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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The legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou presents a sweeping quasi-historical tale that allows him to return to the visual and narrative themes for which he is known.
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Writer/director Bi Gan's second feature is a mood piece about a man who returns to his hometown to search for a lost love. The net effect is that of a "stately waltz of movement and illumination."
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There's plenty of 'Downton Abbey' DNA in this tale of prim Norma (Elizabeth McGovern) who shepherds young Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) to NYC; there's also a leaden script and thin characters.
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Writer-director Jia Zhangke returns to many of his classic themes, actors and locations — this time with a new, slightly absurdist touch to reflect China's profound transformation.
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A French dance troupe drinks sangria spiked with LSD and descends into carnal violence in a film that turns into "just another Noé freakout, familiar in tone and stylistic tics."
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The latest from South Korean director Hong Sang-soo explores his usual theme of existential regret. The film's complex structure leads its characters to simple, if revealing, insights.
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No flashbacks, no dream sequences. Just a raw, harsh tale about the practical concerns of minute-by-minute survival in a frozen wasteland.
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In this stirring documentary, the secret archive maintained by members of the Warsaw Ghetto comes to vivid life through historical footage and reenactments.
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A Manhattan drug courier has a very bad night in this scrappy but underwritten slacker comedy that plays like an extended sketch.