John Powers

A new HBO series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel takes a surreal look at the Vietnam war, the costs of colonialism and the disillusionments of revolution and immigration.

McGregor plays a Russian count put under house arrest after the revolution in a new Paramount+ series based on Amor Towles' 2016 novel. Critic John Powers calls it a light series about dark things.

The Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude has become known for making smart, wild movies with very long titles. His latest, "Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World," spends a day following a beleaguered Bucharest woman doing low-level work on an industrial film. But it's far more than that, says our critic-at-large John Powers. Jude gives us a hilarious and biting portrait of a modern world spinning out of control.