Accessibility links
Culture Art and entertainment commentary plus interviews, book reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, comedy, and visual art. Subscribe to podcasts and follow trends in music, painting, art, architecture, photography, and design.

Culture

Friday

The entrance of an AMC movie theater.

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Movies

Summer box office woes: Hollywood’s optimistic, but movie seats are still empty

After an already-slow spring, movie theater attendance over Memorial Day Weekend was the lowest in decades, apart from 2020.

Hollywood's summer season is off to a slow start

Listen · 3:00
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-4985062/nx-s1-5411c7a4-a773-49c0-bf7b-21ee65cf6b1b" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Author Interviews

For 'Such Kindness' novelist Andre Dubus III, chronic pain is a fact of life

Dubus talks about the injuries he faced as a carpenter and his relationship with his dad. His a new collection of personal essays is Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin. Originally broadcast in 2023.

For 'Such Kindness' novelist Andre Dubus III, chronic pain is a fact of life

Listen · 38:06
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/g-s1-2032/g-s1-2249" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Viggo Mortensen plays Holger Olsen in The Dead Don't Hurt.

Viggo Mortensen plays Holger Olsen in The Dead Don't Hurt. Marcel-Zyskind/Shout! Studios hide caption

toggle caption
Marcel-Zyskind/Shout! Studios

Review

Movie Reviews

'The Dead Don’t Hurt' is a tender love story and a subversive Western

You can’t immediately tell whether this film is trying to be an old-fashioned Western or a revisionist one. It was written and directed by Viggo Mortensen, who stars alongside Vicky Krieps.

'The Dead Don’t Hurt' is a tender love story and a subversive Western

Listen · 6:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-4985949/g-s1-2566" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
We debate the best fictional bands

Rosario Dawson, Tara Reid, and Rachael Leigh Cook in Josie and the Pussycats. Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo hide caption

toggle caption
Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

We debate the best fictional bands

Sometimes, our favorite musical artists are too good to be true because they're sprung from the imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters. But what makes a fake band great? Today, we are debating the best fictional bands in TV and film — including from Mamma Mia!, Josie and the Pussycats, It's Your Move, and Miami Connection.

We debate the best fictional bands

Listen · 27:13
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197964991/1253390007" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Is it time to re-name "summer?" Plus, prom fashion is all grown up

Two students dancing at prom. Sinking sun during the 2022 California wildfires. David McNew/AFP; Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
David McNew/AFP; Mario Tama/Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

Is it time to re-name "summer?" Plus, prom fashion is all grown up

Summer is supposed to be for vacation and more relaxation, right? Well, for climate watchers, this season goes by a more sinister name. Brittany and NPR climate correspondents Lauren Sommer and Nate Rott get into what changes in summer weather mean for how and where we live.

Is it time to re-name "summer?" Plus, prom fashion is all grown up

Listen · 30:49
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197956507/1253421745" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Enea Sala (center) plays the young Edgardo in Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara.

Enea Sala (center) plays the young Edgardo in Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara.
Anna Camerlingo/Cohen Media Group hide caption

toggle caption
Anna Camerlingo/Cohen Media Group

Review

Movie Reviews

'Kidnapped' tells the historical horror story of an abducted Jewish child

Edgardo Mortara was just 6 years old when Italian authorities took him away from his family in 1858. Kidnapped is a true story steeped in Roman Catholic antisemitism.

'Kidnapped' tells the historical horror story of an abducted Jewish child

Listen · 6:04
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-4973282/g-s1-1885" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Marias talk to NPR's A Martinez about how their breakup shaped their latest album,

"This is the first project that we write together where we’re not romantically together,” says Maria Zardoya of The Marías.
Bethany Vargas hide caption

toggle caption
Bethany Vargas

Music News

How The Marías make music after a breakup in the band

María Zardoya and Josh Conway founded The Marías as a couple. They talk to NPR's A Martinez about how their breakup has shaped their latest album, Submarine.

After the couple breaks up, can The Marias still make music together?

Listen · 7:02
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-4845247/nx-s1-72ce2adb-88a8-4788-be59-95784d3f9143" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Jack Antonoff owes a lot to the boredom of his hometown

Jack Antonoff on Wild Card Angela Weiss/Getty hide caption

toggle caption
Angela Weiss/Getty

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Jack Antonoff owes a lot to the boredom of his hometown

Jack Antonoff has seemingly cracked the code for producing hit albums, winning multiple Grammys for his work with artists like Lorde, Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift. But for his own songwriting, he leans into the unknown. He studies his anxieties, regrets and grief, and shares those feelings in songs with his band Bleachers — as well as in this game of Wild Card.

Jack Antonoff owes a lot to the boredom of his hometown

Listen · 25:04
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1244130908/1253334734" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday