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.
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In '72, filmmaker William Greaves hosted a cocktail party for the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance. Our critic says the footage is "like watching a 50th college reunion set on Mt. Olympus."
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Rosalind Eleazar plays a once-successful Hollywood actor whose career has taken a downward turn in a film that takes viewers to bleaker places than they might anticipate.
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My Sad Dead is about an Argentinian doctor who can speak with ghosts. The Spanish-language miniseries blends creepiness, melancholy, sarcastic humor and political anger unlike anything else on TV. -
Marlon James' new novel chronicles the events surrounding a vicious anti-gay attack in Jamaica in the late 1980s. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Disappearers churns with passion and ideas.
