Felix van Groeningen‘s last film, 2018’s “Beautiful Boy” with Steve Carrell and Timothée Chalamet, was his English-language debut. But Groeningen returns to his roots, at least artistically, for his latest. The director teams up with his wife, Charlotte Vandermeersch, for the fourth time to co-direct “The Eight Mountains,” which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

Continue reading ‘The Eight Mountains’ Trailer: Cannes 2022 Jury Prize Winner Hits NYC Theaters On April 28 at The Playlist.

Although he is rightly judged as being in the vanguard of British independent cinema, Mark Jenkin nonetheless seems out of place in such company. Unlike his contemporaries—Peter Strickland, Lynne Ramsay, Andrea Arnold, Clio Barnard, and Jonathan Glazer, among others—he is a strict formalist, creating expressions through the rhythms and combinations of images and sounds rather than through conventional narratives or theatrical gestures. And what makes him yet more unique, both in the UK and internationally, is the breadth of his creative abilities: he writes, directs, shoots, edits, produces, and scores each of his films, and sometimes even develops the film himself, as with his BAFTA-winning debut feature, “Bait.” Like “Bait,” his latest work, “Enys Men,” is rather difficult to categorize.

Continue reading ‘Enys Men’: Director Mark Jenkin Talks ‘Bait,’ Robert Bresson & His Upcoming Time Travel Movie at The Playlist.

Few know how to win Palme d’Ors like Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (aka the ‘Dardenne brothers’). The directing duo have bagged themselves two so far, placing them in the esteemed company of Coppola, Imamura, Haneke, Kusturica, Sjöberg, August, and Loach. But even now, with both of them in or approaching their seventies, their output isn’t slowing down, and they’re still hungry for the Cannes competition.

Continue reading ‘Tori And Lokita’ Trailer: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Return With A New Tale Of Empathy & Compassion at The Playlist.

Yes, we’re still here with Best-of 2022 recaps and 2023 anticipated features; we know. We’re gluttons for punishment and maybe a little bit psycho. But yes, we obviously like to look ahead and look back, and our annual The Best Films Of [Insert Year Here] We’ve Already Seen feature is the perfect opportunity to do both.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2022

The gist? Well, we’ve already made our list of the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023, which could have been much longer and will be expanded, by the very least, in our Sundance preview.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2023 We’ve Already Seen at The Playlist.

In what was perhaps the greatest robbery of the decade, Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” received a grand total of zero nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards. Boasting an impressive score of 89 on Metacritic, the film topped many critics’ end-of-year lists, even winning the NYFCC’s Best Film award, and developed a small—predominantly indie—following after its VOD distribution in July 2020. Alas, it was not to be. But the Academy will have a chance to atone next year, as her new film, “Showing Up,” is looking at a spring 2023 release via A24.

Continue reading ‘Showing Up’ Trailer: Michelle Williams Preps For An Art Show In Kelly Reichardt’s New A24 Drama at The Playlist.

Back in 1985, drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II dropped a duffel bag of cocaine out of the airplane he was piloting to ease the aircraft’s load. Not long after, he jumped from the plane and fell to his death following a parachute malfunction. And the duffel bag? It was found by a 175-pound black bear, who then proceeded to eat the cocaine and was found dead in Northern Georgia three months later. Fast forward to 2019, and we have the aptly named “Cocaine Bear,” the latest feature by actress and director Elizabeth Banks.

Continue reading ‘Cocaine Bear’ Trailer: A Bear Does Coke & Then Goes On A Rampage In Elizabeth Banks’ Latest Thriller at The Playlist.

After Aneesh Chaganty’s computer screen thriller, “Searching,” accrued a healthy 71 on Metacritic and saw box office takings of around $75 million (on a budget of $880,000), the urge to make a follow-up became a question of when not if. And sure enough, in 2019, Chaganty announced his intention to anthologize the series with a standalone sequel before the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly put the entire movie industry on hold.

Continue reading ‘Missing’ Trailer: Storm Reid Stars In The Anthology Sequel To Aneesh Chaganty’s Computer Screen Thriller ‘Searching’ at The Playlist.

Earlier this year, seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for another season in the NFL, having spent just 44 days in retirement. And he’s set to make yet another return early next year—but this time to the big screen, with his upcoming film “80 For Brady.”

“80 For Brady” is a sports comedy, directed by Kyle Marvin (“The Climb”) and produced by Brady, about four senior friends who take a road trip to Houston to watch their hero and the New England Patriots play in Super Bowl LI.

Continue reading ’80 for Brady’ Trailer: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda & Four 80-Year-Old BFFs Take A Trip To The Superbowl at The Playlist.

With one Oscar, four BAFTA, and three Golden Globe wins, now seems as good a time as any for director Sam Mendes to make an ode to the art form that made his name. Like Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” Mendes’ latest film, “Empire of Light,” is not only about the power of cinema as an escape, but also its magical facility to bring strangers together.

Continue reading ‘Empire of Light’ Trailer: Sam Mendes Crafts An Ode To Cinema Starring Olivia Colman at The Playlist.

