Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.
For more than three decades, Mondello has reviewed movies and covered the arts for NPR, seeing at least 300 films annually, then sharing critiques and commentaries about the most intriguing on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered. In 2005, he conceived and co-produced NPR's eight-part series " American Stages," exploring the history, reach, and accomplishments of the regional theater movement.
Mondello has also written about the arts for USA Today, The Washington Post, Preservation Magazine, and other publications, and has appeared as an arts commentator on commercial and public television stations. He spent 25 years reviewing live theater for Washington City Paper, DC's leading alternative weekly, and to this day, he remains enamored of the stage.
Before becoming a professional critic, Mondello learned the ins and outs of the film industry by heading the public relations department for a chain of movie theaters, and he reveled in film history as advertising director for an independent repertory theater.
Asked what NPR pieces he's proudest of, he points to an April Fool's prank in which he invented a remake of Citizen Kane, commentaries on silent films — a bit of a trick on radio — and cultural features he's produced from Argentina, where he and his husband have a second home.
An avid traveler, Mondello even spends his vacations watching movies and plays in other countries. "I see as many movies in a year," he says, "as most people see in a lifetime."
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A road-trip movie from director Alexander Payne (Sideways) follows a man en route to collect a million-dollar prize that probably never was. NPR's Bob Mondello says the black-and-white film is just the latest achievement from a talented filmmaker. (Recommended)
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A new biography from Sam Wasson examines the life and legacy of the Broadway, TV and film director Bob Fosse, who is known for such game-changing entertainments as Cabaret, Liza With A Z and Chicago. NPR's Bob Mondello says the book has both substantial research and vivid descriptions.
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About Time, written and directed by Richard Curtis ( Love Actually), follows a young man looking for love — with a little help from time-travel. NPR's Bob Mondello says that in this instance, time travel and romantic comedy don't necessarily blend well together.
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The film follows Beat Generation notables — Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr — as college students in the 1940s. NPR's Bob Mondello says it may succeed where other movies about the poets have failed. (Recommended)
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Arguably the greatest thrill comedy of the silent era, Harold Lloyd's classic Safety Lastgets a pristine new release courtesy of the Criterion Collection.
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Movie star Ava Gardner agreed to write her memoirs with British journalist Peter Evans in 1988. Now, after the deaths of both Gardner and Evans, the results of their abortive collaboration are being published. Reviewer Bob Mondello says the book is dead on arrival.
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Mads Mikkelsen (TV's Hannibal) anchors The Hunt, a powerful Danish social drama about a teacher whose life is derailed when a 5-year-old's emotional upset sets a citywide witch hunt in motion. (Recommended)
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Director Paul Feig and writer Katie Dippold have found a perfect pair of leads for their cop comedy. Critic Bob Mondello says Oscar winner Sandra Bullock and Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy turn out to have enviable comic chemistry.
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Bob Mondello says a G rating used to mean "general audiences." Now it means a movie for kids, and that means kids are less likely to be interested in them than they once were.
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Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke return for the third in Richard Linklater's loosely peerless Before series, and they've never been more persuasive — nor has the storytelling. (Recommended)