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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A couple leaves L.A. to start a farm from scratch, without knowing what they're in for, in this crowd-pleasing documentary that proves "amiable and ultimately moving."
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Reinaldo Marcus Green's exquisite drama examines, from three perspectives, the aftermath of the slaying of an unarmed black man; the film offers "neither unalloyed despair nor implausible hope."
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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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For many, the entry point into Big Star's legacy is the opening theme song of That '70s Show. But long before Ashton Kutcher met Mila Kunis, a cult-favorite Memphis band struggled to make it big — and some of its members died trying.
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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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Total Recall, a remake of the 1990 sci-fi film, stars Colin Farrell as a man who learns of a past life when he begins to have recurring dreams of an alternate existence. Critic Mark Jenkins says the film empties the scenario of any intelligent thoughts in favor of continuous, mindless action.