John Powers

In the Netflix series Black Doves, the wife of Britain's defense minister is secretly working for a private spy firm. Paramount+'s The Agency is a reworking of the acclaimed French series The Bureau.

This Paramount+ series, featuring Billy Bob Thornton as a savvy veteran of the oil business, is an old-fashioned soap opera and a breezy portrait of one of the world's most influential industries.

This Spanish-language musical about a cartel boss who undergoes gender-affirming surgery won two big prizes at Cannes, including a shared best actress award for its four women leads.

"A Real Pain" is a new comic drama written and directed by actor Jesse Eisenberg. It's the story of two cousins played by Eisenberg and "Succession's" Kieran Culkin, who take a tour of Poland to honor the memory of their Holocaust survivor grandmother. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says the movie, which opens this week, isn't just incredibly entertaining; it's one of the best movies he's seen about coming to terms with the past.

John Powers reviews Michel Houellebecq's novel Submission, which he says will be his last.

John Powers reviews the new documentary ¡Casa Bonita, Mi Amor! It follows South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone as they renovate a dilapidated, inauthentic, 1970s Mexican restaurant.

John Powers reviewed the new movie "The Instigators," now streaming on Apple TV+.

The new crime series "Women In Blue" from Apple TV+ is set in Mexico in the 1970s. It's about four women cops, the first ever in Mexico City, who band together to catch a serial killer while battling their male colleagues' belief that women can't do the job. Our critic-at-large John Powers says that it's a story about the battle to shift consciousness.

The new movie "Twisters" stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as two intrepid storm chasers who compete with each other to find the biggest tornadoes. The movie is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, whose previous film, "Minari," was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says "Twisters" is a pleasurable summer blockbuster, with all the virtues and limitations that phrase suggests.

Agnieszka Holland's film, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, centers on a refugee family trying to escape to Western Europe and the people who try to help and stop them.