MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• 'Inside Studio 54' Takes You Behind The Velvet Rope, And Into Some Dark Corners
  Owner Mark Fleischman's memoir drops plenty of celebrity names while detailing the day-to-day logistics (and the drugs) that kept the nightspot running.
• Above The Ballet, Where The Tutus Are Made
  Every year, the New York City Ballet asks top fashion designers to outfit its dancers for its Fall Gala. Good thing the capacity of its 18-person costume department is "the highest you can get."
• Not My Job: 'Empire' Creator Lee Daniels Gets Quizzed On Cookies
  On the hit TV show, Daniels created one of the great characters of our time — the ambitious record company matriarch Cookie Lyon. So we'll see what he knows about actual cookies.
• 'Battle Of The Sexes' Poised To Be A Crowd-Pleaser All Over Again
  Battle of the Sexes tells the story of the 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. The event drew an enormous audience and NPR's Bob Mondello says the movie could too.
• 'Battle Of The Sexes' Revisits Billie Jean King's Historic Win Against Bobby Riggs
  Emma Stone stars as King in a breezy new film that carries us back to '73, and the heyday of the women's lib movement. Critic John Powers says the message of Battle of the Sexes still resonates today.
• 'Kingsman' Sequel: This Time, A Flat 'Golden Circle'
  The new chapter in the spy franchise ramps up the first film's caustic, violent cynicism but leans even harder into the artifice; a reliance on soundstages and CGI dampens the excitement and energy.
• NPR's Movie Preview: 16 New Films To Watch This Fall
  As summer gives way to fall, blockbusters give way to award contenders. Here are some of the best, buzziest and otherwise noteworthy films coming to theaters.
• 'Victoria And Abdul': Part Satire, Part Love Story, All Charming
  Judi Dench returns to the role of Queen Victoria — this time in her dotage — for Stephen Frears' film about the monarch's eyebrow-raising friendship with a young Indian man (Ali Fazal).
• Plastic Less-Than-Fantastic: 'The LEGO Ninjago Movie'
  LEGO films have become their own genre, and despite stellar voice work from Justin Theroux as the evil Lord Garmadon, the genre is — surprisingly — already showing its age.
• A Competitor And A Clown Walk Onto A Tennis Court In 'Battle Of The Sexes'
  The new film, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell as the players facing off in one of the most famous tennis matches in history, shows how easy it is to paint a trailblazer into a corner.