
Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.
For more than three decades, Mondello has reviewed movies and covered the arts for NPR, seeing at least 300 films annually, then sharing critiques and commentaries about the most intriguing on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered. In 2005, he conceived and co-produced NPR's eight-part series "American Stages," exploring the history, reach, and accomplishments of the regional theater movement.
Mondello has also written about the arts for USA Today, The Washington Post, Preservation Magazine, and other publications, and has appeared as an arts commentator on commercial and public television stations. He spent 25 years reviewing live theater for Washington City Paper, DC's leading alternative weekly, and to this day, he remains enamored of the stage.
Before becoming a professional critic, Mondello learned the ins and outs of the film industry by heading the public relations department for a chain of movie theaters, and he reveled in film history as advertising director for an independent repertory theater.
Asked what NPR pieces he's proudest of, he points to an April Fool's prank in which he invented a remake of Citizen Kane, commentaries on silent films — a bit of a trick on radio — and cultural features he's produced from Argentina, where he and his husband have a second home.
An avid traveler, Mondello even spends his vacations watching movies and plays in other countries. "I see as many movies in a year," he says, "as most people see in a lifetime."
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The newest Jurassic installment is roaring into theaters. Meanwhile, Danielle Deadwyler is determined to defend her family's land in the post-apocalyptic thriller 40 Acres.
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Argentine pianist and composer Lalo Schifrin, best known for his scores for Mission: Impossible and more than 200 other films and TV shows, including Bullitt, Mannix and Cool Hand Luke, has died.
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Brad Pitt is in the driver's seat this week in F1, while M3GAN 2.0 follows up on the surprise 2022 hit about a killer robot. After something referred to as the "bad thing" occurs, an English professor confronts the emotional fallout in Sorry, Baby.
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El Eternauta has acquired near-mythic status in Argentina since it was first published in 1957.
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My sister and I recently unearthed a forgotten box of correspondence our mom received from servicemen she'd met at Red Cross dances in Rome near the end of the war. She would have been 100 this year.
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In 1939, the character of Mr. Smith — played by Jimmy Stewart — spent 25 hours on the Senate floor railing against corruption.
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The pandemic decimated the box office and the reshaped the moviegoing experience. NPR's movie critic, Bob Mondello, looks back on how his job changed during the early months of COVID-19.
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Wondering what to watch this weekend? Captain America: Brave New World may have what you're looking for. Plus, two favorites from the Sundance Film Festival.
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Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower envisioned the Kennedy Center as an "artistic mecca." President Trump recently told reporters he'd never seen a show there.
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President Trump plans to fire several Board Members at Washington, D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and indicated that he's naming himself chairman. Here's why it matters.