Film

After a lifetime of acting, the 84-year-old Hal Holbrook is still racking up new accomplishments. Last year, he received his first Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his performance in Into The Wild. This year, he stars in a new film, That Evening Sun.

In an apocalyptic-movie age, The Road is the doomiest. A close translation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, the film tracks a father and son as they fight to survive in an ash-gray world haunted by death and global destruction. Critic David Edelstein says that its depiction of unbearable extremity, John Hillcoat's film achieves a kind of sublimity.

Martin Scorcese said of Sam Fuller's work, "If you don't like the films of Sam Fuller, then you just don't like cinema." The maverick screenwriter and director died in 1997, but a new 7-disc selection of his work embodies what's most enjoyable and enduring about pulp fiction.

Director Wes Anderson has worked on a lot of film projects, but with his latest film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, he ventured into new territory: animation. Anderson says that making a stop-motion picture is the most involved filmmaking he's ever done, but he also says that the process has "a sort of magic."

Stephenie Meyers' four-novel Twilight saga set off a rage for lovelorn teen vampires —-one that only escalated after the release of the first hit movie. The second film, New Moon, set box-office records for advance sales, but critic David Edelstein says it's too turgid for the excitement to last.

When Sacha Baron Cohen grants an interview, it's usually in character -- as Borat, the clueless faux-Kazakh journalist; or as Bruno, the outrageously shallow, ostentatiously gay Austrian fashionista at the center of Cohen's most recent film. Today, though, Cohen joins Fresh Air as himself, for a conversation with Terry Gross and Bruno director Larry Charles.

This month Woody Harrelson stars plays Capt. Tony Stone in a new movie about the costs of war. His character notifies the families of fallen soldiers. Harrelson's performance is already generating Oscar chatter.

Director Wes Anderson's first animated film is based on Roald Dahl's cheerfully wicked children's book about a wily fox who wages war on three farmers. Critic David Edelstein says the film -- with its stop-motion animation, big-name voice talent and quirky mannerisms -- achieves a degree of realism that isn't always apparent in the cult director's work.

This month Woody Harrelson stars in a powerful new movie about the costs of war. He plays Capt. Tony Stone, a veteran of the Army's Casualty Notification service, charged with the task of notifying the families of fallen soldiers. The film opens Nov. 13, but Harrelson's performance is already generating Oscar chatter.

David Edelstein reviews the quirky new comedy from Jared Hess, who co-wrote and directed Napoleon Dynamite.

What This Is It lacks in tactful timing, it makes up for with perspective on Michael Jackson's backstage life. Although Jackson's star persona stays front and center, critic David Edelstein says director Kenny Ortega makes a real effort to show us the performer's human side — a treat that makes the King of Pop all the more stellar.

Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story made a splash, but critic John Powers says its critique of capitalism is "the kind of scattershot tirade I used to hear in my college dorm." Better object lessons: New documentaries, Schmatta and American Casino, that do far more to explain how grand economic forces shape our daily lives.

Director Mira Nair's Amelia attempts to capture the free-spirited life of famed pilot Amelia Earhart. But with a flat script and shallow story, says critic David Edelstein, the movie is more of a blueprint--it never breathes.

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."

A new six-hour documentary about Monty Python's Flying Circus commemorates the show's 40th anniversary. Reviewer David Bianculli calls it entertaining and "completely different."

The director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation discusses his new film, Where the Wild Things Are, adapted from Maurice Sendak's classic children's book of the same name.

Shot on a $15,000 budget, director Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity is a bare-bones thriller about things that go bump in the night.

A Serious Man is the Coen Brothers latest (and most specifically Jewish) take on the question of cosmic injustice. Larry Gopnik, a staid Mid-western physics professor, watches helplessly as his life begins to crumble. Critic David Edelstein says the movie unfolds like a strange, sad joke that makes you wonder whether the punchline "will make you laugh or want to kill yourself."

Set in the 19th century, Jane Campion's Bright Star centers on the unconsummated affair of John Keats and his Hampstead neighbor. Reviewer David Edelstein says the film doesn't have a single less-than-perfect performance.