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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This six-part BBC mystery series about a sailor murdered aboard a nuclear sub will keep you guessing. As the investigation widens, more murders — and a slew of red herrings — follow. -
As the year draws to a close, critic John Powers singles out seven revelatory people or things that made 2021 a little brighter. At the top of his list? Basketball star Steph Curry. -
This eight-part comedy, which centers on a gender-fluid millennial of Pakistani heritage, takes issues that are often used as hot buttons and treats them as an everyday, often funny part of life. -
Adapted from Nella Larsen's 1929 novella, Netflix's new film centers on two Black women, one of whom pretends to be white; the other could pretend, but chooses not to.
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Todd Haynes' inventive, immersive movie is full of interesting ideas. The Velvet Underground neatly sidesteps the usual rock-doc banalities as it plunges us into the Velvets and their world.
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Two new films grapple with the complexity of moral courage. Wife of a Spy is set in Japan on the cusp of WWII. Azor follows a Swiss banker during the Argentine dictatorship of the 1980s. -
The tension never lets up in this four-part PBS Masterpiece series. As two brothers scramble to cover up their crime, Guilt practically echoes with the sounds of other shoes dropping. -
No fewer than five assassins are on the high speed train at the center of Kotaro Isaka outlandish and virtuoso novel — and within pages, they're going after each other. -
William Gardner Smith wrote the story of a Black writer who, like Smith himself, moved to Paris to pursue a freedom he couldn't find in America. New York Review Books is releasing a new edition.
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The latest season of the British police series on PBS Masterpiece is twistily plotted and suffused with sadness. Unforgotten packs much more of an emotional punch than your ordinary cop show. -
Joshua Cohen offers a fictionalized version of a real-life campus visit by the father of the former Israeli prime minister. The novel offers a funny take on serious things.
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Omar Sy plays a shapeshifting thief in the Netflix series modeled on Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin novels. The new season offers a winning confection of speed, cool settings and good acting.
