John Powers
Stories
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You'll find a gripping new internet thriller in the 'Cloud'
The internet and its discontents run wild in a new film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a prolifically offbeat Japanese filmmaker who's spent the last four decades putting subversive spins on traditional genres.
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'Endling' is a shape-shifting debut that takes on heavy themes with humor
Maria Reva's virtuosic novel starts out as a straightforward story about a Ukrainian biologist, but morphs into a comic take on war, the mail-order bride business and the plight of snails.
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Cold case mystery 'Dept. Q' focuses more on the characters than crime
An Edinburgh police detective and a team of misfits search for a woman who vanished several years earlier. Critic John Powers says the byplay of characters makes Dept. Q worth watching.
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'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' doesn't live up to its namesake
Laura Piani's amiable new romance is weighed down by all its allusions and borrowings — and ultimately fails to deliver on Austen's wit.
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Mission: Impossible's overblown 'Final Reckoning' still thrills
The two hour, 49 minute conclusion to the seven-sequel franchise is self-congratulatory and inanely plotted. But, as always, it's fun to watch Tom Cruise, now 62, execute eye-popping stunts.
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This Hollywood memoir is an expertly mixed cocktail of history and family drama
Matthew Specktor grew up the son of a famous Hollywood agent. In The Golden Hour he serves up family saga, cultural criticism, fictionalized biography, history and lament for a vanishing world.
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Jon Hamm puts a twist on his Don Draper swagger in 'Your Friends & Neighbors'
Wealth comes lined with rage and melancholy in a new Apple TV+ series about a hedge-fund hotshot who loses his job and begins to steal from his suburban friends.
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A police officer investigates her own sister's disappearance in 'Long Bright River'
Set in a Philadelphia neighborhood that's been ravaged by opioids, Amanda Seyfried stars in this heartfelt Peacock series that centers wounded communities and families.
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Animals are swept up in the 'Flow' of this Oscar-nominated flood film
When the flood waters rise, a band of animals takes shelter on a boat, where they have to work together to survive. Flow is a radiant fantasy, where solidarity, not selfishness, can save the day.
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After a tragic accident, a widow faces a lifetime of what-ifs
Live Fast won France's top literary prize in 2022. Brigitte Giraud's haunting book revisits the death of her husband in a motorcycle crash 20-odd years earlier.
