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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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. -
Philip Gefter's Cocktails with George and Martha traces the evolution of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — from Broadway sensation, to Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
