Dawes has just released its third album, Stories Don't End. The band has cited Neil Young and Crosby, Stills & Nash among its influences, but channels them with good humor and confidence that its own distinctiveness will shine through.
In Frances Ha, a 27-year-old (Greta Gerwig) navigates New York City — and the transition from prolonged adolescence to proper adulthood. Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script; they join Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about the project.
Four albums of reissues and archival recordings from Crosby's own vaults are getting a high-profile release; they demonstrate that his influence on modern singing is so huge, we barely notice it anymore. He could sing anything from Latin to Hawaiian to The Great American Songbook.
The fourth volume in Robert Caro's monumental biography of Lyndon Johnson is The Passage of Power; it explores the period between 1958 and 1964 during which Johnson went from powerful Senate majority leader to powerless vice president to — suddenly — president of the United States.
The movie is loud and obvious, but it's not a desecration of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 masterpiece. Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of The Great Gatsby is more like a cartoony Broadway musical version of Gatsby in which no one, alas, sings.
In her new novel, Emperor's Children author Claire Messud explores the complicated relationship between two women: Nora, who longed to be an artist and have a family but failed, and the woman Nora befriends, who puts her art first and built a family as well.
Christopher Guest's new HBO comedy series follows a down-on-his-luck guy looking into his family genealogy. Guest, who pioneered the mockumentary style in cult classics like This Is Spinal Tap, co-created the show with Jim Piddock and star Chris O'Dowd.
The legendary Hollywood FX man died Tuesday at age 92. Known for creating the monsters in such films as Mighty Joe Young and Jason and the Argonauts, Harryhausen spoke with Fresh Air in 2003 about studying animals in nature to create the monsters of our imaginations.
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was a sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another financial collapse. Journalist Gary Rivlin says passing the bill was just a first step in a long road to real reform, and the financial system is as vulnerable to disaster it was in 2008.
On Mother, Maines' first solo record, the singer moves beyond the music that propelled her to fame as a member of the Dixie Chicks. It features an assortment of pop and rock covers, including a reworking of the Pink Floyd song that lends the album its title.
In a talk he titled "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema," the famed director spoke passionately about the history of cinema and the films that stoked his love for the medium.
Even as a child, Patricia Volk knew she would never measure up to her strikingly beautiful mother. But after reading the memoir of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Volk found a new understanding of beauty that had more to do with personality than a pretty face.
On Showtime's dark comedy series, Laura Linney plays a terminally ill cancer patient. The actress's own father died from lung cancer while the series was being made; her mother was a cancer nurse when Linney was young. These experiences, she says, inform her performance.
The latest novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin takes inspiration from Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Both stories take place in isolated old houses, and both revolve around mental contests between a governess character and her young charge.
Dubbed a country singer by virtue of her Nashville base, Rose sounds more like a pop vocalist on The Stand-In. Drawing inspiration from Roy Orbison, Carlene Carter and countless others, Rose knows it takes an assured performer to sell the notion of vulnerability over the long haul.
Director and co-writer Shane Black kicks Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., out of his comfort zone — a choice that has Stark functioning as a lone gumshoe, thinking like a garage mechanic and, when necessary, straight-up MacGyvering a fix.
In her classic '60s documentary, Shirley Clarke profiles a loquacious 33-year-old gay hustler who dreams of having a nightclub act. Her subject could hardly be more complex — and in examining him, she raises important questions about the relationship between fact and fiction.
Since a garment factory collapsed last month in Dhaka, killing more than 400 people, ethical fashion has been in the spotlight. Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion, explains the economy that created this tragedy and what we can do to fix it.
Jeff Nichols and Ramin Bahrani made names with small, low-budget movies: Nichols with Take Shelter and Bahrani with Man Push Cart. Both have now directed big-budget films with big stars: Nichols' Mud features Matthew McConaughey, and Bahrani's At Any Price stars Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron.
Adrian Raine argues that violent behavior has biological roots just like depression or schizophrenia. This raises questions about treatment, accountability and punishment, including the death penalty.
