John Powers

John Powers appears in the following:

2 First-Rate Novels Celebrate The Humor And Heroism Of Unconventional Women

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Authors Dorthe Nors and Sayaka Murata use bracing good humor to subvert readers' expectations about single women in their new novels, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal and Convenience Store Woman.

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Though Gripping, CIA Thriller 'Condor' Falls Short Of Defining Its Era

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

A new series on AT&T's Audience Network updates the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor. Critic John Powers says Condor is an entertaining show that lacks the cultural relevance of its forerunner.

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'The Split' Explores The Price And Permutations Of Breaking Up

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

The six-part series centers around members of the Defoe family — high-end lawyers specializing in marital issues whose own private lives are as furtive and messy as the cases they're handling.

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Sharply Written 'Mars Room' Ventures Behind The Bars Of Women's Prison

Monday, May 07, 2018

Rachel Kushner's new novel centers on a young mother serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering a man who'd been stalking her. Critic John Powers calls The Mars Room "searingly intelligent."

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50 Years Later, '2001: A Space Odyssey' Is Still A Cinematic Landmark

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

Stanley Kubrick's science-fiction epic — which opened to mixed reviews in 1968 — unknowingly foreshadowed the future of effects-driven blockbusters.

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'The Sparsholt Affair' Confirms Alan Hollinghurst's Status As A Literary Master

Monday, March 12, 2018

Hollinghurst's new domestic epic leapfrogs across seven decades to examine how the laws of social propriety shape the destinies of a father and son. Critic John Powers says the novel is fascinating.

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Comedy Is Drenched With Foreboding On Season 2 Of 'Atlanta'

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Donald Glover's Emmy-winning FX series returns for its second season on Thursday. Critic John Powers says Atlanta is simultaneously "strange and angry and hysterically funny."

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'This Is What Happened' And 'Babylon Berlin' Deliver Thrills And Intrigue Aplenty

Monday, February 05, 2018

Critic John Powers says Mick Herron's latest novel sucks you in from the opening page, and a Netflix series imported from Germany is both fun and binge-able.

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'Assassination Of Gianni Versace' Offers A Juicy Take On Serious Issues

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

The new season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story revisits the 1997 murder of the Italian designer. John Powers says the show presents a moving portrait of homophobia in 1990s America.

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Critic's 'Ghost List' Has Books, Music And A TV Show That Deserve A Second Look

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Every year, critic John Powers is haunted by the things he wishes he'd reviewed. The themes his 2017 "Ghost List" range in spirit from cosmic surrealism to ripped-from-the-headlines immediacy.

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Zippy And Delightful, 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Spotlights An Unlikely Comic

Monday, December 04, 2017

Amazon's new series centers on a spurned 1950s housewife who has a knack for stand-up comedy. Critic John Powers says Rachel Brosnahan delivers a "genuinely funny performance" in the title role.

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'Dawn Watch' Explores The Life And Legacy Of Joseph Conrad

Monday, November 20, 2017

Maya Jasanoff weaves together biography, history, literature and her own travels in a new book about the globe-trotting author. Reviewer John Powers says Jasanoff's portrait of Conrad is terrific.

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'Her Body and Other Parties' Charts Dark Territory With Enormous Style

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The eight stories in Carmen Maria Machado's new collection feature women in extremis — physical danger, psychological meltdown, treacherous love or close encounters of a ghostly kind.

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'Battle Of The Sexes' Revisits Billie Jean King's Historic Win Against Bobby Riggs

Friday, September 22, 2017

Emma Stone stars as King in a breezy new film that carries us back to '73, and the heyday of the women's lib movement. Critic John Powers says the message of Battle of the Sexes still resonates today.

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'Top Of The Lake: China Girl' Takes You Places Cop Shows Usually Ignore

Friday, September 08, 2017

The TV series' second season takes place four years after its first, and begins with an unknown Asian woman's body washing up (in a suitcase) on a beach near Sydney.

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If You Want Groundbreaking Noir, Try Looking 'In A Lonely Place'

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The 1950 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame was adapted from a lesser-known 1947 novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, who belongs in the crime-writing pantheon. The novel's just been re-released.

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Albert Brooks' 'Lost in America' Remains Piercingly Relevant 32 Years Later

Monday, August 07, 2017

Newly released on DVD and Blu-ray, the 1985 film follows a well-heeled LA couple who decide to become free-spirited wanderers. Critic John Powers says Lost In America is a comedy for the ages.

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Jet-Setting Vacationers Find Trouble In Paradise In 'Beautiful Animals'

Monday, July 17, 2017

Two entitled young women vacationing on a chic Greek island get involved with a mysterious stranger in Lawrence Osborne's new novel. Critic John Powers calls it a "seductively menacing new thriller."

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'Becoming Cary Grant' Reveals The Self-Invention Of A Hollywood Icon

Friday, June 09, 2017

Mark Kidel's new Showtime documentary tells the story of the man behind the debonair star. Off screen, Grant was "lonely, insecure and haunted by fears of being abandoned," says critic John Powers.

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'The End Of Eddy' Tells Of Growing Up Poor And Gay In Working-Class France

Friday, May 26, 2017

Édouard Louis' autobiographical novel is the story of a young man coming of age in a downtrodden French village. Critic John Powers calls it a "bulletin from the enraged heart of Le Pen country."

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