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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Set in Russia in the years following the fall of communism, The Wizard of the Kremlin doesn't always work dramatically. But you leave with a better understanding of how Vladimir Putin came to power. -
Like any good sequel, this movie feels like a reunion. Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep return in a cleverly written film that will delight anyone who loved the 2006 original.
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A new Netflix comedy series by and starring Dan Levy is a wild inversion of Schitt's Creek. Where that show started out cartoonish and grew warmer, Big Mistakes is a frolic that grows more hellish. -
A tortured Oslo police detective may be on the trail of a psycho killer in this genuinely suspenseful screen adaptation of Jo Nesbø's The Devil's Star. -
Historian Ian Buruma chronicles the lives of ordinary Berliners — including his own father — during World War II. Stay Alive is about the past, but has powerful lessons for the present. -
In the hilarious Netflix series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, three women learn that a long estranged school friend has died in a suspicious manner — and take it upon themselves to investigate. -
The Oscar-nominated Kokuho tells a compelling story about friendship, the weight of history and the torturous road to becoming a star in Japan's Kabuki theater. -
Chris Hemsworth stars as a virtuoso jewel thief, and Mark Ruffalo plays the detective tracking him down in Crime 101. This thriller is a deliberate throwback — and also a lot of fun. -
A washed-up tennis pro gives lessons at a fancy hotel in the Canary Islands. But when he meets an elegant woman with an unlikable husband, things take a noirish turn.
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Idris Elba returns as the world's most unlucky traveler in Season 2 of the Apple TV series Hijack. And Tom Hiddleston is back as a hotel worker/intelligence agent in The Night Manager on Prime Video.
