John Powers
Stories
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Let 'The Secret Agent' fill you in on what it's like to live under a dictatorship
A research scientist is on the run from hitmen in this thrilling film. Set in 1977 Brazil, The Secret Agent captures the daily realities and surreal absurdities of life in an authoritarian state.
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Still thinking about the Louvre? 'The Mastermind' is about a museum heist gone awry
An unemployed cabinet maker robs the local art museum — then finds himself plunged into a world of cops and gangsters and life on the run. The Mastermind is a sad movie that gets stronger as it goes.
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'Blue Moon' is an aching comedy about a genius on the slide
Ethan Hawke stars as lyricist Lorenz Hart on the night his former writing partner, Richard Rodgers, debuts his hit musical Oklahoma!. Blue Moon offers a canny take on professional jealousy.
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Every moment pops in the nuclear thriller 'A House of Dynamite'
A single nuclear warhead, of unknown origin, is heading toward the U.S. mainland in Kathryn Bigelow's new Netflix film. It's an unnerving scenario — but it's also thrilling to watch.
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'The Lowdown' isn't just a good show. It's a good hang
Ethan Hawke plays a bookstore owner who moonlights as a muckraking reporter in Tulsa, Okla. Though The Lowdown occasionally meanders or misfires, every episode of the FX series is bracingly alive.
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'Mussolini: Son of the Century' is a flashy take on how dictatorships happen
A new eight-part series by MUBI chronicles the ferocious rise of the Italian dictator. While the show is a bit too eager to make Mussolini entertaining, the story it tells couldn't be any more timely.
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'Butterfly' is a frustrating spy thriller with a few too many twists
Daniel Dae Kim stars in a thriller about a spy who comes out of hiding to save his long-lost daughter. But instead of personal revelations, the series gets mired in plot twists and shoot-outs.
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A dogged reporter takes on a mysterious cabal in 'The Diary of Lies'
Philip Miller's sinister thriller is set in a Great Britain that's lost its bearings. But even when she's terrified, fictional journalist Shona Sandison will always risk everything to get the story.
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'Code of Silence' is a twisty crime series with an unsentimental take on deafness
A new BritBox series centers on a deaf woman who works in a police station, and whose lip-reading abilities come in handy when the precinct needs help interpreting surveillance footage.
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You'll find a gripping new internet thriller in the 'Cloud'
The internet and its discontents run wild in a new film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a prolifically offbeat Japanese filmmaker who's spent the last four decades putting subversive spins on traditional genres.
