The overlooked masterpiece of psychological suspense stars Robin Williams as a photo developer in a big box mart. He’s as blandly unremarkable as his surroundings until he develops an obsession for a young family

 Bob Marley is recognized as one of the most important music artists of the second half of the last century—a name belonging with Elvis and the Beatles in the pantheon. One of the virtues of British-born rock critic Dave Thompson's

 Rap has long gone international, and the idea of using the shuffling beats and staccato cadences to communicate political ideas and frustrations took hold in the Middle East. Arab-language rap was a factor in the Arab Spring, and

 Sayyid Qutb is the mid-century Egyptian reviled as the intellectual father of militant Jihad. In his groundbreaking biography, anthropologist James Toth comes “neither to belittle nor applaud,” but to understand. He examines Qutb in the context of population shifts from country to city and the

After directing Take Shelter, an intriguing “Twilight Zone”-style tale of madness and apocalypse in America’s heartland, Jeff Nichols moves south to Arkansas for a strong follow-up, Mud. His protagonists are a pair of

 The 1974 film by Italy’s Fernando Di Leo was just the thing Quentin Tarantino devoured in his formative years. It’s a crime drama, populated by quirky-funny gangsters and corrupt cops (who won’t cross certain lines), speaking

 The 1935 New York premiere of Porgy and Bess was an epochal