From the moment “Home On The Range” became the defining song of the American West, accusations of plagiarism over its lyrics cast a shadow over its success. Dr. Brewster Higley was eventually credited with the poem that became the eternal hit, and while it’s now the state song of Kansas, there was a time when Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico all made claims for the tune as their own. When New York rocker Wendy (Carrie Hamilton) arrives in Tokyo, she winds up working as a hostess in a karaoke bar, despondently singing that very tune to a room full of enthusiastic (and drunk) Japanese salarymen.

Continue reading ‘Tokyo Pop’ Review: A Charming, Sparkling Story Of Romance, Music & Life Lost In Translation at The Playlist.

The Writers’ Strike has arrived, and Hollywood is breaking out into a flop sweat about what could happen if it’s a prolonged détente. The last work stoppage in 2007-2008 lasted 14 weeks and severely disrupted the filming of countless episodic television series, kiboshed a handful of movies while others were rushed into production with barely coherent scripts (“Quantum of Solace” being the classic example), and saw the Golden Globes canceled (okay, maybe it wasn’t all bad).

Continue reading Will A Prolonged Writers’ Strike Be A Boon To The Struggling Indie Acquisitions Market? at The Playlist.

Love triangles, the shifting fault lines of emotional landscapes, and the ramifications of common cruelty — in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s second feature, 2008’s “Passion” (now hitting U.S. cinemas for the first time), the celebrated director grapples with the themes that would become a constant in his films to come. As one might expect from a picture made as a student thesis project, this is a filmmaker still in raw form, working through the ideas and techniques that he would refine with a sculptor’s precision to acclaim in later pictures like the Oscar-winning “Drive My Car,” “Happy Hour,” and “Wheel Of Fortune and Fantasy.” Those films are better places to start for Hamaguchi newcomers, but for everyone else, “Passion” offers an intriguing look at his earliest steps, with flashes of the brilliance that would eventually blossom in fuller form. 

Continue reading ‘Passion’ Review: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Sophomore Feature Hints At The Master Filmmaker To Come at The Playlist.

Even though it’s just a two-hour drive between Seattle and Leavenworth, arriving in the picturesque, Bavarian-themed town is meant to feel like you’ve landed in an entirely different country. The aggressively artificial village — complete with an annual Oktoberfest celebration — is not the obvious setting for a rom-com, but it’s an unintentionally inspired one. I can only imagine that nothing ever feels quite real in Leavenworth, but everyone appears to be having a good time regardless, and that’s the general experience of sitting through “Somebody I Used To Know.” There’s not a single moment in the film that is palpably authentic or genuinely romantic, but the ensemble nonetheless puts their pluckiest foot forward.

Continue reading ‘Somebody I Used To Know’ Review: Alison Brie & Dave Franco’s Rom-Com Isn’t Worth Catching Up With at The Playlist.

Love and compassion don’t require grand gestures. Often, the subtlest actions forge the deepest, most meaningful connections — a patient ear, a shared space, a gentle hand. Colm Bairéad’s miraculous feature directorial debut “The Quiet Girl” is finely attuned to the soft magnitude those moments can carry for someone yearning for the smallest acts of kindness. Gorgeously realized and crafted with homespun care, this delicate and heartbreaking drama is one of the year’s best films. 

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2022

If 10-year-old Cáit (newcomer Catherine Clinch) doesn’t say much, that’s because in the cramped, ramshackle, grimy household with three other sisters and her mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh), pregnant with her fifth child, it’s better to be forgotten than noticed.

Continue reading ‘The Quiet Girl’ Review: Ireland’s Lovely, Heartbreaking Oscar Entry Is One Of The Best Films Of The Year at The Playlist.

“Listen, I Googled you.’ I’ve had people say that: ‘I’ve Googled you.’ And it’s so incredibly offensive,” director Todd Field told The Washington Post in 2006. “You think, ‘Why? Because it’s so simple? Because it’s so impulsive? Because it’s so pervasive?’ It’s effectively the same as saying I hired a private investigator to find out who the hell you were. It’s disgusting. It’s vulgar. And yet we completely accept it. We’ve given up all of our freedoms.”

Well, with all due respect to Todd Field — I Googled you, though hopefully for what is seen as less invasive and more celebratory and curious purposes.

Continue reading The Lost & Unmade Projects Of Filmmaker Todd Field at The Playlist.

If I can impart some worldly advice from the trenches of the corporate world: if you’re ever approached by a company that refers to itself as a “family,” start walking away. Quickly. Particularly if that seemingly warm and generous overture is being extended by Blanco (Javier Bardem), the self-described “father” of an industrial grade scale manufacturer in a small Spanish town, who views his employees as his “children,” and where there’s no problem too small that he won’t endeavor to fix out of his apparent concern for them.

Continue reading ‘The Good Boss’ Review: Javier Bardem Powers This Pointed Workplace Satire at The Playlist.

“Truth” and “justice” are noble ideals to fight for, clear enough in their meaning to give a story some purpose, and malleable sufficient for one-dimensional characters to masticate under the illusion of gravitas. Try as he might, screenwriter Eric Belgau’s earnestly articulated thematic intentions for “Murder At Yellowstone City” are immediately undone by its title. This meat and potatoes western delivers what’s promised on the box and nothing more.

