Movie Reviews : NPR

Movie 'She Dies Tomorrow' Reviewed

July 31, 2020 • Amy Seimetz's new movie, She Dies Tomorrow, captures the mood of the moment with moody atmospherics, hallucinatory flashes of color, and unsettling editing and humor.

Movie 'She Dies Tomorrow' Reviewed

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Jane (Jane Adams) and Jason (Chris Messina) get caught up in a viral outbreak of fatalism in She Dies Tomorrow. Neon hide caption

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Neon

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'She Dies Tomorrow' Is A Mood

July 31, 2020 • Writer/director Amy Seimetz's darkly, darkly comic meditation on the contagious nature of anxiety and paranoia plays with horror conventions while refusing to embrace the genre's pulpy pleasures.

Showtime's 'The Go-Go's' Documentary Breaks The Seal

(L-R): Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, Belinda Carlisle, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin perform in 1981. Cassy Cohen/Showtime hide caption

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Cassy Cohen/Showtime

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Showtime's 'The Go-Go's' Documentary Breaks The Seal

July 31, 2020 • A new documentary chronicling the formation, rise and break-up of the iconic group hits all the familiar Behind the Music beats, but does so with a bracing, clear-eyed candor.

Terrific New Thrillers 'Amulet' And 'Relic' Explore Terrors Lurking Within The Home

A mischievous nun (Imelda Staunton) welcomes a stranger into a decrepit house in the supernatural thriller Amulet. Rob Baker Ashton/Magnet Releasing hide caption

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Rob Baker Ashton/Magnet Releasing

Terrific New Thrillers 'Amulet' And 'Relic' Explore Terrors Lurking Within The Home

Fresh Air

July 24, 2020 • Characters' living spaces are infected with dark spirits and become inescapable prisons in two new movies. Amulet is an intensely creepy revenge thriller, while Relic explores the horrors of dementia.

Terrific New Thrillers 'Amulet' And 'Relic' Explore Terrors Lurking Within The Home

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Orion Lee as "King-Lu" and John Magaro as "Cookie" star in director Kelly Reichardt's film First Cow. Allyson Riggs/A24 Films hide caption

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Allyson Riggs/A24 Films

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Udder Western Skies: 'First Cow'

July 24, 2020 • Sometimes, all it takes to change your life is a cow. In the new film First Cow, director Kelly Reichardt follows two men who meet by chance and come up with a plan to get rich. All they need is a couple of ingredients. First Cow is a western, a friendship story, a caper movie, and even a meditation on nature.

Udder Western Skies: 'First Cow'

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More Epic Than You May Think: Marie Curie's Biopic, 'Radioactive,' Reviewed

July 23, 2020 • Radioactive seems like a straightforward biopic of physicist Marie Curie at first. But it becomes more complicated as the director uses flash-forwards to illustrate the effects of Curie's discoveries.

More Epic Than You May Think: Marie Curie's Biopic, 'Radioactive,' Reviewed

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'Showbiz Kids' Gives Child Actors The Chance To Tell Their Own Stories

Evan Rachel Wood is one of the interview subjects in the new documentary Showbiz Kids. HBO hide caption

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HBO

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Showbiz Kids' Gives Child Actors The Chance To Tell Their Own Stories

July 18, 2020 • In a new HBO documentary, current and former child actors from Wil Wheaton to Todd Bridges to Evan Rachel Wood talk about abuse, money, work and finding your way as an adult.

Marwan Kenzari, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlize Theron, Luca Marinelli, and KiKi Layne star in Netflix's The Old Guard. Aimee Spinks/Netflix hide caption

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Aimee Spinks/Netflix

Pop Culture Happy Hour

War Is Forever In 'The Old Guard'

July 17, 2020 • The big summer action movie is one of the things we've been missing this year, and now, we've got one. And it's a good one, too. The Old Guard stars Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne as members of a squad of fighters who have been in the battle game for much, much too long. The Netflix film is based on a series of comics by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández, and Rucka wrote the screenplay. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood is much loved for films including Love and Basketball.

War Is Forever In 'The Old Guard'

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'Palm Springs' Romantic Comedy Is A Total Winner For The Lockdown Era

Fresh Air

July 14, 2020 • Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti play misfit wedding guests who are forced to repeat the same day over and over again in a fiendishly clever comedy reminiscent of Groundhog Day.

'Palm Springs' Romantic Comedy Is A Total Winner For The Lockdown Era

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Kick Back With 'Palm Springs,' A Witty Romcom About Fighting Despair

Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg star in Palm Springs, an offbeat romcom with a surprising amount of charm. Hulu hide caption

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Hulu

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Kick Back With 'Palm Springs,' A Witty Romcom About Fighting Despair

July 11, 2020 • The romantic comedy starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti finds two people connecting at a wedding and getting a lot more than they bargained for.

World War II Naval Drama 'Greyhound' Charts A Trim, Efficient Course

Captain Krause (Tom Hanks) looks astern in Greyhound. Apple TV+ hide caption

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Apple TV+

Pop Culture Happy Hour

World War II Naval Drama 'Greyhound' Charts A Trim, Efficient Course

July 10, 2020 • Tom Hanks stars in, and wrote the screenplay for, this familiar but effective tale of a Navy captain leading a convoy of merchants ships through U-boat-infested seas.

'The Old Guard' Is A Smart Blend Of Action And Emotion

KiKi Layne, Luca Marinelli, Charlie Theron, and Marwan Kenzari are part of The Old Guard in Netflix's film of the same name. Netflix hide caption

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Netflix

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'The Old Guard' Is A Smart Blend Of Action And Emotion

July 10, 2020 • Director Gina Prince-Bythewood knocks it out of the park with a film about soldiers who fight (and fight and fight), based on a series of comics and starring Charlize Theron as the boss.

2 New Movies Exploring Mother-Daughter-Granddaughter Relationships Reviewed

July 9, 2020 • Two new movies from directors with Japanese connections center on mother-daughter-granddaughter relationships. The Truth by Hirokazu Kore-eda and Relic by Natalie Erika James are available online.

2 New Movies Exploring Mother-Daughter-Granddaughter Relationships Reviewed

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'Welcome To Chechnya' Chronicles Abuses Against Its LGBTQ Citizens

Welcome to Chechnya chronicles the persecution of LGBTQ youth in this ultra-conservative society. HBO Max hide caption

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HBO Max

'Welcome To Chechnya' Chronicles Abuses Against Its LGBTQ Citizens

Fresh Air

July 8, 2020 • Homosexuality and gender nonconformity have long been frowned upon in Chechen society. Welcome to Chechnya is a grimly ironic title for a documentary that plays like a chilling undercover thriller.

'Welcome To Chechnya' Chronicles Abuses Against Its LGBTQ Citizens

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