John Powers

The festival concluded Saturday. Fresh Air critic John Powers discusses the winners and the films that generated the biggest responses — both positive and negative.

Unlike Jaws and Alien, whose creatures are soulless things to be destroyed, Godzilla resonates because of something that once defined the best monster movies — a sense of compassion for the monster.

A crackling new translation of Giorgio Scerbanenco's crime novel Private Venus has just been released. Critic John Powers read it in a single sitting.