The HBO epic, “Dune: Prophecy,” takes viewers back to an era years before Paul Atreides, exploring the rich worlds of “Dune” through the lens of the Bene Gesserit, cracking the Dune-iverse open even more for viewers. So, yes, no Timothy Chalamet or Zendaya brooding with lush special effects backdrops. Imagine a sci-fi saga full of mysticism, clever plotting, political jockeying and powerful women driving the story—it’s like “Game Of Thrones,” but with a cosmic twist.

Continue reading ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Review: HBO Goes Full-On ‘Game Of Thrones’ With Compelling, Mysterious, & Worthy Spin-Off at The Playlist.

A color-washed series about tough, no-nonsense guys dealing with high-pressure hands-on stuff in rural America, “Landman” is raw, uncut Taylor Sheridan straight from the source. Set in and around the oil fields of Midland-Odessa, Texas, the series trolls the mesquite-mixed grasslands of the Permian Basin for the artificial drama so endemic there. Smuggling mishaps, oil well blowouts, appendage mangling, and plain old heartbreak provide the fuel in this regard, which flows more liberally than what’s pumped out of the ground.

Continue reading ‘Landman’ Review: Taylor Sheridan’s Oil Series With Billy Bob Thornton Is Mostly Entertaining & Speaks To A MAGA Worldview at The Playlist.

Since its inception, more than anything, Apple TV+ has excelled at genre television, especially in the sci-fi space. The sheer number of science fiction shows that populate the relatively small service is frankly overwhelming. Yet the best of those shows has somewhat flown under the radar. “Silo” premiered last year to acclaim, if not the deafening noise that followed something like “Severance.” Created by the great Graham Yost (“Justified”) and starring Rebecca Ferguson, the show’s mystery-box approach to a future society kept viewers like me compelled over the course of its ten-episode first season.

Continue reading ‘Silo’ Season 2 Review: Apple TV+’s Best Show Returns With A Deeper, If Less Bingeable, New Season at The Playlist.

OK, Yellowstoners, we’re catching up on the “Yellowstone” season five part two premiere, which aired late Sunday night on Paramount Network (and wasn’t readily available to watch anywhere if you didn’t catch it that evening; thankfully, Prime sorted me out). Titled “Desire Is All You Need,” episode nine of this two-part season started out a little unceremoniously.

As you all should know by now, “Yellowstone” showrunner/creator writer Taylor Sheridan and Kevin Costner, who plays the Yellowstone family ranch patriarch, John Dutton, had a major falling out nearly two years ago over scheduling and Costner wanting to take time away from the series to shoot his “Horizon: An American Saga” Western (which tanked at the box office this year despite an enormous cost and substantial personal investment by Costner).

Continue reading ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Premiere: Taylor Sheridan Does Kevin Costner’s John Dutton Dirty But What Else Could Be Done? [Recap & Review] at The Playlist.

Not long ago, scores of women on social media discovered that, apparently, a large swath of heterosexual men recurrently think about the Roman Empire. An endless source of shared fascination. For many of those adult men such interest probably emerged from watching Ridley Scott’s original “Gladiator” more than two decades ago and not from textbooks. The honor-driven, kindness-laced heroism of Russell Crow’s Maximus represented an admirable brand of manhood to aspire to, that of a grieving, unwavering individual fighting for a just cause. 

Continue reading ‘Gladiator II’ Review: Paul Mescal Gives A Mostly Worthy Fight In Sequel That’s Timelier Than It Seems  at The Playlist.

Art, as witnessed throughout roughly the entirety of the written record, has been seen as much an expression of self as an escape from any number of the inevitable challenges life can and will present; Shimada Yoshiko’s Becoming a Statue of a Japanese Comfort Woman exists as a piece of performance art in addition to a tribute to those no longer with us. At the same time, Banksy’s Girl Holding an Ice Cream Bomb sheds any form of subtlety by showcasing an image of a child clutching an ice cream cone with a stick of dynamite housed within.

Continue reading ‘Rule Of Two Walls’ Review: Artists Turn To Their Medium Amidst The Chaos Of War at The Playlist.

At the outset of Hannah Peterson’s elliptical film debut, “The Graduates,” the writer/director stages a scene that we’ve seen before. In it, a shy 12th grader, Genevieve (Mina Sundwall), is given a writing prompt by her English teacher. Her teacher tells her to write about who she “sincerely is as a person.” Mina doesn’t know how to begin, simply staring down at the paper. 

Continue reading ‘The Graduates’ Review: Hannah Peterson’s Debut Is A Quiet Reflection On A School Shooting Aftermath at The Playlist.

When “The Diplomat” premiered last year, it was often compared to “The West Wing.” The comparison made sense. Series creator Debora Cahn cut her teeth as a writer on the show both during and after creator Aaron Sorkin’s tenure. In her new show, she brought the same type of daffy seriousness that defined its predecessor. It also had the same wild tonal swings between screwball comedy and political thriller but without the preachiness that defined the Sorkin walk-and-talk.

