Movies: Movie Reviews and Commentary on New and Classic Films : NPR

In Cape Town Theaters, 'District 9' Hits Home

August 31, 2009 • The summer sci-fi hit imagines a world in which millions of refugee extraterrestrials live in a filthy, violence-plagued shantytown outside Johannesburg. South African moviegoers got their first look at the film — and its political and cultural overtones — when it opened there Aug. 28.

Wondrous 'Strange': Spike Lee Makes A Musical

Strange interlude: Daniel Breaker plays Youth, the adolescent version of narrator Stew (in background) in Spike Lee's sizzling film version of Stew's semiautobiographical Broadway musical Passing Strange. David Lee/Sundance hide caption

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David Lee/Sundance

Review

Wondrous 'Strange': Spike Lee Makes A Musical

August 29, 2009 • The alt-rock musical Passing Strange earned seven Tony nominations but lasted a mere six months on Broadway. Critic Bob Mondello says it deserved a longer run — at least on the evidence of Spike Lee's kinetic film remake.

Pop Culture

Spike Lee Celebrates Michael Jackson's Birthday

August 29, 2009 • Saturday would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday. After weeks spent mourning the loss of the King of Pop, it's time to celebrate his life. If you're in New York, you should head to Prospect Park where filmmaker Spike Lee is throwing his childhood idol a birthday party — Brooklyn style. Host Scott Simon talks with the filmmaker about his birthday bash for the pop star.

Movie Interviews

'Taking Woodstock': Bystanders At The Revolution

Fresh Air

August 28, 2009 • Ang Lee's film focuses not on the 1969 music festival itself, but on one of the people whose lives were changed by it: Elliot Teichberg, a closeted gay man who offered up his parents' decrepit motel as a home base for the festival's producers. David Edelstein reviews.

At 'Vogue,' A Wintour And Some Discontent

Fashion victim: Vogue doyenne Anna Wintour gets the fisheye from filmmaker R.J. Cutler in The September Issue. Roadside Attractions hide caption

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Roadside Attractions

Review

At 'Vogue,' A Wintour And Some Discontent

August 27, 2009 • The documentary The September Issue follows the making of the heftiest single issue in magazine history. And while its focus is on tastemaker Anna Wintour, the surprise star of the film is the free-spirited redhead who's Wintour's fashion foil — and frequent sparring partner.

'Still Walking' Along Family Fault Lines

Unhappy in their own way: Three generations of a Yokoyama family convene for a rocky reunion in Hirokazu Koreeda's Still Walking. From left, patriarch Kyohei (Yoshio Harada), his step-grandson Atsushi (Shohei Tanaka) and matriarch Toshiko (Kirin Kiki). IFC Films hide caption

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IFC Films

Review

'Still Walking' Along Family Fault Lines

August 27, 2009 • Three generations of a Yokoyama family convene for a reunion of sorts in Hirokazu Koreeda's delicate comedy-drama. Set in the Japanese suburbs, the film is a gentle meditation on how families make peace among themselves, and how their wisdom is conserved and recycled through the generations. (Recommended)

Old Hearts, Young With Desire, On 'Cloud 9'

Romance Rejuvenated: Inge (Ursula Werner) and Karl (Horst Westphal) find that hearts don't always grow wiser with age in Andreas Dresen's Cloud 9. Music Box Films hide caption

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Music Box Films

Review

Old Hearts, Young With Desire, On 'Cloud 9'

August 27, 2009 • Andreas Dresen's protagonists are wrinkled, and each has seen a lifetime's worth of longing. The sex scenes are frank and unforgivingly robust, and the film poignantly tracks the gap between physical decline and the persistence — at full blast — of unfulfilled desire.

Movie Interviews

R.J. Cutler, Spending 'September' With Anna Wintour

August 27, 2009 • The producer behind the campaign-trail documentary The War Room spent months observing another famous but closely guarded process: the making of Vogue magazine's massive September issue. It's the year's biggest — but the film about it is surprisingly intimate.

Recipes

Nora Ephron's Favorite Julia Child Recipes

August 27, 2009 • Nora Ephron's movie, Julie and Julia, has sent Julia Child's classic book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, to the top of the bestseller list. Ephron talks about Child's legacy, and shares favorite recipes from the book.

Pulp And Circumstance: Tarantino Rewrites History

Fresh Air

August 27, 2009 • Writer and director Quentin Tarantino discusses his new film, Inglourious Basterds, which blends elements of the spaghetti western with those of World War II films. Tarantino's other films include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill films.

Jason Bateman: Extracting Fun From The Workplace

Fresh Air

August 26, 2009 • Perhaps best known for his work on the Fox TV show Arrested Development, Jason Bateman discusses his upcoming role as the boss at a vanilla extract company in Mike Judge's new the workplace comedy Extract.

'Taking Woodstock,' But Not All That Seriously

Under the influence: Freed by the Woodstock vibe — and a certain mood-altering substance — shy painter Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin, center) discovers the Aquarian age with two hippies (Kelli Garner and Paul Dano) in a classic VW van. Focus Features hide caption

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Focus Features

Review

'Taking Woodstock,' But Not All That Seriously

August 25, 2009 • Ang Lee's agreeable comedy looks at the now-legendary music festival through the eyes of the Catskills motel owners who, in the summer of 1969, found themselves at the center of a counter-culture event. Critic Scott Tobias says it's like making the gravedigger the hub of a Hamlet remake.

Pop Culture

Loving The "Unlovable" Men Of The 1950s

August 25, 2009 • "Why do we love those unlovable men of the 1950s and early '60s?" asks Jonathan Zimmerman in the Christian Science Monitor. He explains how finding love letters written by his father 50 years ago convinced him today's man is not that different from the 1950s man.

Movie Interviews

Mike Judge, Finding A Comic 'Extract' In The Office

Fresh Air

August 25, 2009 • Writer-director Mike Judge — the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, and the director of the cult-classic workplace comedy Office Space — has a new movie out. It's another satirical look at life on the job; called Extract, it stars Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck and Kristen Wiig.

At The Movies, The '60s Beat Goes On

August 24, 2009 • For the last two summers, movie musicals have been big hits, so you'd expect Hollywood to stock the multiplex with more of the same. Instead, this summer, there are no musicals at all. But a cluster of movies will set audience toes tapping to the beat of a specific moment in time.