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Movies: Movie Reviews and Commentary on New and Classic Films NPR Movies podcast, movie reviews, and commentary on new and classic films. Interviews with filmmakers, actors, and actresses.

Movies

Friday

When Daddy's Little Girl Just Won't Let Go

Who's Your Daddy? Emma Craven (Bojana Novakovic) redefines paternal protection as her father (Mel Gibson) seeks justice for her murder in Edge of Darkness. Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

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Warner Bros. Pictures

Opinion

When Daddy's Little Girl Just Won't Let Go

In three newish films — Edge of Darkness, Creation, and The Lovely Bones — three desperate fathers are haunted by their dead daughters. That made critic Bob Mondello wonder: What in the world is that about?

When Daddy's Little Girl Just Won't Let Go

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As Europe Watches, A 'Murder Wall' Awaits

Mad Men: Florian Lucas and Benno Furmann play German mountaineers Andi Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz — daredevil climbers who set out to scale the North Face of Switzerland's Eiger Peak, also known as the "Murder Wall." Music Box Films hide caption

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Music Box Films

Review

As Europe Watches, A 'Murder Wall' Awaits

Director Philipp Stolzl takes the viewer to dizzying heights in North Face, an adventure drama inspired by the true story of two German mountaineers who tackled one of the most dangerous climbs in the Swiss Alps.

Film About Israeli Arabs Makes Oscar Short List

Thirteen-year-old Nasri (Fouad Habash) gets caught up in the violence between warring families. Kino International hide caption

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Kino International

Movie Interviews

Film About Israeli Arabs Makes Oscar Short List

The Israeli movie Ajami, short-listed for an Oscar, does not include the well-worn characters that Western audiences have come to expect from Middle Eastern movies. Rather, focusing on a gritty neighborhood in the old seaside city of Jaffa, it delves into the urban problems and personal conflicts of the area's residents. And it pays special attention to an often invisible minority — Israeli Arabs.

Film About Israeli Arabs Makes Oscar Short List

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Miramax Studios Shuts Offices

It was the end of an era Thursday for lovers of independent film. The New York and Los Angeles offices of Miramax Films closed their doors for good. The company, founded in 1979 by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, churned out a string of low-budget hits before joining Disney in 1993 where it made many of its their best and best-known movies.

Miramax Studios Shuts Offices

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Mad Mel, Approaching The 'Edge Of Darkness' Again

The Fury Of Revelation: Mel Gibson plays a police detective out to solve the murder of his only daughter — and unearthing corporate cover-ups and government conspiracies in the process. Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

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Warner Bros. Pictures

Review

Mad Mel, Approaching The 'Edge Of Darkness' Again

Fresh Air

The star seems as angry as ever in Edge of Darkness, a film about a Boston police detective out to uncover the truth behind his daughter's death. Gibson delivers a quality performance — in a film that's in love with its own rage.

Mad Mel, Approaching The 'Edge Of Darkness' Again

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Documentaries Shine At This Year's Sundance

Hollywood stars, independent film producers and movie critics have been swarming Park City, Utah. The Sundance Film Festival wraps up this weekend. Two documentaries that Kenneth Turan recommends are Secrets of the Tribe and Cane Toads: The Conquest, which is a 3D movie. A dramatic film that is expected to do well is Winter's Bone.

Documentaries Shine At This Year's Sundance

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A Taste For Everything: 'Lost' Showrunners Pick DVDs

Damon Lindelof (left) and Carlton Cuse are executive producers for the TV series Lost. The hit ABC drama begins its final season Feb. 2. Frederick M. Brown/Getty hide caption

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Frederick M. Brown/Getty

Movie Interviews

A Taste For Everything: 'Lost' Showrunners Pick DVDs

Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse love everything from country star biopics to rock and roll mockumentaries. They join Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep to talk about how their favorite DVDs have influenced their work on Lost.

A Taste For Everything: 'Lost' Showrunners Pick DVDs

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Thursday

In 'For My Father,' A Bridge-Building Too Far?

