Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins reviews movies for NPR.org, as well as for reeldc.com, which covers the Washington, D.C., film scene with an emphasis on art, foreign and repertory cinema.
Jenkins spent most of his career in the industry once known as newspapers, working as an editor, writer, art director, graphic artist and circulation director, among other things, for various papers that are now dead or close to it.
He covers popular and semi-popular music for The Washington Post, Blurt, Time Out New York, and the newsmagazine show Metro Connection, which airs on member station WAMU-FM.
Jenkins is co-author, with Mark Andersen, of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. At one time or another, he has written about music for Rolling Stone, Slate, and NPR's All Things Considered, among other outlets.
He has also written about architecture and urbanism for various publications, and is a writer and consulting editor for the Time Out travel guide to Washington. He lives in Washington.
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With Divergent, Hollywood turns to another hit young-adult trilogy for inspiration. Shailene Woodley stars as a 16-year-old searching for her place in a divided dystopian society.
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A new 3-D take on a formative Russian war story has its impressive moments, but ultimately feels contrived and confusing.
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With an eye on an international audience, this Shanghai-set adaptation of the 18th-century French novel focuses most of its energy on being visually appealing. Critic Mark Jenkins says the setting of the film isn't entirely justified — but it does serve as a glossily seductive distraction.
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Eric Lartigau's French psychological drama follows an aspiring photographer who assumes another man's identity. While the plot may lend itself to the tropes of a thriller, critic Mark Jenkins says it is more focused on the quiet, internal mechanisms of the protagonist's mind.
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So Yong Kim's film follows a misanthropic rocker (Paul Dano) going through a divorce and encountering his 6-year-old daughter. Improvised dialogue and on-location shootings provide a bleak realism, but the film doesn't do much with character, says critic Mark Jenkins.
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Filmmaker Mads Brugger went to the Central African Republic to document rampant corruption in the capital, flourishing the credentials of a Liberian diplomat to connect with government officials and angling to buy "blood diamonds" to smuggle out of the country.
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In Little White Lies, Guillaume Canet's follow-up to his arthouse thriller Tell No One, a group of romantically beleaguered friends takes its annual retreat together. Unsubtly indebted to The Big Chill, the movie leans heavily on cliche and nostalgia.
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The creators of Persepolis return with a live-action fable about an Iranian violinist who wills himself to die — and the heartbreaks that drive him to it. (Recommended)
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Beloved, Christophe Honore's second movie-musical venture, spans decades and encompasses the lives of a mother and daughter and their various paramours. The plot touches on serious issues, while the soundtrack co-opts British pop music, and the whole affair is enormous fun.
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The Bourne Legacy, the fourth film in the action franchise, connects back to previous installments but introduces a new hero, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner). Critic Mark Jenkins says surface changes don't alter the consistency between the films when it comes to style and plotting.