Continue reading ‘Murder At Yellowstone City’ Is A Forgettable, No Fuss Western [Review] at The Playlist.

“Narcissists are the ones who make it…combined with talent, it’s a plus,” Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) coolly observes in the opening stages of the wickedly enjoyable “Sick of Myself.” For anyone who’s watched a partner realize their dreams, a trusted colleague get promoted, or a friend become famous, and curdled with jealousy and resentment, Kristoffer Borgli has made the film for you. The filmmaker’s tart and scabrously funny (both literally and figuratively) sophomore feature is a pointed portrait of a toxic relationship and a razor-sharp evisceration of those warped by a victim mentality.

Continue reading ‘Sick Of Myself’ Review: A Hilarious, Razor-Sharp Portrait Of The Worst Person In The World [Cannes] at The Playlist.

During the winter in a small town in northern Finland, you might find yourself making plans to ask questions about human existence on a Saturday night. Or perhaps you’ll stay up in bed, giggling while reading a book by Sigmund Freud. Such is the surreal world of “The Woodcutter Story,” and right in the middle of it is Pepe (Jarkko Lahti), a man so relentlessly bright-sided that his constant, glass-is-half-full view of life can drive his friends and co-workers to anger.

Continue reading ‘The Woodcutter Story’ Review: A Surreal & Strange Story About The Nature Of Existence [Cannes] at The Playlist.

If you closely follow the zodiac, you already know we’re in the second Mercury retrograde of the year. If the planets aren’t your thing, maybe you turn to tarot cards when hoping to divine some clarity around the events of your life. Or perhaps you put your faith in the advice parsed out by Caleb Weatherbee in the annual “Farmers’ Almanac.” But what if you could obtain guidance from someone with a direct connection to the fabric of the universe?

Continue reading ‘Sons of Ramses’ Review: Karim Leklou Shines In This Potent Portrait Of A Community [Cannes] at The Playlist.

In desperate times, the price to overlook your scruples and ignore that voice of doubt in your head moves from the impossibly high to the compromisingly real. For Jack Harper (Chris Pine), a check for $50,000 to participate in a seemingly easy, private military operation — with more cash to follow once the mission is complete — is enough for him to sign on with no questions asked, if only to keep collection agencies off his front porch.

Continue reading ‘The Contractor’: Chris Pine Is Bourne Again In This Tepid Action Thriller at The Playlist.

It sounds like the set-up to a French New Wave film: a French au pair falls in love with an Irish pickpocket leading to a whirlwind romance that changes both their lives. It might be twee, but Joan Verra (Isabelle Huppert) lived it, and on a long, rainy, nighttime drive she reflects on the intense, yet fleeting relationship of her youth. Breaking the fourth wall, Joan speaks to us directly, musing on truth, memory, and the hazy ground that exists between them.

Continue reading ‘About Joan’ Review: Isabelle Huppert Wanders Down Memory Lane [Berlin] at The Playlist.

When directors decide to journey down the one-take path (either genuinely or edited to appear that way), it’s usually in service of making the theatrical even more theatrical (“Birdman”), the horrifying more unrelenting (“1917”), or the thrills even more thrilling (“Victoria”). The low-key genius of director Philip Barantini’s decision to employ the technique for “Boiling Point” is that it’s utilized to amplify one of the most treacherous jobs of all — getting an expensive meal on a plate.

Continue reading ‘Boiling Point’ Review: Philip Barantini’s Film Is The ‘Uncut Gems’ Of Restaurant Dramas at The Playlist.

If you look up tips for first-time skydivers, much of it can be taken as sensible advice for how to live your life generally: dress appropriately, eat well and hydrate, show up on time. However, the rush of the jump — an adrenaline-pumping, world-spinning, free-fall at 120 mph — is like nothing you’ll get on the ground. The title says it all in Kazik Radwanski’s raw and tender character study, “Anne at 13,000 Ft.

Continue reading ‘Anne At 13,000 Ft’ Is An Unflinching & Raw Character Study In Close-Up [Review] at The Playlist.

The rise in popularity of true crime stories has seen the line between genuine investigation and lurid exploitation become increasingly blurred. With every new Netflix docu-series, podcast episode, and beach-read paperback, content creators are having to go further afield to dig up some crime forgotten to history to recast in a light that often appears oriented for entertainment first, with any richer insights an inadvertent byproduct. Grappling with where the ethical line needs to be drawn in depicting true crime stories requires an entirely different article, but Vincent Le Port’s “Bruno Reidal, Confession of a Murderer,” for almost every minute of its running time, begs the question of what purpose was served in making the film.

Continue reading ‘Bruno Reidal, Confession Of A Murderer’ Is An Empty, Misguided True Crime Provocation [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

“Romanians are bad at making movies. We have such a beautiful country, but they only show doom and gloom,” whines Pompiliu (Alexandru Papadopol) in the shaggy, summery comedy “Two Lottery Tickets.” Meant as a playful jab toward the Romanian New Wave movement that has put the country on the cinematic map, local audiences might have found a little bit of truth in writer/director Paul Negoescu’s script as they were clearly ready for something different.

