Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalogue titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

This week’s disc and streaming debuts include the latest from an Oscar-winning international filmmaker, the latest from a Film Twitter favorite, a pair of great 2020 documentaries, and two classics getting the 4K Criterion treatment.

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Last Night in Soho,’ ‘A Hero,’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ & More at The Playlist.

A quarter-century on, the Tom Cruise-fronted franchise has perfected a recognizable house style. But that was not the approach when the series began.

Continue reading ‘Mission: Impossible’ At 25: Revisiting The Franchise’s Auteurist Roots at The Playlist.

It’s definitely not a requirement to be a well-versed cinephile to become a great filmmaker. However, you can’t imagine that it hurts to have a knowledge of some of the best directors around when trying to craft your own art. And in the case of Barry Jenkins, an Oscar-winning filmmaker in his own right, he still looks to others for inspiration when crafting projects, especially with his Amazon series, “The Underground Railroad.”

READ MORE: Barry Jenkins Says Oscars Mix-Up Affirmed “Unsavory Thoughts” That ‘Moonlight’ Won Because It’s A Black Film

Speaking to Sight & Sound, Barry Jenkins gave a list of filmmakers that inspired him during very specific moments in his 10-episode Amazon series, “The Underground Railroad.” In the piece, the author of the novel that inspired the series, Colson Whitehead, said that he was sold on Jenkins as the right guy to adapt the story when the filmmaker mentioned references like Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” and “The Master.”

As for Jenkins, he went deeper with some of his specific influences for the series.

Continue reading ‘Underground Railroad’: Barry Jenkins Was Influenced By Paul Thomas Anderson, Wong Kar-Wai, Claire Denis & More For His Amazon Series at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

Charlie Kaufman is back to rearrange your brain, Kelly Reichardt is back to reconfigure your toxic masculinity, Universal is back to sell you those Hitchcock movies all over again (and they will), and Criterion is back to see you those Jules Dassin movies all over again (ditto).

Continue reading The 8 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘First Cow,’ ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ & More at The Playlist.

Over the years, it’s become readily apparent that remaking an Alfred Hitchcock film is incredibly difficult. It’s not that remakes are always destined to be bad. Instead, it’s that the films that have tried to replicate the style and effectiveness of Hitchcock have failed miserably, with the most blatant example being the shot-for-shot remake of “Psycho.” With that being said, filmmaker Ben Wheatly wants everyone to understand that his upcoming version of “Rebecca” is not a remake of Hitchcock’s Oscar-winning film of the same name.

Continue reading Ben Wheatley Says His ‘Rebecca’ Is “Firmly Not” A Remake Of The Hitchcock Classic at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

This week’s biggest new disc and VOD release is one of the few major studio pictures of the year to make it into theaters, so who knows, maybe it’s an Oscar contender?

Continue reading The 7 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Bad Boys For Life,’ ‘Selah and the Spades’ & More at The Playlist.

Sure, it may only be October, but it’s never too early to think about 2019. Skip past the holidays and those requisite family dinners. It’s time to talk January 2019 and specifically, which new Criterion films you’ll be purchasing in the new year.

Leading the way in January is actress, writer, and director Elaine May, who joins the esteemed Criterion Collection with her 1976 film “Mikey and Nicky.” The crime film stars Peter Falk and John Cassavetes as two former friends and mobsters that find their friendship brought back into light when one of them is scared for his life.

Continue reading Elaine May’s ‘Mikey And Nicky’ Joins ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ & Hitchcock’s ‘Notorious’ In January’s Criterion Releases at The Playlist.

Watch: 4-Minute Video Details All The Edits In Alfred Hitchcock’s Classic ‘Rope’

Continue reading Watch: 4-Minute Video Details All The Edits In Alfred Hitchcock’s Classic ‘Rope’ at The Playlist.

Watch: 9-Minute Video Essay Examines How Alfred Hitchcock Brilliantly Blocks A Scene

Continue reading Watch: 9-Minute Video Essay Examines How Alfred Hitchcock Brilliantly Blocks A Scene at The Playlist.

