Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.
For more than three decades, Mondello has reviewed movies and covered the arts for NPR, seeing at least 300 films annually, then sharing critiques and commentaries about the most intriguing on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered. In 2005, he conceived and co-produced NPR's eight-part series "American Stages," exploring the history, reach, and accomplishments of the regional theater movement.
Mondello has also written about the arts for USA Today, The Washington Post, Preservation Magazine, and other publications, and has appeared as an arts commentator on commercial and public television stations. He spent 25 years reviewing live theater for Washington City Paper, DC's leading alternative weekly, and to this day, he remains enamored of the stage.
Before becoming a professional critic, Mondello learned the ins and outs of the film industry by heading the public relations department for a chain of movie theaters, and he reveled in film history as advertising director for an independent repertory theater.
Asked what NPR pieces he's proudest of, he points to an April Fool's prank in which he invented a remake of Citizen Kane, commentaries on silent films — a bit of a trick on radio — and cultural features he's produced from Argentina, where he and his husband have a second home.
An avid traveler, Mondello even spends his vacations watching movies and plays in other countries. "I see as many movies in a year," he says, "as most people see in a lifetime."
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A roadkill unicorn, a family of greedy pharmaceutical moguls, and an innocent teenager are the main ingredients in A24's new grisly horror comedy Death of a Unicorn. -
An embattled Disney princess, a steroid-addled bodybuilder and a trapped carjacker are all at cineplexes this weekend. -
Americans spent much of the COVID lockdown inside their homes streaming movies in isolation. Five years on it is clear that COVID left its mark on how movies were made and consumed.
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It takes a spy to catch a spy in Steven Soderbergh's thriller Black Bag. And if they're married and played by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, so much the better.
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A Steven Soderbergh spy thriller, a Looney Tunes movie and a grisly comedy about a guy who can't feel pain are all out this weekend. -
The pandemic decimated the box office and the reshaped the moviegoing experience. NPR's movie critic, Bob Mondello, looks back on how his job changed during the early months of COVID-19. -
It's Oscars weekend: Time to grab your ballot and mark your picks for Best Everything before Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast.
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Actor Gene Hackman, who played gritty lawmen in everything from The French Connection to Unforgiven, but also displayed comedic chops in Young Frankenstein and The Royal Tenenbaums, has died.
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This year, off-screen tweets may end up swaying the Oscars race. But real-world events and people have been shaping the awards for decades. -
After the BAFTAS, more people might be interested in checking out Conclave and The Brutalist - or learning enough about them to fill out Oscar ballots.