Unlikely Couple: An alienated soccer star from the Palestinian city of Nablus, Tarek (Shredi Jabarin, foreground) meets Keren (Hili Yalon) near a bustling market in Tel Aviv — where Tarek, in an effort to save his father, intends to blow himself up. FilmMovement hide caption

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FilmMovement

Review

In 'For My Father,' A Bridge-Building Too Far?

A Palestinian suicide bomber becomes just another outcast in a shabby Tel Aviv neighborhood in this Israeli fable of cross-cultural empathy. Director Dror Zahavi doesn't go so far as to contrive a happy ending — but he does put an awfully cheerful spin on conflicts that don't usually inspire much optimism.

A 'Saint John' Who's Patron Of Oddballs, Sad Sacks

A Tour Of The Inferno: Insurance-fraud investigator John Alighieri (Steve Buscemi, left) wanders the Nevada desert in search of the truth behind a stripper's auto accident. Romany Malco plays his guide, Virgil. IndieVest Pictures hide caption

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IndieVest Pictures

Review

A 'Saint John' Who's Patron Of Oddballs, Sad Sacks

John Alighieri (Steve Buscemi) has two great ambitions: To hook up with his co-worker and to talk his boss into giving him a raise. One is easy enough; the other involves a Dante-esque tour of Las Vegas involving everything from scratch-off lottery tickets to a stripper in a wheelchair.

A Daughter, 'Off And Running' In Pursuit Of Herself

On Your Marks, Get Set: Avery Klein-Cloud is the daughter, the sister, the track star and the co-writer of Off and Running — but the film doesn't quite go. First Run Features hide caption

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First Run Features

Review

A Daughter, 'Off And Running' In Pursuit Of Herself

Avery Klein-Cloud doesn't come from your typical American family, which is probably why director Nicole Opper made a documentary about it. Distanced from her African-American heritage and drawing away from her Jewish adoptive moms, the track star spirals into an identity crisis — which ultimately raises more questions than Opper's film answers.

Movie Interviews

Sundance Film Festival Reviewed

The Sundance Film Festival, the annual granddaddy of independent film festivals, wraps this weekend in snowy Park City, Utah. Lisa Kennedy, film critic for The Denver Post, reviews this year's festival.

Sundance Film Festival Reviewed

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Culture

Cheech And Chong Reunite, At Long Last

Cheech and Chong, the famous stoner comedy duo, have reunited for their first tour in more than 25 years. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong released their first comedy albums in the 1970s, with routines about hippies, sex and most notably, their love of marijuana. Marin and Chong talk with NPR's Neal Conan about their "Get It Legal" tour, their friendship and what brought them back together after so many years.

Cheech And Chong Reunite, At Long Last

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Wednesday

National Security

Documentary Advances Nuclear Free Movement

The documentary Nuclear Tipping Point features interviews with four former U.S. government officials — all dedicated Cold War warriors when they were in office — who now advocate the elimination of nuclear weapons. Three years ago, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn and William Perry wrote an op-ed arguing that it is time to begin ridding the world of nuclear weapons. That sparked a movement, and producers hope the film can take it further.

Documentary Advances Nuclear Free Movement

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Saturday

National

Prop 8, The Movie

KQED

After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly prohibited the YouTube broadcast of the first federal trial over same-sex marriage, a group of Hollywood actors decided they'd step in and film re-enactments. Using transcripts of the day-to-day proceedings, director John Ireland writes the scripts by day, and by night he films a reenactment at a mock trial courtroom on the campus of USC. The episodes will be broadcast over the Web.

Prop 8, The Movie

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Nine Years Later, Hughes Brothers Picture Apocalypse

Picture a bleak, post-apocalyptic American wasteland where nearly all of humanity has been wiped out save for a solitary, dust-covered man, carrying a sword and a mysterious book. It's the first movie in nearly nine years for directors Albert and Allen Hughes, who also directed such films as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents. Guest host Audie Cornish speaks with the duo about their new movie, The Book of Eli.

Nine Years Later, Hughes Brothers Picture Apocalypse

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