John Powers

When it came out in 1961, Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad perplexed and excited audiences with its surrealistic storytelling. John Powers has a review of the film's Criterion Collection re-release.

Our critic at large returns with the second part of his report from this year's Cannes Film Festival, including his impressions of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and the South Korean vampire flick Thirst — both due out in the United States later this summer.

Critic John Powers reviews the Starz comedy series Party Down, which follows a group of oddball dreamsers who work for a Hollywood catering company.

Hans Fallada's 1947 novel, Every Man Dies Alone, presents a memorable portrait of ordinary resistance to Nazism in wartime Germany.

In Let the Right One In, Eli and Oskar are both lonely 12-year-olds — but one of them happens to be a vampire. Critic-at-large John Powers calls the Swedish film "the best vampire movie in the last 75 years."

Matteo Garrone's epic film Gomorrah takes us into the world of the Camorra, an organized crime syndicate based in and around Naples. John Powers has a review.

David Potter's gripping, enigmatic writing for TV made him one of British culture's defining figures from the 1960s through the 1980s. Critic-at-large John Powers reviews the new DVD collection Dennis Potter: 3 to Remember.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the first full recording of Allegro, the 1947 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical.

Critic-at-large John Powers reviews Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, the new documentary about the famous 1968 game.

Critic-at-large John Powers reviews a newly-released DVD of Roberto Rossellini's 1966 film The Taking of Power by Louis XIV. Originally made for Italian television, the costume-drama follows a rocky transfer of power amidst the lavish court rituals of 17th-century France.