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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow tells the story of a reporter and a hotshot pilot trying to save the world. The film's digitally created universe is both a nostalgic nod to the sci-fi serials of the 1930s and a stunning modernist vision. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Tom Moon reviews Jill Scott's new CC, Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2. Scott had an incredibly successful debut recording 4 years ago. She has kept a fairly low profile until now. Tom Moon says her new recording is in a tradition of great soul singers writing about the political in personal terms.

The film Mean Creek, starring Rory Culkin, dives into the messy reality of teen life, combining sensitivity and teen themes in a plot with echoes of Deliverance. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

The Falls, the latest novel from Joyce Carol Oates, is a dark, fast-moving tale that begins with the suicide of a newlywed seminary student who leaps into Niagara Falls. Critic Alan Cheuse has a review.

Red Lights, the new film from French director Cedric Kahn, is a taut, atmospheric thriller about a husband and wife who think they're going on vacation but are actually about to descend into a chaotic abyss. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Alan Cheuse reviews Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernieres. Cheuse says it's a story with numerous richly portrayed characters living in an Anatolian coastal village in the early 1900s.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a reissued book called Visa for Avalon by Bryher, the pen name of an Englishwoman named Annie Winifred Ellerman. Visa for Avalon is a political allegory first published in 1965.

HBO on Sunday night will begin airing episodes for season three of The Wire, a series about the dueling bureaucracies that govern cops and criminals in Baltimore, set against the backdrop of the drug trade. Variety critic and columnist Brian Lowry has a review.

Music commentator Miles Hoffman, a nationally renowned violist, and NPR's Steve Inskeep visit the Library of Congress' small, priceless collection of Stradivarius instruments. Hoffman plays some of the rarest instruments in the collection, including a violin called the "Betts," crafted in 1704 by Antonio Stradivari.

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the new film King Arthur. He says the movie falls short because not only does it fail to follow the Arthurian legend, but all the dialogue, action scenes and wardrobe just seem silly.