The French outlaw Jacques Mesrine, who terrorized France and killed 39 people, is the subject of the thrilling Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which stars Vincent Cassell as Mesrine and Gerard Depardieu as a Parisian crime boss. Critic John Powers applauds Cassell's acting, saying it "ranks with the best of DeNiro or Pacino or, more recently, Daniel Day-Lewis."
Sundance TV's new six-part series centers on a family of high-billing divorce lawyers whose own private lives are as messy as the cases they're handling.
NBC is airing a live version of Peter Pan on Thursday, nearly 60 years after the first live telecast. Critic David Bianculli says the cast and the revival of the medium are genius.
Filmmaker Joseph McCarthy. His new short is “The Brave Man.” It’s a retelling of the Battle of Brooklyn set in modern times. Sixteen red cars (mostly Ford Tauruses) represent the British. The actions of one man, General William Alexander, prevented a British victory that day in 1776. The film stars Graeme Malcolm as Alexander. The low-budget short is still not fully funded. McCarthy is also a creator of corporate promotional films.
Ruben's new movie is called True Believers, and stars James Woods and Robert Downey, Jr. He joins Fresh Air to talk about how he cast the film, and the logistics of using real prisoners as extras.
Actor/comic Kevin Pollack. He got his start in standup. It was his performance in Barry Levinson's "Avalon," as Izzy the TV salesman, that catapulted his acting career. Since then he's appeared in "A Few Good Men," "Miami Rhapsody" and "Grumpy Old Men." He's currently starring in "The Usual Suspects." Later this Fall you can see him in the new Martin Scorsese film, "Casino."
Growing up in the Bronx as the only child of an academic and a real estate broker, actor Kerry Washington remembers her family had two cars and a dishwasher in their apartment — which meant, "in my neighborhood, in my context, we were rich."
Author Lisa Servon says a growing number of Americans are giving up on traditional banks and relying instead on alternatives, including prepaid debit cards, check-cashing centers and payday lenders.
In the book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, neurologist Oliver Sacks explores the relationship between music and the mind.
Through a series of case studies ranging from songs stuck in one's mind to a newfound passion for concert piano after being struck by lightning, the professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the NYU School of Medicine examines the complexity of human beings and the role music plays in our lives.
Underground cartoonist Kim Deitch. In 1967 he began doing comic strips for the "East Village Other" where he introduced his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat, and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. Since then he has contributed to dozens of underground comics.
In his new book, It Doesn't Have to Hurt: Your Smart Guide to a Pain-Free Life, Gupta, a trained neurosurgeon, writes about pain — what causes it, and the various medications that can be used to treat it. He also reflects on ways to train the mind to minimize certain kinds of pain, using distraction and meditation.
You'd have to be dedicated to your work to set yourself aflame for "research purposes" — but author Kevin Conley did just that. His new book catalogs his four years spent following Hollywood stuntmen.
Rowlands won acclaim for her performance in "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Gloria." She collaborated with her late husband actor/screenwriter/and director John Cassavetes for thirty years. Rowlands is starring in the new film "Unhook the Stars" in which she plays Mildred, a middle-aged woman who finds herself at a crucial turning point in her life. The film was written and directed by Rowland's son, Nick Cassavetes.
Pete Best was the drummer for The Beatles in their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. His mother, Mona Best, was the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool. The various early incarnations of The Beatles played The Casbah more than 90 times. Best has just co-written a large-format book, The Beatles: The True Beginnings. Today he writes, records and tours with his own group, The Pete Best Band.
Constitutional lawyer Douglas Kmiec supports the new security measures instituted since the September 11th attacks. He is Dean and St. Thomas More professor, at the Catholic University of America. He also was head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Reagan administration. He can often be seen on PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer. His most recent book is "Individual Rights and the American Constitution."
Buck Henry. He's best-known as a frequent guest host on Saturday Night Live. Henry's other accomplishments include writing the screenplays for "The Graduate" and "Catch-22," creating the TV series "Get Smart" in collaboration with Mel Brooks, and co-directing the film "Heaven Can Wait" with Warren Beatty.
An adaptation from Maurice Sendak's book, Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are has a vision all its own, says critic David Edelstein. And it casts a singular sort of spell: With a crack ensemble cast and an almost hallucinatory blending of reality and make-believe, it's "a fabulous treehouse of a movie."
Investigative reporter Mark Schapiro explains in a new book that toxic chemicals exist in many of the products we handle every day — agents that can cause cancer, genetic damage and birth defects, lacing everything from our gadgets to our toys to our beauty products.
Ken Tucker reviews the new home video release titled "A Young Children's Concert with Raffi." Raffi is a singer of children's songs that adults find catchy as well.
