Alan Jacobson evaluates Faces Places, a academy award-winning documentary about French New Wave director Agnes Varda and her graffiti-artist collaborator JR as they travel through rural France making and placing giant murals of ordinary people.

Mr. Neutron analyzes the psychedelic roadtrip, fuzz, reverb, and patchouli served up by Seattle's own Night Beats.

chord fragments: "Something's Missing," by Brett Edmonds. Courtesy of Internet Archive.

Cambridge historian Mary Beard takes a fresh look at the origin and decline of the Roman Empire.

Music: "The Lyre of Orpheus" by Jerald Franklin Archer.

Alan Jacobson plumbs Andrew Haigh's unsung, underseen 2015 masterpiece.

They're young, they're fresh, they're huge in Spain! Hear fuzz, psychedelia, hooks courtesy of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Yardbird guitar solos, and a trip to the garage circa 1966.

Jim Loomis gives a soup to nuts guide to passenger train travel in North America.

Music: Railroad Blues, by the Yerkes Southern Five

A "youthquake" of a road movie: Homeless teens party, explore America, and sell magazines.

Additional music: "Beats," by Crooked Vision, courtesy of Internet Archive.

Mr. Neutron surveys the Country/Power Pop/Cuddle-Core output of our own Neko Case.

Mr. Neutron theme music by Ron Averill.

The 1980 eruption of Washington State's Mount St. Helens, through a human lens.

Music: Praludium, by Carl Nielsen. Sir James Galway, Carion Quintet, CC-BY-SA 2.0

Master director Sidney Lumet's 1970s New York City life drama, crime caper, and anti-establishment social statement, all rolled into one exhilarating package.