John Powers
Stories
-
'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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
A family endures a dictatorship in the Oscar-nominated 'I'm Still Here'
A Brazilian family is rocked when the father disappears following a military coup. I'm Still Here tells the heroic true story of a wife and mother who steers her family through the rapids of tyranny.
-
She's his boss at work, he's her boss in bed in the unsatisfying 'Babygirl'
Nicole Kidman plays a high-flying, married businesswoman who begins an affair with an intern half her age. It's a lead performance more daring than the film itself.
-
A critic looks back at some of the year's most striking culture moments
John Powers celebrates the books, shows and performances that stayed with him, including Miranda July's novel All Fours, Interior Chinatown on Netflix and an iconic Olympic moment with Simone Biles.
