Film

In the past year, actor Michael Fassbender has played a mutant villain in X-Men: First Class, psychoanalyst Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre and a sex addict in Shame. He discusses several of those roles, as well as his part in Inglorious Basterds.

The Iranian film A Separation won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film on Sunday. Critic John Powers says the remarkable film takes viewers inside a country that is far more complicated and fascinating than news headlines indicate.

Meryl Streep stars as Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's biopic about the former prime minister of the United Kingdom. Film critic David Edelstein applauds her performance, calling it "one of the greatest impersonations I'd ever seen."

The actor is so good at what he does, you might not recognize him from role to role. He's played everyone from Sid Vicious and Dracula, to Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films, and now George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

The orphaned German shepherd was found in the wreckage of a kennel during World War I. Writer Susan Orlean details how he became one of the biggest film stars of the silent era in Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend.

Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has been adapted into a movie starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Critic David Edelstein says the end result doesn't fully mesh with the story it is trying to tell.

From a white-knuckle Wall Street chronicle to a modernized Shakespearean war story, the films on David Edelstein's best-of-the-year list tell solid stories new and old.

The man behind Nine Inch Nails composed the music for the U.S. film adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Here, he discusses composing the film's unsettling score.

Director Brad Bird makes his live-action debut with Ghost Protocol, the latest film in the Mission: Impossible franchise starring Tom Cruise. Critic David Edelstein says the movie is "wonderful fun" and "in a different league than its predecessors."

For more than 20 years, puppeteer Kevin Clash has been the voice behind the lovable red monster on Sesame Street. Both Clash "and" Elmo talk with Terry Gross about performing with Jim Henson, and creating a fun, educational experience for preschool-aged children.

Set in the Cold War era, the espionage thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy spotlights a retired security agent's mission to uncover a Russian spy within Britain's MI6. David Edelstein says the movie is thrilling, creepy and full of "faces you'll love to study."

The recent film portrays former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as a man who had to keep his sexual orientation a secret — while collecting other people's secrets to use against them. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black explains how he researched the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio.

A new DVD set catches a rare solo Monk gig, plus sets by John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin and others.

Critic David Edelstein looks at two current films starring the actor Michael Fassbender — the anti-erotic drama Shame and the biographical drama A Dangerous Method, both of which grapple with the dangers of desire.

A young orphan stumbles on a mystery while living in a Paris train station.

The filmmakers behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall have teamed up to create a new Muppet movie. "We set out to make a Muppet movie that harkened back to the late-'70s [and] early-'80s Muppets that we grew up with," says Jason Segel.

If you've seen the trailers-- or the cover of Entertainment Weekly -- you know the new romantic comedy is selling sex along with the laughs. But the "state-of-the-art zeitgeist sex comedy" also manages to deliver some strong satirical undertones.

At this year's Toronto International Film Festival, the director of Apocalypse Now and the iconic Godfather films shared memories and anecdotes with a sold-out crowd.

Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione go hunting for horcruxes in the first installment of the Harry Potter finale. "Wait, horcruxes?" you ask -- and you won't be the only one.

In 1936, George VI reluctantly ascended to the British throne after his older brother abdicated. Tom Hooper's new film, The King's Speech, tells the true story of George VI's stammer and his relationship with an unconventional speech therapist who helped him speak.