John Powers
Stories
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'The Devil Wears Prada 2' is a fizzy sequel -- with more to say than the original
Like any good sequel, this movie feels like a reunion. Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep return in a cleverly written film that will delight anyone who loved the 2006 original.
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An off-beat family makes some 'Big Mistakes' in this clever crime farce
A new Netflix comedy series by and starring Dan Levy is a wild inversion of Schitt's Creek. Where that show started out cartoonish and grew warmer, Big Mistakes is a frolic that grows more hellish.
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Netflix does Nordic noir right in 'Jo Nesbø's Detective' series
A tortured Oslo police detective may be on the trail of a psycho killer in this genuinely suspenseful screen adaptation of Jo Nesbø's The Devil's Star.
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'Stay Alive,' about daily life in Nazi Berlin, shows how easy it is to just go along
Historian Ian Buruma chronicles the lives of ordinary Berliners — including his own father — during World War II. Stay Alive is about the past, but has powerful lessons for the present.
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'Derry Girls' creator returns with a gleeful riff on the murder mystery
In the hilarious Netflix series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, three women learn that a long estranged school friend has died in a suspicious manner — and take it upon themselves to investigate.
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This quiet epic is the top-grossing Japanese live action film of all time
The Oscar-nominated Kokuho tells a compelling story about friendship, the weight of history and the torturous road to becoming a star in Japan's Kabuki theater.
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'Crime 101' is an old-fashioned heist film that pays off
Chris Hemsworth stars as a virtuoso jewel thief, and Mark Ruffalo plays the detective tracking him down in Crime 101. This thriller is a deliberate throwback — and also a lot of fun.
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'Islands' is a spare and satisfying slow-burn thriller
A washed-up tennis pro gives lessons at a fancy hotel in the Canary Islands. But when he meets an elegant woman with an unlikable husband, things take a noirish turn.
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'Hijack' and 'The Night Manager' continue to thrill in their second seasons
Idris Elba returns as the world's most unlucky traveler in Season 2 of the Apple TV series Hijack. And Tom Hiddleston is back as a hotel worker/intelligence agent in The Night Manager on Prime Video.
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A critic's year-end 'ghost list' wanders from Italian movie sets to 'Demon Hunters'
Critic-at-large John Powers gives his due to the movies, TV and books he wasn't able to cover earlier in the year, including La Grazia, Andor, Mississippi Blue 42 and the documentary Mr. Scorsese.
