Film

Five years after directing and acting in the remake of "A Star Is Born," Bradley Cooper is once again in front of - and behind - the camera with "Maestro," in which he plays the famed composer Leonard Bernstein. The movie centers on Bernstein's marriage to the actor Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. "Maestro" began a limited theatrical release this week and will start streaming December 20 on Netflix. Our film critic Justin Chang has this review.

The comic/filmmaker is the subject of a new HBO documentary, Defending My Life, directed by his longtime friend Rob Reiner. In 1996, Brooks spoke about his early career in stand-up.

In Todd Haynes' new movie, "May December," Natalie Portman plays a famous actor who's researching a role inspired by a tabloid scandal from years earlier. Julianne Moore and Charles Melton also star in the movie, which opens in theaters today and begins streaming December 1 on Netflix. Our film critic, Justin Chang, has this review.

Mstyslav Chernov is a video journalist and filmmaker. His new documentary, "20 Days In Mariupol," premieres on PBS FRONTLINE on Tuesday, November 21. The film will also stream on YouTube, FRONTLINE's website, in the PBS app and on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video channel.

In the new movie "Priscilla," filmmaker Sofia Coppola uses her signature style to look at their love affair from Priscilla's vantage point - a teenager who comes of age during her romance with Elvis.

Adapted from Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir, the film shows us the cracks in Elvis' Prince Charming veneer — the way he lavishes Priscilla with attention and then suddenly withholds it.

David Byrne was a founding member of the band Talking Heads, one of the seminal bands of the punk, new wave period of the '70s. They recorded eight albums between 1977 and when they stopped playing together in 1988. If you love their music or if you never saw or heard them, this is a great time to watch the 40th anniversary edition of their concert film "Stop Making Sense," which is playing in theaters. It's newly restored with a remastered soundtrack.

The late spy novelist is the subject of a new documentary by Errol Morris, The Pigeon Tunnel. Le Carré worked for MI5 and MI6 early in his career. Originally broadcast in 1989 and 2017.

The new comedy "The Holdovers" finds actor Paul Giamatti reuniting with director Alexander Payne for the first time since their Oscar-winning 2004 film "Sideways." In the new movie, Giamatti plays a teacher at a New England boarding school in 1970 left looking after a group of students, or holdovers, staying put through the Christmas break. Our film critic Justin Chang has this review.

Werner Herzog, is a writer and director who makes films about extremes - extreme personalities, predicaments and places. He's written a new memoir called "Every Man For Himself And God Against All," which is also the subtitle of his film "The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser."

The top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival went to the French film "Anatomy Of A Fall," directed and co-written by Justine Triet. The movie, which opens in theaters this week, is a murder mystery and courtroom drama starring German actor Sandra Huller as a writer accused of killing her husband. Our film critic Justin Chang has this review.

Netflix's anthology series presents four of Dahl's short stories — all of them written for the screen and directed by Anderson, and all of them featuring Dahl's dazzling, fairy-tale-book visuals.

Maryam Keshavarz's new film is called The Persian Version. It’s a fiction film, inspired by Keshavarz’s life and her mother’s. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1969. Keshavarz grew up in New Jersey. Like the character in the film, Keshavarz identifies as bisexual, which her parents considered taboo and unacceptable. About half of the Persian Version is the story of Layla’s mother, growing up in an Iranian country village, and being forced to marry her husband at age 13.

"The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" is the final film by the Hollywood director, William Friedkin, who made "The Exorcist" and won the Oscar for "The French Connection." Premiering this weekend on Showtime and Paramount+, it's a present-day adaptation of Herman Wouk's story about a trial of a ship's officer accused of wrongly ousting his captain, played by Kiefer Sutherland. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says that it uses an old-fashioned story to comment on culture today.

Set decades into the future, the movie begins with a prologue charting the rise of artificial intelligence.

In her new memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones, she reflects on growing up as a military brat, performing in comedy clubs in a male-dominated field and joining the cast of SNL in 2014, when she was 47 years old. When it comes to getting laughs, Jones is committed to physical comedy — even if it sometimes results in injury.

Red Carpet author Erich Schwartzel says that film studios increasingly need Chinese audiences to break even — which can result in self-censorship. Originally broadcast Feb. 21, 2022.

Jones has made a name for herself by casting actors who look like real people — and who are naturally funny.

Fifty years ago, the U.S. government backed a coup that ousted Chile's democratically elected socialist president. Rotting in the Sun and El Conde offer subversive glimpses into the coup's legacy.

Coaxing great ideas out of pop stars is familiar territory for Ronson, but his instrumental score for the film, co-composed with Andrew Wyatt, was his first such project — and he admits that making it work meant stifling some of his usual instincts.