This year’s Venice Film Festival featured several draws, new films by Noah Baumbach, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and more, but perhaps no return was as anticipated as Hollywood legend Brendan Fraser, who stars in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming psychological drama “The Whale.”

‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser And Sadie Sink Are A Heartbreaking Duo In Darren Aronofsky’s Best Film Since ‘The Wrestler’ [Venice]

Fraser has been out of the limelight for a number of years now, battling with health issues, divorce, depression, and the fierce backlash he received in 2018 after accusing Philip Berk (then-president of the HFPA) of sexually assaulting him in 2003.

Continue reading ‘The Whale’ Trailer: Darren Aronofsky Returns With An Oscar-Worthy Brendan Fraser Performance at The Playlist.

With Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” earning rave reviews and a ton of money at the box office, another rock star biopic, the TIFF-premiering “Chevalier,” is hoping to find similar success—only the star of this historical drama predates rock and roll by nearly two hundred years.

READ MORE: ‘Chevalier’ Review: An Electric Kelvin Harrison Jr. Can’t Quite Save The Biopic Clichés Of A Revisionist Black Mozart [TIFF]

The subject of “Chevalier” is Joseph Bologne (later Chevalier de Saint-Georges), a French-Caribbean violinist and composer who took the Parisian music scene by storm in the second half of the 18th century.

Continue reading ‘Chevalier’ Trailer: Kelvin Harrison, Jr. Stars In New Musical Biopic Arriving In April at The Playlist.

Who do you think of when you think of Scrooge? Ryan Reynolds? Me neither. But the casting directors over at Apple TV+ are clearly working on a different wavelength from all of us because this holiday season they’re promising just such an unlikely pairing with “Spirited,” their musical adaptation of Dickens’ classic story, “A Christmas Carol.” And the brilliant chaos continues, with none other than Will Ferrell set to play The Ghost of Christmas Present.

Continue reading ‘Spirited’ Trailer: Ryan Reynolds & Will Ferrell Star In Musical Adaptation of Dickens at The Playlist.

Joanna Hogg’s and Tilda Swinton’s creative partnership goes back nearly fifty years. The two became friends when they were only ten years old, and this school friendship eventually led to Hogg casting Swinton as the lead in her (1986) NFTS graduation film, “Caprice,” about a woman stuck in a fashion magazine. More recently, Swinton and her daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, took on lead roles in Hogg’s critically acclaimed film “The Souvenir” in 2019 and its sequel “The Souvenir: Part II” in 2021.

Continue reading ‘The Eternal Daughter’ Trailer: Tilda Swinton Plays Dual Roles In Joanna Hogg’s Ghostly New Drama at The Playlist.

When it first ran as an English National Ballet production in 2021, “Creature” received some fairly damning reviews from the UK theater critics. It was branded pitilessly inaccessible, muddled in its execution, and irredeemably gloomy in its outlook. A year later, and this invective could hardly be said to apply to Asif Kapadia’s new film adaption, whose shorter but otherwise faithful reproduction of its predecessor’s set design, choreography and poetic flourishes makes you wonder where—and by how much—those previous critics missed the mark.

Continue reading ‘Creature’ Review: Asif Kapadia’s Film Of ‘Woyzeck’ Ballet Breathes New Life Into A Fiery Play [LFF] at The Playlist.

The Oscar race officially started after the Telluride Film Festival, which took place early last month. While films like Sam Mendes’ “Empire Of Light” created a lot of buzz, perhaps no film had people talking like Sarah Polley’s upcoming drama, “Women Talking” (read our review). For one, the film is jam-packed with stars who were likely dying to appear in a movie by the Academy Award-nominated Polley, a favorite among filmmakers and actors.

Continue reading ‘Women Talking’ Trailer: Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley & Claire Foy Lead Sarah Polley’s New Acclaimed Drama at The Playlist.

The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till is one of the lesser-known turning points in U.S. history; but the details of his case, along with the pictures of his disfigured body, haunted the nation’s consciousness back in 1955. While Emmett’s story has been chronicled before, in both documentary and memoir form, “Clemency” director Chinonye Chukwu’s upcoming movie “Till,” which premiered at this year’s New York Film Festival, will be the first to dramatize the brutal murder and the activism it inspired.

Continue reading ‘Till’ Trailer: Danielle Deadwyler Stars In Chinonye Chukwu’s Civil Rights Drama at The Playlist.

What a year 2022 has been for French director Claire Denis. Back in February, her film “Both Sides of the Blade” (formerly known as “Fire”) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. Then in May, her romantic thriller “Stars At Noon” premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Grand Prix award—her first entry in 34 years.

Continue reading ‘Stars At Noon’ Trailer: Margaret Qualley & Joe Alwyn Star In Claire Denis’ Erotic Political Thriller On October 14 at The Playlist.

