John Powers
John Powers is the pop culture and critic-at-large on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He previously served for six years as the film critic.
Powers spent the last 25 years as a critic and columnist, first for LA Weekly, then Vogue. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Harper's BAZAAR, The Nation, Gourmet, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A former professor at Georgetown University, Powers is the author of Sore Winners, a study of American culture during President George W. Bush's administration. His latest book, WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (co-written with Wong Kar Wai), is an April 2016 release by Rizzoli.
He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, filmmaker Sandi Tan.
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After a heist goes bad, two inept Boston crooks (played by Damon and Affleck) become uneasy partners. The Instigators is a reasonably enjoyable film that reflects an earlier cinematic era. -
Set in 1971 Mexico City, this lively Apple TV+ drama focuses on four police women who discover that it’s easier to capture a serial killer than to deal with the misogyny of the men around them. -
This follow-up to the 1996 blockbuster Twister updates the original by making its heroine — not its hero — the center of gravity, but alas, the script doesn’t let her be a whole lot of fun. -
Agnieszka Holland's film, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, centers on a refugee family trying to escape to Western Europe and the people who try to help and stop them.
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The Hulu show's brisk six episodes take us surprisingly deep inside a figure who moved constantly forward, spurred on by ambition, loneliness and a keen sense of self-protection. -
Edgardo Mortara was just 6 years old when Italian authorities took him away from his family in 1858. Kidnapped is a true story steeped in Roman Catholic antisemitism. -
Corman, who died May 9, made hundreds of films, including the cult classics House of Usher and A Bucket of Blood. We listen back to a 1990 interview, plus critic John Powers offers an appreciation.
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A London barrister in Henry VIII's England finds himself investigating a murder in a monastery. Hulu's new four-part series, based on C.J. Sansom's 2003 novel, feels strikingly contemporary. -
A new HBO series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel takes a surreal look at the Vietnam war, the costs of colonialism and the disillusionments of revolution and immigration.
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McGregor plays a Russian count put under house arrest after the revolution in a new Paramount+ series based on Amor Towles' 2016 novel. Critic John Powers calls it a light series about dark things.
