John Powers
John Powers is the pop culture and critic-at-large on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He previously served for six years as the film critic.
Powers spent the last 25 years as a critic and columnist, first for LA Weekly, then Vogue. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Harper's BAZAAR, The Nation, Gourmet, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A former professor at Georgetown University, Powers is the author of Sore Winners, a study of American culture during President George W. Bush's administration. His latest book, WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (co-written with Wong Kar Wai), is an April 2016 release by Rizzoli.
He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, filmmaker Sandi Tan.
-
Set in 1989 Germany shortly before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this series centers on a cocky female assassin and puts a playful spin on the end of communism. -
Bianca Stigter's documentary, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, brings the past to life with an almost archaeological gaze.
-
Set in Oklahoma's Native American territory, the show blends satire, pathos and tribal lore — not to mention American Indians' tragic history — into a series that is fresh, funny and heartfelt. -
Neil Patrick Harris plays a gay New Yorker whose long-term relationship abruptly ends. While it's tempting to criticize Uncoupled for being superficial, that would be missing the point — and the fun.
-
Set in a sandwich shop in Chicago, this sharply written eight-part series is stingingly accurate about restaurant work — the merciless stresses, oversized personalities and battlefield camaraderie.
-
Kingston burst onto the scene in 1976 with The Woman Warrior and then kept writing. Critic John Powers says that, like James Baldwin, she's managed to shift American culture and remain relevant. -
The seven-part British TV series, which centers on a young doctor working in the OB/GYN ward of a London hospital, tells a painful story about the assembly-line nature of modern medicine.
-
In 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead in her Durham, N.C., home. Her husband, Michael, was accused of her murder, and a Netflix documentary followed. Now, a new HBO Max series revisits the case. -
Daniel Roher's film about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny offers intimate, sometimes amazing access to the bravery — and human cost — of opposing a despot.
-
HBO's new eight-part series follows an American crime reporter who intends to take Japanese journalism by storm — but first must learn how to navigate the churning opacity of 1990s Tokyo.
