
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.
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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.
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Daniel Roher's film about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny offers intimate, sometimes amazing access to the bravery — and human cost — of opposing a despot.
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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.
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Mick Herron's Slough House books center on a ragtag crew of intelligence officers who've blown their careers through bungling or bad luck. The first of those novels is now a clever Apple TV+ series.
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Based on the novel by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko follows four generations of a Korean family in Korea, Japan and the U.S. as they navigate broken hearts, broken homes, murder, suicide and more.
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Schumer stars as a woman on a voyage of self discovery in an enjoyable (if uneven) new Hulu series. Life & Beth is at its best when it harnesses Schumer's capacity for catching life on the wing.
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In 1970, Hansen began a 12-novel series about Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who happens to be gay. Reading now, it's clear that Hansen was one of the great crime writers of his time.
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Based on Lee Child's best-selling novel, this eight-part series by Amazon Prime Video features Alan Ritchson as an ex-military policeman on the hunt for a murderer in small-town Georgia.
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This six-part BBC mystery series about a sailor murdered aboard a nuclear sub will keep you guessing. As the investigation widens, more murders — and a slew of red herrings — follow.
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As the year draws to a close, critic John Powers singles out seven revelatory people or things that made 2021 a little brighter. At the top of his list? Basketball star Steph Curry.