John Powers
John Powers is the pop culture and critic-at-large on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He previously served for six years as the film critic.
Powers spent the last 25 years as a critic and columnist, first for LA Weekly, then Vogue. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Harper's BAZAAR, The Nation, Gourmet, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A former professor at Georgetown University, Powers is the author of Sore Winners, a study of American culture during President George W. Bush's administration. His latest book, WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (co-written with Wong Kar Wai), is an April 2016 release by Rizzoli.
He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, filmmaker Sandi Tan.
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The new season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story revisits the 1997 murder of the Italian designer. John Powers says the show presents a moving portrait of homophobia in 1990s America.
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Two entitled young women vacationing on a chic Greek island get involved with a mysterious stranger in Lawrence Osborne's new novel. Critic John Powers calls it a "seductively menacing new thriller."
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Every year, critic John Powers is haunted by the things he wishes he'd reviewed. The themes his 2017 "Ghost List" range in spirit from cosmic surrealism to ripped-from-the-headlines immediacy. -
Amazon's new series centers on a spurned 1950s housewife who has a knack for stand-up comedy. Critic John Powers says Rachel Brosnahan delivers a "genuinely funny performance" in the title role. -
Maya Jasanoff weaves together biography, history, literature and her own travels in a new book about the globe-trotting author. Reviewer John Powers says Jasanoff's portrait of Conrad is terrific.
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The eight stories in Carmen Maria Machado's new collection feature women in extremis — physical danger, psychological meltdown, treacherous love or close encounters of a ghostly kind.
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Emma Stone stars as King in a breezy new film that carries us back to '73, and the heyday of the women's lib movement. Critic John Powers says the message of Battle of the Sexesstill resonates today.
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The TV series' second season takes place four years after its first, and begins with an unknown Asian woman's body washing up (in a suitcase) on a beach near Sydney.
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Newly released on DVD and Blu-ray, the 1985 film follows a well-heeled LA couple who decide to become free-spirited wanderers. Critic John Powers says Lost In America is a comedy for the ages.
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The 1950 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame was adapted from a lesser-known 1947 novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, who belongs in the crime-writing pantheon. The novel's just been re-released.
