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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Just as Better Call Saul is, in some ways, more interesting than Breaking Bad, so Endeavour offers more emotional richness than the series that inspired it. -
Sarah Lancashire plays Catherine Cawood, a big-hearted police sergeant trying to protect her grandson from his violent father. The three seasons offer a twisty and deeply satisfying emotional journey. -
A vibrant student named Clara is walking home one night when a faceless man steps out of the darkness and sets her on fire. The award-winning film is a study in misogyny — not a simple whodunnit. -
A French woman and Japanese man battle to inherit the world's most valuable wine collection in this high-gloss Apple TV+ series, based on the hit Japanese manga. -
How to Blow Up A Pipeline is a lean, sleekly made movie about a modern-day monkey-wrench gang. Although unabashedly partisan, it doesn't preach or glamorize the eco-saboteurs. -
Eleanor Catton's novel centers on young members of an radical environmental rights group who wind up entangled with a billionaire drone manufacturer. Our critic devoured all 400+ pages in two days. -
The HBO series starring Matthew Rhys lures us in with the Perry Mason brand. But it ultimately overlooks the shark-like courtroom demeanor that made the character more legend than lawyer. -
The Oscar-nominated documentary follows two brothers in Delhi who run a homemade infirmary nursing black kites — birds of prey widely considered a scavenging nuisance — back to health. -
Based on an actual criminal case in France in which a Senegalese woman killed her baby daughter, Alice Diop's film is rigorous, powerful and crackling with ideas about isolation and colonialism. -
The 1985 novel has been described as "unfilmable." Baumbach wasn't deterred — and though the movie brims with terrific moments, his White Noise doesn't hold together as well as Don DeLillo's.
