Theater

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.

Frank Loesser wrote the musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying -- in addition to over 700 other songs. On today's Fresh Air, musical anthropologist Michael Feinstein discusses Loesser's musical legacy and plays some of his favorite Loesser tunes -- including several rare archival recordings.

The frontman for the pop-punk band Green Day details the group's early days in Berkeley an describes what it's been like to see American Idiot, a new Broadway musical based on one of his albums.

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.

The much anticipated conclusion of ABC's mystery-drenched serial drama didn't clear up everyone's questions. But to critic David Bianculli, it did make for a satsifying capstone to a story that captivated millions.

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.

The legendary composer and lyricist -- who collaborated on tunes like "Raindrops Keep Falin' on My Headd," "I Say a Little Prayer" and "What's New Pussycat?" -- discuss their 50-year relationship and some favorite tunes from the Broadway revival of their musical, Promises, Promises.

The comic actor, who played Jack on TV's Will and Grace, makes his Broadway debut in a revival of Neil Simon's musical Promises, Promises. He has also portrayed comedian Jerry Lewis in the made-for-TV movie Martin and Lewis and Jack Nicholson's valet in The Bucket List.

The New York Times calls Stephen Sondheim the "greatest and perhaps best-known artist in American musical theater." Sondheim composed the music and lyrics for, among others, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Company. He joins Fresh Air to discuss his career in musical theater.

Noah Baumbach's movie stars Ben Stiller as a 40-ish unemployed carpenter searching for meaning in his life. After seeing the film, critic David Edelstein wonders if there's a limit "to how self-centered, how small you can make a character before you're punishing the audience."

Directed by Nicholas Ray, the 1956 film Bigger Than Life, stars James Mason as a schoolteacher who experiences wild mod swings and psychotic episodes after becoming addicted to his arthritis medication. Critic John Powers applauds the film, which he says "has a juiciness missing from a period show like Mad Men."

The AMC seres Breaking Bad and the new Discovery Channel nature series Life premiere on Sunday night -- and Showtimes' Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara are back Monday. TV Critic David Bianculli reviews all four -- and tells you which ones are worth watching.

Starting tonight on the FX cable network, Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant is back playing another man with a badge -- this time in Justified, a modern-day Western based on stories by Elmore Leonard. TV critic David Bianculli review the new series for Fresh Air.

Bourne Identity director Paul Greengrass and leading man Matt Damon have re-teamed for Green Zone, a fictionalized account of the U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in the first year of the Iraq occupation. Film critic David Edelstein reviews the political thriller.

After producing Band of Brothers in 2001, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg return to World War II with The Pacific, a 10-part historical miniseries beginning Sunday night on HBO. TV Critic David Bianculli review the series, which examines the Pacific theater of operations.

Tim Burton's new special-effects laden adaptation of Alice in Wonderland turns Lewis Carroll's classic into an action-packed, feminist coming-of-age story. Film critic David Edelstein says the movie, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Mia Wasikoska in the title role, is rather wonderful.

2010 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer Robert Schumann. One of the most interesting Schumann commemorative items is the DVD Twin Spirits, a British music-theater piece about the intense relationship between Schumann and his wife Clara, performed by Trudie Styler and Sting.

Here's Mel Gibson as a Boston police detective, shambling onto the screen in Edge of Darkness for the first time in nearly a decade — and it's hard for us (and probably harder for him) to shake off that decade's effects.

In an apocalyptic-movie age, The Road is the doomiest. A close translation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, the film tracks a father and son as they fight to survive in an ash-gray world haunted by death and global destruction. Critic David Edelstein says that its depiction of unbearable extremity, John Hillcoat's film achieves a kind of sublimity.