Paul Willistein
Program HostPaul Willistein is Editor of the Lehigh Valley Press Focus section, a position he has held for 10 years. He has received more than one dozen Keystone state journalism awards and an Allentown Arts Commission Arts Ovation Award. He reviews movies and theater and writes features stories about arts and entertainment, news stories about municipal and school topics and takes photographs for Lehigh Valley Press newspapers and web sites.
He has taught screenwriting and media studies at Northampton Community College. He was marketing and public relations director at The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. For 22 years, he worked at The Morning Call, where he was Features Editor, Arts Editor and Entertainment Editor. He worked for the former Bethlehem Globe-Times as Arts Editor, Night Editor and News Reporter. He studied American Studies and film-making at Syracuse University and attended Southern Lehigh High School.
He has written, directed and produced documentary films, some of which have been telecast on public television stations, and narrative fiction films, some of which have been shown in film festivals. He was host and producer of “Hot Splices,” a movie review-interview show; producer and co-host with Michael Gontkosky of ”The Movie Show,” a movie review show, and “Valley Arts,” a Lehigh Valley arts interview show, all telecast on RCN. He is a songwriter, having co-written “Do The Dutch (Hey Now)” with Steve Brosky and Mike Krisukas.
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King Richard is a moving sports biopic about Richard Williams and, more famously, his daughters, tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. The movie explores the early days of their dedication to the game and rise to fame. -
Spencer stars Kristen Stewart in an Oscar-worthy actress nominee performance as Diana, Princess of Wales. The movie focuses on the Christmas holiday weekend when "Lady Di" purportedly decided to leave her husband, Charles, Prince of Wales.
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Belfast is a slice-of-life story about a young boy in the midst of 'The Troubles', from late 1969 through early 1970 in Northern Ireland. The young boy is Kenneth Branagh, who wrote the screenplay and directs the film based on his pre-teen years when Protestants and Catholics fought each other.
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Eternals, the 26th movie in the Marvel Cinema Universe, introduces some lesser-known characters from Marvel Comics to the big screen. Chloé Zhao, Oscar recipient, picture and director, Nomadland, directs Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, and Angelina Jolie, who portray some of the 10 immortals in the movie known as the “Eternals.”
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The French Dispatch is the latest quirky feature film by director Wes Anderson with a star-studded cast, including Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Ed Norton, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. It’s a fictional love letter to journalism.
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Dune is the long-awaited screen adaptation of the Frank Herbert science-fiction novel. Denis Villeneuve directs a star-studded cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem.
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"The Last Duel" is a fact-based historical costume drama directed by Ridley Scott about the last legally-sanctioned duel in France in 1386. Matt Damon plays a knight who challenges Adam Driver, playing a squire, to a jousting duel over the honor of the knight’s wife, played by Jodie Comer.
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Delayed 18 months because of the pandemic shutdown, Bond, James Bond, is back. The 25th Bond movie, “No Time to Die,” is the fifth and last for Daniel Craig as James Bond.
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The theme of family predominates two latest movie releases: "The Adams Family 2" and "The Many Saints of Newark," both of which are reviewed by Paul Willistein of the Lehigh Valley Press in the latest edition of At the Movies.
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"CODA" is an acronym for Children of Deaf Adults. In the film, a housewife and her fisherman husband (Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur, both deaf actors) launch a new retail seafood business, but the plans of their hearing daughter (Emilia Jones), who is her parents’ ASL interpreter, may be dashed.
