Film

Marilyn Mmiller was one of the most adored and charismatic Broadway musical stars of the 1920s and '30s. She also had a brief movie career -- before her death in 1936, at the age of 37. Critic Lloyd Schwartz review two of her movies, Sally and Sunny, just released on DVD.

Lisa Cholodenko's film about two teenagers trying to track down their moms' anonymous sperm donor is a "stupendous" situational comedy, says critic David Edelstein, who praises the film for shaking up our way of looking at the mainstream family.

The film The Kids Are All Right stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a couple whose two teenage children have decided to track down their moms' anonymous sperm donor, played by Mark Ruffalo. Director Lisa Cholodenko explains how her own experiences inspired the film.

Tilda Swinton stars as a wealthy wife and mother who gets involved with a younger man in Luca Guadagnino's acclaimed new film I Am Love. Fresh Air's critic-at-large John Powers says the movie offers grownup audiences something they've been missing.

Tuesday midnight sales of the latest Twilight movie, Eclipse, topped $30 million. Critic David Edelstein, who saw the film with his 12-year-old daughter, says he was hypnotized by the sexual tension and the flawless complexions -- but wonders about the lack of vampire blood.

David Edelstein reviews two new documentaries he loves: Restrepo is set in Afghanistan and co-directed by photographer Tim Hetherington and author Sebastian Junger, who wrote The Perfect Storm. Madeleine Sackler's The Lottery centers on high-testing charter schools in Harlem and the drawing that determines who gets in.

On the surface, Toy Story 3 is about kids' fantasies about toys that come alive after the lights go out -- but its themes speak to a much more grown-up audience. Critic David Edelstein examines the latest movie in the Toy Story franchise, which he says touches on both the present and the past.

Filmmaker Debra Granik knew right away that she wanted to adapt Daniel Woodrell's 2006 novel Winter's Bone for the big screen. Granik and Woodrell discuss the process of turning the meth-fueled family drama into an award-winning film.

The Oscar-winning actress has played everything from a sassy car expert in My Cousin Vinny to a stripper alongside Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. In an interview with Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies, Tomei explains how she picks her roles -- and why she's excited about playing a mother in the new film Cyrus.

Director Debra Granik captures the sparse evocative prose of Daniel Woodrell's 2006 novel Winter's Bone in a harshly beautiful film adaptation. Critic David Edelstein says you could watch Dale Dickey's "remarkable performance a hundred times and never get to the bottom of it."

A natural gas mining company sent Josh Fox a letter offering him $100,000 in exchange for the rights to drill on his land. Instead of saying yes, Fox made a documentary called Gasland about the unexpected results of natural gas drilling -- and why he believes there is continued cause for concern.

Vincenzo Natali's sci-fi thriller stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley as two scientists who splice genes together to create new animals. But when they add human DNA to the mix, they get a new creature that develops into a deadly chimera. Critic David Edelstein says the film combines a "high-tech Frankenstein" with "a freaky vein of low-tech Gothic psychodrama."

The writer and filmmaker known for the cult classics Pink Flamingos, Cry-Baby and Hairspray reflects on the many people who have inspired him throughout his life — from playwright Tennessee Williams to the crazed martyr Saint Catherine of Siena — in a new memoir, Role Models.

The filmmaker's documentary The Oath tells the story of two men who both worked for Osama bin Laden and then wound up in incredibly different spots: One drives a taxicab in Yemen, while the other sits in solitary confinement at Guantanamo. Poitras how she gained access to the story -- and why questions still remain about the film's protagonist.

Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte are back for a Middle Eastern adventure in Sex and the City 2. Critic David Edelstein says the film is an "all-out drag school with arch one-liners and product placements -- and almost no emotional heft."

The film critic reports his impressions of this year's Canne Film Festival. On Powers' list of notable films: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Palme d'Or-winning movie about a dying farmer, and a French film about Cistercian monks debating whether to stay put in a community full of terrorists.

Director Laura Poitras set out to make a documentary that followed a prisoner released from Guantanamo Bay. But her movie about Salim Hamdan became more complicated when she met Hamdan's brother-in-law Abu Jandal, an enigmatic man and Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard. David Edelstein says the film is a fine one, full of "haunting ambiguities."

Rodrigo Garcia's film Mother and Child is his most formally daring, says critic David Edelstein. Starring Annette Bening, Kerry Washington and Naomi Watts, the film centers around the bonds between a birth mother and her children, even after that child is placed up for adoption.

Filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia never intended to write and direct movies: He wanted to stay behind the camera. Garcia explains how he got the idea for the drama Mother and Child and details what it was like growing p as the son of novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.