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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A research scientist is on the run from hitmen in this thrilling film. Set in 1977 Brazil, The Secret Agent captures the daily realities and surreal absurdities of life in an authoritarian state. -
An unemployed cabinet maker robs the local art museum — then finds himself plunged into a world of cops and gangsters and life on the run. The Mastermind is a sad movie that gets stronger as it goes. -
A single nuclear warhead, of unknown origin, is heading toward the U.S. mainland in Kathryn Bigelow's new Netflix film. It's an unnerving scenario — but it's also thrilling to watch. -
Ethan Hawke plays a bookstore owner who moonlights as a muckraking reporter in Tulsa, Okla. Though The Lowdown occasionally meanders or misfires, every episode of the FX series is bracingly alive. -
Daniel Dae Kim stars in a thriller about a spy who comes out of hiding to save his long-lost daughter. But instead of personal revelations, the series gets mired in plot twists and shoot-outs. -
Philip Miller's sinister thriller is set in a Great Britain that's lost its bearings. But even when she's terrified, fictional journalist Shona Sandison will always risk everything to get the story. -
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. -
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 Romanian film about an underpaid production assistant driving from gig to gig crackles with brains, obscenity, political anger and jokes that will have you laughing out loud.