The 25 Greatest Movies Never Made

Continue reading The 25 Greatest Movies Never Made at The Playlist.

The British production by Slingshot Productions and BBC Films (they should be ashamed) will utilize a script by Joshua St.

Continue reading Alfred Hitchock’s ‘Strangers On A Train’ To Become ‘Teens On A Train’ & Will Be Influenced By ‘Before Sunrise’ at The Playlist.

The suit was brought to court by the very un-fun sounding people The Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust who argued that D.J. Caruso’s film bore more than a striking resemblance to the plot of the Cornell Woolrich short story that inspired Alfred Hitchock’s classic film.

Continue reading Legally Speaking, ‘Disturbia’ Is Not A Ripoff Of ‘Rear Window’ at The Playlist.

The most wanted Most Wanted is a film by Alfred Hitchcock (seen pointing in set photo – even he was young once), his second directorial effort, in fact, a silent movie from 1926 called “The Mountain Eagle” — which, notwithstanding Hitch’s own comment in conversation with Francois Truffaut that it’s “a very bad movie” — is still a rather mouthwatering prospect for film historians and students alike.

Continue reading BFI Releases List of 75 Most Wanted Lost British Films Including Works By Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell & More at The Playlist.

The film-essay is usually a hard genre to digest; while there’s a lot to be gotten out of them, often they tend to be very trying and difficult. “Double Take,” directed by Johan Grimonprez, is an exception to the rule (the fact that it got any theater time at all should be argument enough), as it remains consistently enjoyable and humorous throughout its duration. The central ‘plot,’ if you want to call it that, revolves around Alfred Hitchcock encountering his double in his studio.

Continue reading ‘Double Take’ Is An Intriguing Essay On Hitchcock’s Films & U.S./Soviet Tensions at The Playlist.

Continue reading Rumorville: Will Smith Hitchock Remake? Greg Berlanti To ‘Flash’? Jonah Nolan Won’t Direct ‘Superman’ Reboot at The Playlist.

Continue reading ‘Wolverine 2’ To Shoot In 2011; ‘Metal Gear Solid’ Movie Unlikely; ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ Gets US Distribution at The Playlist.

If you’re not a Bond person, fear not, Criterion comes to the rescue- Francois Truffaut’s faultless “The 400 Blows” and “The Last Metro” also street, a major treat for any film lover, while Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch A Thief” gets a non-Criterion but still souped-up Centennial Collection release.

Continue reading This Week In DVD’s- The Name’s Ray. Blu-Ray. at The Playlist.

Continue reading This Week In DVD’s- Criterion, Hitchcock and YOU, THE LIVING at The Playlist.

Robert Pattinson will threaten his pin-up hunk “Twilight” status by playing the young, pre-moustachioed artiste in “Little Ashes” and now Spaniard Antonio Banderas is in final negotiations to play the painter in a Simon West-directed indie biopic simply titled, “Dali,” according to Variety.

Continue reading Antonio Banderas To Play Surrealist Quack, Salvador Dali at The Playlist.

Continue reading ‘Arizona Dream’: Vincent Gallo Does Carey Grant In ‘North By Northwest’ at The Playlist.

We included the original photo context within VF’s photos just cause (except for the Cotillard one cause it speaks for itself and you never want to cover up her body).

Continue reading Vanity Fair’s Photo Portfolio Salute To The Films Of Alfred Hitchcock at The Playlist.

Well for one it’s a short disguised as an ad for the Spanish Freixenet sparkling wine, which makes it pretty lame (and perhaps has Hitchcock rolling in his grave), but one assumes the funding for the project came from the wine company.

Continue reading Marty Scorsese Shoots Lost Hitchcock Short As Sparkling Wine Advert at The Playlist.

Continue reading Anthony Hopkins Has An Awesome Hitchcock Impersonation at The Playlist.