Continue reading ‘The Diplomat’ Season 2 Review: Keri Russell’s Netflix Political Drama Returns With An Entertainingly Messy New Season at The Playlist.

For two actors who have seemed almost inseparable since they burst onto the scene in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Y Tu Mamá También,” Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal actually haven’t acted together much. Sure, they recently went toe-to-toe with Bert and Ernie in a friendship quiz, but in terms of screen time, the duo has only appeared in three films together, counting ‘También’” ‘and the Will Ferrell curio “Casa de mi Padre.” Thus, Hulu’s first Spanish-language series, “La Máquina,” feels like something of a homecoming for the two stars.

Continue reading ‘La Máquina’ Review: Diego Luna & Gael Garcia Bernal’s Reunion Is a Tonally Confused Misfire at The Playlist.

Before we bore you with how mind-numbing “Venom: The Last Dance” is, let’s recall how we got here, circling this pitiful drain. Following false starts with two underperforming ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films, Sony Pictures turned to Marvel for a hand and a mutually beneficial play: Marvel producing “Spider-Man” movies and taking a financial cut in exchange for allowing the webslinger play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Continue reading ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Review: A Painfully Forgettable Tango To The Bottom Of The Dust Heap at The Playlist.

Four years ago, as a global pandemic brought society both indoors and desperate for any means of suitable distraction, television veteran Bill Lawrence, having once breathed life into cultural touchstones “Spin City” and “Scrubs,” made the leap to the streaming landscape of Apple TV+ with “Ted Lasso.” Though “Lasso” presumably ended its run after three near-legendary seasons, Lawrence’s newest series, “Shrinking,” was only just emerging from the gates, a show now gifted with a second excursion into a world of therapists, stabs at personal growth and the sort of interpersonal dilemmas standard for any half-hour sitcom.

Continue reading ‘Shrinking’ Season 2 Review: It’s More Of The Same The Second Time Around, And That’s Not Necessarily A Good Thing at The Playlist.

With a simmering, powderkeg rage fueling the backbone of the series, “Sweetpea” is largely a triumph. Plenty of stories over the years deal with female fury, isolation, and overall messiness. In the Starz adaptation of the novel of the same name by CJ Skuse, those feelings are amplified through a bloody killing spree as our antihero protagonist desperately seeks to be seen, no matter the consequences — or body count.

Continue reading ‘Sweetpea’ Review: Ella Purnell Triumphs In A Brutal Exploration Of A Woman’s Tipping Point at The Playlist.

In music, there’s a heavy metal band named Gwar. They’ve never been the biggest band in the world, but they have a deeply devoted fanbase because of one thing—their live shows. Gwar concerts are wild, with the whole band in extreme prosthetics to make them look like aliens from a far-off world. They do literal battles on stage with monsters. And the most (in)famous thing they do is shoot fake blood and semen into the crowd.

Continue reading ‘Terrifier 3’ Review: Bloodthirsty Horror Fans Rejoice, This Film Is For You at The Playlist.

Despite being flush with color for most of its runtime due to the natural, overgrown landscapes and the sun that filters through the trees surrounding it, “Caddo Lake” is strikingly reminiscent of a certain mid-2000s style of gray genre flick. It’s not just the coloring that lends this thriller to that sort of comparison. The latest film from writer-directors Celine Held and Logan George is a product of a bygone era of filmmaking, for good and bad.

Continue reading ‘Caddo Lake’: Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen & Lauren Ambrose Cannot Elevate A Predictable Thriller at The Playlist.

Among the most versatile filmmakers working today, Oscar-winning writer-director Steve McQueen doesn’t repeat himself. A distinctive filmography that spans across everything mainstream and indie—from American slavery and Dutch Nazi occupation to the rhythms of London’s West Indian communities and a women-led crime extravaganza—stands tall as proof. With the elegant historical fiction “Blitz,” his largest-scaled movie to date, McQueen, this time, turns his lens onto London’s blitzkrieg that started in September 1940, when Germans systemically bombed the city for months on end.

Continue reading ‘Blitz’ Review: Steven McQueen’s WWII London Bombing Drama Is Dazzling [NYFF] at The Playlist.

It’s no secret that superhero films have dominated the cultural conversation in the world of film for almost two decades now. But there’s been visible chinks in the armor in recent years, Marvel’s 2023 flops and overall wobble, DC’s limp to the finish line of its previous universe, and just recently, the disastrous opening of “Joker: Folie A Deux,” which earned a D CinemaScore rating from audiences—the lowest score any superhero film has ever received.

Continue reading ‘The Franchise’ Review: Witty, Behind-The-Scenes Look At Superhero Blockbusters Is Amusing Stuff at The Playlist.

TIFF: Sprawling, historical family sagas used to be de rigueur as culminating artistic statements from our greatest talents. They were characterized by the intertwined lives of a large cast of characters—parents, children, and siblings—their hopes and fears, triumphs and disappointments—situated at moments of profound societal change. Classic examples include Thomas Mann‘s “Buddenbrooks” and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s “The Leopard.” It is, thus, heartening to see director Maura Delpero attempting such a tale in just her second narrative feature.

