It’s March again and arguably it’s never stopped being March. Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich. Ever since the global COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. and then basically forced most of the country to shut down and self-isolate in March 2020, the idea of existential despair has been on our brains both consciously and unconsciously. First, of course, it was panic—see stores running out of food and toilet paper—and some were able to channel that anxious energy into a kind of manic hypercreativity or hysterical productivity in the first few months of uncertainty (Steven Soderbergh famously wrote three full screenplays in about the first two months of the pandemic, challenging the nervous energy of not knowing what to do with himself with so much “downtime”).

Continue reading Existential Despair: Essential Movies For When March Never Ends at The Playlist.

When it comes to films about screenwriters, the challenge seems to be creating a movie that is not only itself an entertaining, self-contained experience but also one that illuminates the creative process that led to other notable work.

This week on Be Reel, we look primarily at the new David Fincher film, “Mank” (2020) about Herman J. Mankiewicz and the origins of “Citizen Kane.” Then, rounding out our category is Charlie Kaufman fictionalizing his writer’s block in “Adaptation” (2002) and Dalton Trumbo‘s quest against the Hollywood Blacklist “Trumbo” (2015).

Continue reading How Does ‘Mank’ Compare To Other Tall Tales Of Hollywood Screenwriting? [Be Reel Podcast] at The Playlist.

The list of American screenwriters who have attained name-brand status in the last thirty years is a relatively short one. It used to be that the writer was king in Hollywood; the advent of the so-called auteur theory effectively quelled that notion. Of course, there are still your Aaron Sorkins, your Steven Zaillians, your Eric Roths, your Kevin Willmotts, and your Greta Gerwigs.

Continue reading The Essentials: The Surreal Films Of Charlie Kaufman at The Playlist.

When we look at cinema and television narratives set in the future, things don’t look very bright literally or figuratively. The color palette is dark, the land is barren, and the social constructs are totally warped. Sometimes, though, we do get a glimpse where the future appears, dare I say, warm and welcoming. Spike Jonze isn’t a stranger to brighter hues. His films, “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation,” and most notably “Where The Wild Things Are,” really capitalize on his ingenuity of color.

Continue reading Building A Brighter Future In Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ at The Playlist.

On this latest episode of the podcast in which an overrated and underrated film within the same genre, style or tone are pitted against each other, the hosts of Over/Under Movies get neurotic as hell and dive into their anxieties about creativity and their life struggles. This episode is a Charlie Kaufman special, as host Oktay Ege Kozak chose “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” as the overrated up against “Adaptation” as the underrated. 

Continue reading Podcast: Over/Under Movies Gets Lost In Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ & ‘Adaptation’ at The Playlist.

Watch: 8-Minute Supercut Celebration Of Charlie Kaufman's Filmography

Continue reading Celebrating The Surreality Of Charlie Kaufman’s Filmography at The Playlist.

Watch: 5-Minute Supercut Highlights ‘Actors Acting Opposite Themselves’

Continue reading Twinsies: Actors Acting Opposite Themselves at The Playlist.

There are strata of acting talent—there’s the good, the very good, and the great. And somewhere up above all that, there’s Meryl Streep. Mary Louise Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey, broke into film in the late ’70s with a couple of remarkable supporting turns, and has never looked back. In fact, she’s leapfrogged everyone’s wildest expectations, and over the course of the past four decades has amassed a total of 19 Academy Award nominations (the only other actor alive who comes remotely close isJack Nicholson, with 12).

Continue reading The Essentials: Meryl Streep’s 16 Best Performances at The Playlist.

You can analyze Nicolas Cage’s eccentrically eclectic career all you want. We certainly have scratched our heads over it too. Once an indie darling, Cage’s career transformed and morphed over the years into a kind of studio grotesque, but as he explained in the interview quotes linked below to the actor, it was all part of a restless, try-anything, break-all-rules plan. With David Gordon Green’s “Joe” arriving in theaters this weekend—featuring one of Cage’s best and most restrained performances in years, a real return to his roots, and real acting—we thought, we’d revive this still-very relevant feature retrospective from last year.

Continue reading The Essentials: Nicolas Cage’s Best Films at The Playlist.

While sprawling, ambitious and super-heady, ‘Synecdoche,’ was met with mixed results usually by people who loved it or hated it and not much in between.

Continue reading Will Spike Jonze And Michel Gondry Have To Look Elsewhere For Scripts; Charlie Kaufman Sounds Like He Wants To Go It Alone For Good at The Playlist.