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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NPR film critic Bob Mondello has been listening to the Star Warshype train. Here's why he isn't climbing aboard.
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The British actor who starred in the Harry Potter movie series as Severus Snape and in such hits as Die Hard and Love Actually died Thursday. He was 69.
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NPR film critic Bob Mondello notes that this year's most popular movies are surprisingly womancentric. That's more than at any other time in at least three decades.
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As part of the 50 Great Teachers series, NPR's Bob Mondello looks at what Hollywood has taught us about teachers.
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Nichols, perhaps best known for his 1967 classic film, The Graduate,won Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy awards. He died Wednesday at age 83.
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Attenborough engaged audiences in the struggle for apartheid in Cry Freedom, and spent 20 years and his own fortune to bring Gandhi's story to the screen. NPR's Bob Mondello has this remembrance.
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So many of the actor's roles dealt in appearances and self-doubt. Perhaps you don't get that good at communicating insecurity without knowing a little something about those things.
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The silent-film comic was a flop in the 13-minute Making a Living. But only a few days later, he'd introduce his iconic Little Tramp character — and take the first step toward immortality.
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A brutal corrective to gauzy portrayals of the antebellum South, this true story of a man kidnapped into slavery took home the top audience prize at the Toronto Film Festival. NPR's Bob Mondello says it emphatically deserved the honor. (Recommended)
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Actor Peter O'Toole had a larger-than-life movie career. The Hollywood legend was made famous in his title role in Lawrence of Arabia. He died Saturday at age 81.