Bob Mondello
Stories
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'Gladiator II' echoes the original film in its return to the Colosseum
Two decades after Maximus fought and died in ancient Rome's Colosseum in the first film, his son Lucius, played by Paul Mescal, finds himself in much the same situation in Gladiator II.
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'Emilia Perez' ranges from gritty and gunshot-riddled, to downright campy
In Jacques Audiard's melodrama Emilia Perez, a prosecutor gets an unusual request from the head of a Mexican cartel. He wants help transitioning out of his life of crime and his life as a man.
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Movies
While votes are counted, we look at how counting is used in movies
The process of counting ballots has stressed out a lot of people this week. NPR's movie critic says he's been distracting himself from the election with cinematic counting.
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Broadway theaters will dim their marquee lights tonight in honor of Dame Maggie Smith
Broadway theaters will dim their marquee lights on Nov. 7 in honor of Dame Maggie Smith, who died in September. Smith began her acting career on stage and took theater roles well into her 80s.
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Jesse Eisenberg’s 'A Real Pain' is a touching comedy based on his own family’s history
Jesse Eisenberg has written, directed and starred in a film based loosely on his own family, with a story about two cousins visiting the former home in Poland of their grandparents.
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'Conclave' is a potboiler that starts bubbling in its opening moments
Ralph Fiennes is tasked with the election of a new pope in director Edward Berger's lush intellectual thriller, Conclave, based on the pulpy 2016 novel by Robert Harris.
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Palme d’Or winner ‘Anora’ is a strip club Cinderella story
Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning comedy Anora is a Cinderella story of sorts, with a standout performance by Mikey Madison as the title character.
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A pair of new films take laughter both theatrically and seriously
Joker: Folie A Deux is a musical follow-up to Joaquin Phoenix's turn as DC Comics villain Joker, this time with Lady Gaga; and Saturday Night dramatizes the very first show of what would become SNL.
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A stranded machine transforms through motherhood in Chris Sanders' 'Wild Robot'
A shipwrecked robot named Roz is accidentally activated by the wild animals on an otherwise uninhabited island in The Wild Robot, an animated adventure from the makers of How to Train Your Dragon.
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Maggie Smith, an acting legend of the stage and screen, has died at 89
Oscar, Emmy and Tony winning actress Maggie Smith, who played everything from ingenues in Shakespeare to Harry Potter's Prof. McGonagall and the dowager countess in Downton Abbey, has died at 89.