Operation Mincemeat was a covert British plan during World War II designed to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. To do this, two members of British intelligence disguised the body of an already-deceased man named Glyndwr Michael as an officer of the Royal Marines, a fictitious man named William Martin. They strategically placed manufactured correspondence on Michael’s body and dumped him on the southern coast of Spain, where he would be picked up by Spanish fishermen.

Continue reading ‘Operation Mincemeat’ Review: Colin Firth & Matthew Macfadyen Outsmart The Nazis In A WWII Potboiler at The Playlist.

As a writer and director, Jacques Audiard is known for muscular crime dramas, including “The Beat That My Heart Skipped,” “A Prophet,” “Rust and Bone,” and 2015’s Palme d’Or winner “Dheepan.” His work has largely had an air of seriousness to it that doesn’t leave much room for comedy or frivolity of any sort. His films are dark looks into the souls of characters struggling to exist in a world that isn’t often built for the majority to thrive — magnificent achievements, no doubt, but also tough to crack a smile while watching. 

In 2018, Audiard made his English-language debut alongside his frequent co-writer Thomas Bidegain with the western “The Sisters Brothers,” taking a more comedic bent to his fascination with masculinity to explore a quartet of buffoons seeking gold in 1850s Oregon.

Continue reading Jacques Audiard On Sex, Comedy, & Computers In ‘Paris, 13th District’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

From its genesis, “Nitram” was designed to be a difficult film to watch. Tackling the events leading up to the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting that took place in Tasmania, director Justin Kurzel (“True History of the Kelly Gang”) and writer Shaun Grant were treading similar waters as they did in their debut feature, 2011’s “The Snowtown Murders,” utilizing cinema’s ability to bring light to the pain of real-life atrocities and ask important questions as to how these violent men became the way they were, and what gave them the tools to take the actions they did. 

Intentionally never using the real name of the perpetrator of this shooting, “Nitram” (the nickname by which the man is referenced) nevertheless centers its focus on him, as played by Caleb Landry Jones.

Continue reading Justin Kurzel On The Difficult Questions ‘Nitram’ Asks & Finding Its Authenticity [Interview] at The Playlist.

Video-essayist-turned-filmmaker Kogonada made his feature film debut in 2017 with the lyrical and poetic “Columbus,” a film we loved so much we declared him one of the breakout talents of the year. Describing him at the time as “coming out of the gate fully, and beautifully formed,” we all waited with bated breath to see what his follow-up would be. 

READ MORE: ‘After Yang’: Kogonada Reflects Bittersweetly On The Melancholy Nature Of Death & Existence Through Tender Sci-fi & Technosapiens [Cannes Review]

The wait was worth it, to say the least.

Continue reading ‘After Yang’: Colin Farrell & Jodie Turner-Smith On Finding Meaning Within The Silences [Interview] at The Playlist.

From its very premise, “Munich: The Edge of War” puts itself in a precarious situation: how to make a thriller engaging for an audience who already knows the ending? Set around the Munich Agreement of 1938, in which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) and German leader Adolf Hitler (Ulrich Matthes) met to broker peace before impending war, viewers know the agreement would only serve as a temporary salve for the horrors that would soon come.

Continue reading ‘Munich: The Edge of War’ Review: George MacKay Tries to Prevent WWII In Ticking-Clock Thriller at The Playlist.

Tim Roth is a director’s actor. The London native began his on-screen career under the helm of Alan Clarke with a volatile role in his 1982 television play “Made In Britain,” exploding in front of the camera and immediately putting himself on the map. One director after another was lining up to work with him, leading to plum subsequent parts in the years to follow with Mike Leigh (“Meantime”), Stephen Frears (“The Hit”), Peter Greenaway (“The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover”), and Robert Altman (“Vincent & Theo”) by the time he had reached his first full decade in films. 

Continue reading Tim Roth On Making ‘Sundown’ Like a Silent Movie, The Directors Who Shaped Him & Rejoining The MCU In ‘She-Hulk’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

Pregnancy is tough work. Getting pregnant on the cusp of robots flipping their programming switch and violently taking over the world? That seems pretty close to impossible. Unfortunately for them, these are the circumstances faced by Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith) in Mattson Tomlin’s new Hulu release “Mother/Android,” the latest post-apocalyptic sci-fi action-adventure romance cobble of a bunch of different ideas you’ve seen before in slightly new packaging. 

Continue reading ‘Mother/Android’ Review: Chloë Grace Moretz Film Struggles To Find A Heartbeat Inside Its Robotic Exterior at The Playlist.