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Director Wes Anderson is known for offbeat, relatively low-budget films such as Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. His latest, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou starring Bill Murray, is a bigger film in the same vein. Reviewer Bob Mondello says the film may leave viewers feeling lost at sea, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Marika Partridge reviews the mandolin dance sounds of Sam Bartlett. His self-produced, instrumental CD Evil Diane features some of America's best unknown acoustic players, fiddlers and pipers. Indiana native Bartlett is a prolific writer, often composing his reels and jigs from the road on his mandolin.

A newly renovated Museum of Modern Art reopens in New York City this weekend with a new admission fee of $20, significantly higher than most museums across the country. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel, MoMA Chief Operating Officer James Gara and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik.

Hollywood is rife with film biographies this year: Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Alexander the Great, Alfred Kinsey, and Che Guevara have all gotten the movie treatment. NPR's Bob Mondello says the one that opens Friday, the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, qualifies as the crowd-pleaser of the bunch.

A new exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library offers a glimpse at correspondences four centuries old. "Letter Writing in Renaissance England" includes letters penned in invisible ink, sealed in wax and silk, and sent to and from some of the most famous figures in history.

Reviewer Alan Cheuse offers his annual recommendations for holiday gift-giving. This year's list includes novels of travel on Earth and in space, new versions of tales from the Bible, Africa and Mesopotamia, and collections of poetry and song.

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Pedro Almodovar about his film Bad Education. He says it was one of his hardest films to make, because the story is so close to his own experiences.

The latest film from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet takes place in France at the end of World War I. A Very Long Engagement is the story of a young woman's search for a fiancee she doesn't believe is dead. Audrey Tatou, who played the lead in Jeunet's 2001 comedy hit Amelie, stars again. NPR's Bob Mondello has a review.

Writer Jenny Bicks has been busy ever since she began working on Sex and the City in the show's first season. For our series Scenes I Wish I'd Written, Bicks chose to discuss a scene from a Woody Allen classic, Annie Hall. Hear NPR's Susan Stamberg.

Managers of San Francisco's famed Castro Theatre have fired long-time film programmer Anita Monga. Fans of Monga and the Castro plan street protests. Fawnee Evnochides reports.