Watch: Natalie Portman Channels Amos Oz’s Mom in Directorial Debut

When Amos Oz wrote his autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness in 2002, he probably never imagined it would end up launching the career of a new filmmaker — let alone one as auspicious as Natalie Portman, who has chosen the adaptation project as her directorial debut. The Telegraph‘s review sounds cautiously optimistic about her future as a filmmaker: “The film feels like a personal project for Portman, but thankfully never a vanity one. It’s a fine piece of work – and you sense there’s better to come.” Below you can watch the new trailer for the film, in which Portman also stars as Oz’s mother.

It turns out there’s an untapped reservoir of creative expression awaiting us in the murky territory that separates podcasts and audiobooks, which makes “Dr. Katz” co-creator Tom Snyder an explorer of sorts: His new “audible book” project Is Anyone All Right? is a musical feast for the ears, presented in a familiar audiobook style, but maxing out at an attention span-friendly two hours long. Snyder’s opus is available through both music and audiobook vendors, but it may not remain confined to your earbuds forever: In a recent interview, Snyder discussed his musical aspirations and described Is Anyone All Right? as “my pitch to stages all around the country.”

Netflix is great at recommending other shows and movies based on your recent binges, but if you’d prefer a reading list, you’re typically out of luck. Fortunately BookRiot is picking up the slack with their list of titles for those who’ve become hooked on “Stranger Things,” Netflix’s new paranormal series starring Winona Ryder. In addition to pretty much everything by Stephen King, they’d like to suggest titles like Marisha Pessl’s Night Film and Paul Tremblay’s Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, and of course you should consider indulging in vintage ’80s treats like E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet. And should you plow through that list in no time, revisit Signature’s similarly themed roundup of books and movies.

It turns out there may be more benefits to reading than just book smarts, as research suggests that reading novels actually helps cultivate greater empathy in humans: “By exploring the inner lives of characters on the page, readers can form ideas about others’ emotions, motives, and ideas, off the page.” This may not sound like a radical discovery — it’s something most book lovers have experienced firsthand since childhood — but in terms of making a stronger case for the importance of literacy and education in child development, research like this could be key.