to be both epic and introspective, though it doles out its story with gravid deliberateness.

The joys of surprising yourself with 'The Last Duel' ... and 'Succession'

Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in The Last Duel. Patrick Redmond/Twentieth Century Pictures hide caption

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Patrick Redmond/Twentieth Century Pictures

Pop Culture Happy Hour

The joys of surprising yourself with 'The Last Duel' ... and 'Succession'

October 16, 2021 • There's a kind of satisfaction that comes from something living up to your expectations. But there's a different kind of pleasure that only being surprised by your own reactions can bring.

'The Last Duel' is a 'Rashomon'-style #MeToo story — and a messy medieval epic

Adam Driver and Matt Damon play real-life combatants Jacques Le Gris and Sir Jean de Carrouges in The Last Duel. Patrick Redmond/20th Century Studios via AP hide caption

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Patrick Redmond/20th Century Studios via AP

'The Last Duel' is a 'Rashomon'-style #MeToo story — and a messy medieval epic

Fresh Air

October 14, 2021 • Ridley Scott's epic, which opens in 1386 Paris, tells the story of a duel between a squire of a knight from three points of view — including that of the woman they're fighting over.

'The Last Duel' is a 'Rashomon'-style #MeToo story — and a messy medieval epic

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Todd Haynes' new film takes us deep into The Velvet Underground

Paul Morrissey, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed and Moe Tucker from archival photography in a split-screen frame from "The Velvet Underground." Apple TV+ hide caption

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Music

Todd Haynes' new film takes us deep into The Velvet Underground

October 14, 2021 • In his first documentary, filmmaker Todd Haynes uses the language of experimental cinema to spotlight the Velvet Underground, a legendary band that flowered within New York's avant-garde art world.

Todd Haynes' new film takes us deep into The Velvet Underground

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Coming to terms with James Bond's flawed past — as a fan and as a critic

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Nicola Dove/MGM/EON productions

Movies

Coming to terms with James Bond's flawed past — as a fan and as a critic

October 9, 2021 • The new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, is out in theaters, ending Daniel Craig's run as 007. NPR critic Eric Deggans has long loved the franchise — yet its flawed legacy is hard to see past.

Daniel Craig outshines 'No Time To Die' in his final turn as James Bond

Bond (Daniel Craig) teams up with secret agent Paloma (Ana de Armas) in Havana in No Time to Die. Nicola Dove/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios hide caption

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Nicola Dove/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Daniel Craig outshines 'No Time To Die' in his final turn as James Bond

Fresh Air

October 7, 2021 • Craig has been a terrific James Bond, maybe even the best. But there's something a little too strained about the tragic emotional arc his character has carried with over the past several movies.

Daniel Craig outshines 'No Time To Die' in his final turn as James Bond

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'No Time to Die,' Daniel Craig's last Bond film, is in U.S. theaters Friday

October 7, 2021 • NPR's A Martínez talks to Glen Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast and Jourdain Searles, co-host of the podcast Bad Romance, about Daniel Craig's epic conclusion as James Bond.

'No Time to Die,' Daniel Craig's last Bond film, is in U.S. theaters Friday

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Saturday October 30, 2021

'Eternals': A Marvel movie for everyone who complains about Marvel movies

Tuesday October 26, 2021

Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' is Good. Period(ical).

Sunday October 24, 2021

Movie Review: 'The Harder They Fall'

Friday October 22, 2021

Fresh Air

Sci-Fi epic 'Dune' is an immersive but incomplete experience

Thursday October 21, 2021

Review: 'Dune' may be on HBO Max, but it's one film you want to see on a big screen

Wednesday October 20, 2021

Fresh Air

Velvet Underground documentary gets to the heart of the band's radical magic

Monday October 18, 2021

'The Last Duel' was inspired by a real trial by combat in medieval France

Saturday October 16, 2021

Thursday October 14, 2021

Fresh Air

'The Last Duel' is a 'Rashomon'-style #MeToo story — and a messy medieval epic

Todd Haynes' new film takes us deep into The Velvet Underground

Saturday October 9, 2021

Thursday October 7, 2021

Fresh Air

Daniel Craig outshines 'No Time To Die' in his final turn as James Bond

'No Time to Die,' Daniel Craig's last Bond film, is in U.S. theaters Friday