Bob Mondello

A Chicago couple go on a first-date-that's-not-a-date in 1989 in Southside With You. Her name is Michelle. His is Barack.

In her latest role, Streep plays a real-life laughingstock who fancied herself an opera singer.

The film follows two 13-year-olds who bond as their family's begin to clash.

When the co-founder of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., made her theater a nonprofit, hundreds of small regional stages followed suit. Fichandler died July 29 at the age of 91.

Movie heroes are fine. But let's be real — it's usually the bad guys we find most compelling.

Sad sacks and stage hogs chase stardom in Don't Think Twice. But rest assured writer/director Mike Birbiglia keeps it funny.

We don't call Hollywood a "Dream Factory" for nothing. If you have a vision of the sort of place you'd like to live, Tinseltown can bring it to life.

Thanks to movies, novels and TV, Bob Mondello knows what a contested convention would be like: raucous crowd, oppressive din and (if movies are any guide) Angela Lansbury scheming in the corner.

New installments in the X-Men, Ghostbusters, Star Trek and Captain America franchises are hitting the big screen this summer. NPR film critic Bob Mondello talks about what to see.

An appreciation of Olivia de Havilland — Gone With the Wind's last surviving cast member — on her 100th birthday.

The BFG is the new Steven Spielberg movie based off the Roald Dahl book. It's about a girl and a friendly giant triumphing over bullies and adversity. And it's got something familiar about it, too.

Swiss Army Man is an absurdist movie comedy in which a shipwrecked Paul Dano befriends a surprisingly talkative corpse, played by Daniel Radcliffe.

The editor Maxwell Perkins discovered and nurtured authors like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. The new movie Genius has him wrangling thousands of pages from the writer Thomas Wolfe.

A relationship drama with societal implications marks a striking debut for first-time writer director Lorenzo Vigas. Like the film's leading man, he'll draw you in by holding you at a slight remove.

Playwright Peter Shaffer has died. He was best known for Equus and Amadeus, both of which became movies.

Robert Cenedella established himself in the 1960s as the anti-Warhol. A new documentary goes through his years fighting against the New York art establishment by being, well, what the title says.

NPR's Bob Mondello has a selective preview of summer movies from superhero blockbusters to music documentaries and everything in between.

Sean Penn's new movie set in Africa got booed at Cannes. Critics said its African characters were "bleeding wallpaper." Here are 4 films that give African characters (and actors) their due.

Two years after he was caught texting crotch shots, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner was back in the spotlight, running for mayor. A new documentary chronicles his scandal-plagued campaign.

The Lobster is a comedy in which single people are given 45 days to fall in love before being turned into an animal of their choice.