Continue reading ‘Vermiglio’ Review: Italy’s Award-Winning Oscar Submission Is A Sprawling, Ambitious Family Chronicle at The Playlist.

While Sundance 2024 was a bit of a sleepy affair, one of the bigger hits of the festival, quickly acquired by Searchlight Pictures, was “A Real Pain,” the latest directorial effort of actor/filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg. Written by Eisenberg and co-starring himself and “Succession” star Kieran Culkin, the comedic drama centers on a pair of incompatible cousins, one bright and successful (Eisenberg), the other lost and floundering (Culkin), who make a trek to Poland to see the ancestral home of their beloved grandmother and honor her memory.

Continue reading ‘A Real Pain’ Trailer: Jesse Eisenberg & Kieran Culkin Play Mismatched Cousins In A Sundance Dramedy Coming In Nov at The Playlist.

As the 1960s drew to a close, director Roman Polanski‘s theatrical adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel “Rosemary’s Baby” would find immediate success from both the box office and critics alike, eventually finding its way onto many a list of genre-defining horror and inclusion within the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. This now-classic, revolving around the spouse of an NYC-based actor who believes she may very well be carrying the unborn child of Satan after a string of horrific events and the meddling of her bizarre neighbors, served as a launchpad for the career of Mia Farrow as she deftly commanded the title role and would go on to spawn its own offspring in the form of a 1976 sequel and 2014 remake, both made for television.

Continue reading ‘Apartment 7A’ Review: Julia Garner Delivers A Career-Defining Performance In An Otherwise Routine Horror Prequel [Fantastic Fest] at The Playlist.

Let it be said that nothing beats the atmosphere of a good medical drama. Ask the creative team behind “ER,” “Chicago Med,” or more recent streaming efforts such as “The Good Nurse“; any project able to successfully capture the tension, stakes, and life on-the-edge thrill of wrenching someone from the precipice of death or simply helping the terminally ill cope with their imminent last days deserves more than a passing glimpse.

Continue reading ‘A Mistake’ Review: Elizabeth Banks Confidently Leads A Gloomy Medical Narrative at The Playlist.

The witches brew for Marvel Television’s new “Agatha All Along” is what you might expect: a little bit playful, with a dash of comical amusement, some slightly creep witchcrafty macabre notes, a pinch of musical singalong moments, and easygoing mystery as a topper. A spin-off of the “WandaVision” series centering on that antagonist witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), the limited series is a lightweight effort; lighthearted, light on its feet, light on depth, and a bit mid in flavor.

Continue reading ‘Agatha All Along’ Review: Kathryn Hahn Leads Marvel’s Playful, Campy, Musical Wicked Witches Tale at The Playlist.

Family is blood and biology on the surface, but found families—those who are there for us no matter what kinship exists— have taken a central position in our culture in recent years. Those notions, identity, who we are, and the limits of family and fatherhood all come into play in the compelling second season of FX’s “The Old Man” starring Jeff Bridges. Growing beyond just a thrilling spy thriller about an aging ex-CIA agent on the run, Dan Chase(Bridges), and the former ally set to chase him down FBI Assistant Director Harold Harper (John Lithgow), “The Old Man” deeply evolves in season two, arguably different enough that it could turn off viewers more inclined to the thriller action elements of its inaugural season.

Continue reading ‘The Old Man’ Review: Jeff Bridges & John Lithgow Grapple With Fatherhood Pain & Identity In Searingly Emotional Season 2 at The Playlist.

In the grand tradition of “The Godfather” and “Scarface,” similarly modernistic versions influenced by the same works like James Gray’s early New York crime films and augmented by the dilapidated layer of grimy bleakness derived from “The Batman” franchise, Matt Reeves’ “The Penguin,” is a bruising dramatic crime tragedy about the myth of the American dream and its modern decay.

Continue reading ‘The Penguin’ Review: Colin Farrell Leads A Dark, Tragic Tale About The Decay Of The American Dream at The Playlist.

TORONTO – There have been a number of unexpected news reports about “The Deb,” the feature directorial debut of Rebel Wilson, over the past few months. Wilson has been in a war of words with the producers of the indie production since July. The comedy star posted to her 11 million followers on Instagram to denounce the producers for attempting to stop the movie from being selected as the closing night film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘The Deb’ Review: Natalie Abbott, Charlotte MacInnes & These Aussie Kids Can Sing [TIFF] at The Playlist.

“Hold Your Breath“ is directors Karrie Crouse and Will Joines’ debut feature, developed as part of the Sundance Institute’s Writer’s Lab program and likely a passion project. Unfortunately, due to an extremely familiar and well-worn cabin fever premise, it offers a highly repetitive and derivative experience – and cannot escape the shadow of its numerous predecessors that have covered similar ground. It does for dust what Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Others” did for light, but lacks its formal command, tactile texture,s, and enveloping atmosphere.

Continue reading ‘Hold Your Breath’ Review: A Fantastic Sarah Paulson Can’t Save Formulaic Horror Drama [TIFF] at The Playlist.