Continue reading ‘Two Lottery Tickets’: The Romanian New Wave Gets A Summery, Slacker Comedy [Review] at The Playlist.

How much of Ireland did Bram Stoker put into the pages of “Dracula?” Certainly, the country’s moody woodlands, swampy bogs, crumbling castles, and awe-inducing coastlines played their part in establishing the atmosphere of the legendary tale. According to certain folks in the sleepy, fictional, Irish town of Six Mile Hill, their cairn and its ties to the legend of Abhartach, played its own role in sparking the imagination of Stoker, who once visited the sleepy hamlet.

Continue reading ‘Boys From County Hell’ Is A Bloodthirsty Horror-Comedy That Could Use A Little More Bite [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s quaint under our current circumstances to think that in the 1970s, the growing acceptance and use of cannabis were considered by conservative politicians as a “pandemic.” That’s at least the word used by John Bradow (Derek McGrath), a stand-in for former Ontario premier John Robarts, as he tries to slow down Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s efforts to decriminalize weed decades before it was cool. The result, as detailed in the based on a true story drama “The Marijuana Conspiracy,” saw Bradow throw money at a study he was certain would confirm his belief about the deleterious effects of weed.

Continue reading ‘The Marijuana Conspiracy’ Plays Like A Feature-Length Canadian Heritage Minute Commercial [Review] at The Playlist.

One year in the life of a teenager can feel like an eternity. The intensity of the fleeting romances, the wild swings between happiness and despair, the thrilling yet uneasy anticipation of a future that seems simultaneously imminent and distant — it’s a wonder that we come out of adolescence intact. But that time shapes who we become, and with her feature debut, Ukrainian filmmaker Kateryna Gornostai chronicles that all-important pre-graduation year, where nothing — and everything — matters.

Continue reading ‘Stop-Zemlia’ Is A Sympathetic Portrait Of The Tidal Forces Of Teenagehood [Berlin Review] at The Playlist.

For the students at a remote boarding school for Kurdish boys, survival is a matter of course, particularly during the frigid depths of winter. The meals are meager, the heating doesn’t work, and even the principal’s car won’t start. Even if it did, he can’t afford snow tires, rendering his vehicle useless in the thick blanket of snow that covers the Eastern Anatolian mountains. All one can do is endure, and fifth-grader Yusuf (Samet Yildiz) has learned that keeping a low profile will spare him the exacting punishments the teachers dole out on his more rambunctious classmates.

Continue reading ‘Brother’s Keeper’ Is A Damning Study Of The Ruthless Inertia Of Bureaucracy [Berlin Review] at The Playlist.

Well, let’s get it out of the way: Armie Hammer. The actor’s career freefall — driven on social media by cannibal kink fascination, but underscored by concerning allegations of non-consensual sex, coercion, and abuse — has likely given “Crisis” (a more apt movie title couldn’t be possible) more interest than the throwaway crime drama would’ve otherwise received. But in the event, you’re one of the few wringing your hands over the film and how to separate the art from the artist, don’t bother.

Continue reading ‘Crisis’: Armie Hammer & Gary Oldman Plod Through A ‘Traffic’-Lite Drug Thriller [Review] at The Playlist.

What does dismantling the American carceral state look like? How can meaningful and radical police reform actually be enacted? After years of tireless work by activists, acting upon decades of injustice against the poor and People of Color, these issues of now part of mainstream political platforms. On a federal level, President Joe Biden’s recent executive order to phase out the use of private, for-profit prisons is a clear indication of how far things have come….and how much further they need to go.

Continue reading ‘Philly D.A.’ Is A Fascinating Profile Of Progressive Politics In Action [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Sudbury, Ontario, is home to one of Canada’s largest, and most unique attractions — the Big Nickel. Measuring 30 feet in diameter, and weighing 13,000 kilograms (14.33 tons), the massive landmark is exactly what it sounds like — a huge replica of the 1951 Canadian nickel. It’s a distinct feature in the otherwise indistinct northern Ontario town, one that has endured the harsh Canadian climate’s wear and tear thanks to an inner steel core wrapped by a stainless steel outer core.

Continue reading ‘Honey Bee’ Delivers An Authentically Lived-In Tale Of Survival [Review] at The Playlist.

In the halcyon days of the early 2010s, it seemed like we had the luxury of worrying about one large scale social issue at a time. For a few months in the fall of 2011, the Occupy Wall Street protests that gripped Zuccotti Park dominated headlines, inspired similar actions around the world, and shined a much-needed light on economic inequality, a disparity that has only become more pronounced in the near-decade that has passed. “Echo Boomers,” a heist film that references Occupy and reverberates with millennial anger at shrinking opportunities as the wealthy get wealthier, seems perfectly poised for this particular moment when the pandemic has further exposed that precipitous chasm.

Continue reading ‘Echo Boomers’ Strands Michael Shannon In An Uninspired Activist Heist Flick [Review] at The Playlist.