The title of “Railway Children” in the UK is “The Railway Children Return,” since it’s both an homage and sequel to Lionel Jeffries’ 1970 film—and British national treasure—“The Railway Children” (itself an adaptation of an Edith Nesbit novel). But Morgan Matthews’ unrequested sequel would be far better described as a resurrection than a return, as it plods lifelessly through each and every well-mannered farce, Arcadian frolic, and flag-waving escapade of its beloved predecessor, stopping only to exchange the original’s slapdash commentary on xenophobia for an equally slapdash discourse on racial injustice.

Continue reading ‘Railway Children’ Review: Morgan Matthews’ Nostalgic Sequel Quickly Runs Out Of Steam at The Playlist.

Tearepa Kahi’s “Muru” opens with several spiky title cards: “The views and accuracy of the information contained in this production are not endorsed or supported by the New Zealand Police.” “This film is not a recreation of the police raids against the people of Tūhoe…”; “…It is a response.” The raids in question took place in 1916 and 2007. The former ended with the arrest of Māori prophet Rua Kēnana; the latter, which sought to uncover paramilitary training camps, ended with the seizure of four guns and the arrests of eighteen people, including Tūhoe activist Tame Iti.

Continue reading ‘Muru’ Review: Tearepa Kahi Crafts A Riveting But Imperfect Facfiction [TIFF] at The Playlist.

“Until Branches Bend,” which plays in this year’s TIFF Spotlight section, is a promising but poorly executed debut from Canadian filmmaker Sophie Jarvis. While it tries to be a paean to peaches and sisterhood and sustainable living, and at times a cri de coeur against corporate greed, it is none of these things. Because it’s all of them messily at once, resulting in some passingly feel-good, though mostly half-baked, festival fare.

Continue reading ‘Until Branches Bend’ Review: A Promising, But Ultimately Messy Paean To Sisterhood & Sustainable Living [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Of all the directors making TIFF debuts this year, none are more revered or accomplished than Steven Spielberg. The highest-grossing director of all time normally premieres his films in late fall. However, he’s changed tack this year, with his long-awaited semi-autobiographical film, “The Fabelmans,” headlining TIFF’s Special Presentations section on September 11.

READ MORE: Fall 2022 Preview: 60+ Must-See Films To Watch

The screenplay by Spielberg and Tony Kushner recounts the veteran director’s childhood and adolescence in post-WW2 Arizona.

Continue reading ‘The Fabelmans’ Trailer: Steven Spielberg Says “Movies Are Dreams That You Never Forget” at The Playlist.

Whether it’s ancient cities in the Amazon jungle, uncharted regions of the solar system, or the bleak trenches of WW1, James Gray’s worlds are always meticulously crafted and endlessly immersive. For his upcoming semi-autobiographical work, “Armageddon Time,” things are slightly more earthbound than “Ad Astra,” but they promise to be just as broad, if not broader in scope.

READ MORE: ‘Armageddon Time’ Review: James Gray Reflects On Privilege & Says Goodbye To The Past With Great Empathy [Cannes]

Set in the 1980s, “Armageddon Time” charts the misadventures of 12-year-old Paul Graff growing up with his rowdy family in Queens, New York.

Continue reading ‘Armageddon Time’ Trailer: Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins & More Star In James Gray’s Coming-Of-Age Film at The Playlist.

Five years on from their thrilling diplomatic drama “The Summit,” icons of Argentinian cinema Santiago Mitre (“White Elephant,” “Paulina,” ) and Ricardo Darín (“Wild Tales,” “The Secret in Their Eyes”) have teamed up once more for the Venice-bound “Argentina, 1985.” This time, however, their collaboration is much more fact than fiction, as the film seeks to bring one of Argentina’s most historic judicial trials to the big screen.

Continue reading ‘Argentina, 1985’ Trailer: Santiago Mitre’s Latest Stars Ricardo Darín & Premiered In Venice at The Playlist.

“Welcome, Katherine Frith (Kate Bosworth) and Michael Walsh (Emile Hirsch). You have been chosen to spend 50 days in the Immaculate Room and will win $5 million by completing the task. If one of you leaves, the prize money drops to $1 million for the person that remains. Enjoy your stay in the Immaculate Room.” So intones the HAL-like intelligence that monitors the Immaculate Room—a white-walled, white-floored, white-everythinged space (with stylish en suite), into which meals are dispensed via blank milk cartons, and over the door of which looms an ominous 50-day timer.

Continue reading ‘The Immaculate Room’ Review: Kate Bosworth & Emile Hirsch Star As A Couple Competing For $5 Million In An Indie Dud at The Playlist.

What’s the furthest you’ve traveled to enjoy a drink with your friends? Across town? Across the country? Odds are that seaman John “Chick” Donohue has one-upped you. Back in 1968, Donohue embarked on an extraordinary odyssey: to lug a backpack of beer over to Vietnam, chop his way through the trees, and share a not-so-cold one with his childhood buddies on the frontline. Along the way, he saw jungle firefights, got mistaken for a CIA operative, and, as he was due to leave, found himself in the middle of the infamous Tet Offensive.

Continue reading ‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’ Trailer: Zac Efron Stars In Boozy Vietnam Odyssey at The Playlist.