The sudden cancellation of “The Acolyte” last week sent shockwaves through the “Star Wars” universe, with the show being the first Disney+ title for Lucasfilm to nix entirely. But the move didn’t surprise “Acolyte” star Amandla Stenberg, and she’s becoming increasingly vocal about the “rampage” of “hyper-conservative bigotry and vitrol, prejudiced hatred, and hateful language” she’s had to endure from the “Star Wars” fanbase ever since the show’s initial announcement.

Continue reading ‘The Acolyte’: Amandla Stenberg Says “It’s Not A Huge Shock For Me” That Show Was Cancelled, Cites “Rampage Of Vitriol” The Series Received at The Playlist.

**Spoilers, please don’t read this piece if you haven’t seen the full season of “The Acolyte.”**

All right, the “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte” ended today/late last night. If you’re like us, the entire season was a mixed bag, high on thrills of action set pieces and fantastic light saber duels, but sometimes low on stories and true surprises for what was supposed to be a mystery thriller (read our initial review).

Continue reading ‘The Acolyte’ Finale Doesn’t Totally Redeem The Series But Ends With Intriguing Possibilities at The Playlist.

No amount of rewatching, revisionism, and distance makes the leaden “Star Wars” prequels good, sorry (lord knows I’ve tried). But teeming with terrifically substantive ideas, just not convincing in the execution of any of them, the most juicy and complex legacy that George Lucas ever left “Star Wars” with—something the franchise always seems to flirt with and yet never fully embrace—is the notion of failure, and the Jedi Order as a deeply flawed and ultimately ruinous organization.

Continue reading ‘The Acolyte’ Review: ‘Star Wars’ Mystery Series Tries To Reinterrogate ‘Phantom Menace’ Ideas With Mixed Results at The Playlist.

It’s May 4th, and you know what that means. In honor of the annual “Star Wars” fan holiday (“May The Force”), Lucasfilm has revealed the new trailer for “The Acolyte,” and if you were maybe a bit underwhelmed by the secretive nature of the first teaser, well, this trailer rips off the mask, unveils secrets and looks pretty damn great. The suspenseful new live-action “Star Wars” series, which seems to have a lot of connections to “The Phantom Menace” era of conspiracy, lies, and hidden truths, premieres on Tuesday, June 4, with the first two episodes exclusively on Disney+.

Continue reading ‘The Acolyte’ Trailer: Lucasfilm Reveals More Secrets In Terrific New May The 4 Teaser at The Playlist.

In an age of light, a darkness rises, and finally. Lucasfilm is pretty guarded about its secret, arguably even cagier than Marvel. Take “The Acolyte,” series from writer/director Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll”). Announced in 2020, while it, granted, only went into production in 2022, it’s been four years, and all we’ve ever seen is one behind-the-scenes photo. Today, that finally changes as Lucasfilm has finally pulled back the curtain on their latest “Star Wars” series, revealing a summer release date and the first moody trailer.

Continue reading ‘The Acolyte’ Trailer: Lucasfilm’s Jedi Mystery Series Starring Amandla Stenberg Arrives June 4 at The Playlist.

Filmmakers love to use horny horror and genre metamorphosis for tales of eroticism or queer eroticism: hell, it works, and it’s often a beguiling mixture of moods, tones, and feelings in our nether regions. And that seems to be what filmmaker Jacqueline Castel is going for with “My Animal,” a surreal, erotic, romantic werewolf movie that premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

Written by Jae Matthews, the film stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez (from “Euphoria”), Amandla Stenberg (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”), Heidi von Palleske, Cory Lipman, Charlie & Harrison Halpenny, Joe Apollonio, Scott Thompson, Dean McDermott, and Stephen McHattie.

Continue reading ‘My Animal’ Trailer: Amandla Stenberg & ‘Euphoria’s Bobbi Salvör Menuez Star In A Trippy Lesbian Werewolf Romance at The Playlist.

Like most teenagers, Heather (non-binary actor Bobbi Salvör Menuez), a social misfit who lives in a rural town in northern Canada, has a strict midnight curfew to adhere to. But unlike other teenagers, staying out for longer has a much more dangerous effect on her. We learn that in the opening scene of “My Animal,” — the camera trains its gaze on the red-headed Heather sitting in a dark room watching a werewolf movie while slowly transforming into a werewolf herself, her eyes glowing and her breath heaving.

Continue reading ‘My Animal’ Review: A Moody, Trippy Queer Werewolf Romance Is Limited, But A Remarkably Assured Debut [Sundance] at The Playlist.

She may not yet be a household name in the United States, but in her native Netherlands, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” director Halina Reijn is a well-established figure in film, TV, and theater. She’s worked with renowned Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove on international stage productions. The production company she started with fellow Dutch actress (and “Game of Thrones” alum) Carice van Houten, Man Up, developed “Red Light,” an award-winning Dutch/Belgian TV series, which Reijn created, co-wrote, and starred in.

Continue reading ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Director Halina Reijn On Shifting Cultures, Gen Z Lingo & Filming In The Dark [Interview] at The Playlist.

Let’s face it, skewering younger generations is a tried-and-true tradition. Millennials got it for years with the avocado toast thing—mostly from conservatives, but everyone dogpiled then—and now Gen-Z, Gen A, and the TikTok generation are receiving their lambasting too. All of that punching down and playful impaling in the launching pad for “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a new A24 comedy from Dutch actress, writer/director Halina Reijn (“Instinct”) and newcomer writer Sarah DeLappe.

Continue reading ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Trailer: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova Do Hot Girl Sh*t In A24’s Gen-Z New Horror Comedy at The Playlist.

Star Wars fans have had to be patient this year as they await the return of Ewan McGregor in the latest Disney+ show, “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” And it’s been a lot of waiting: McGregor’s return to the Star Wars Universe didn’t even have a confirmed release date yet when the final episode of “The Book Of Boba Fett” hit the platform in early February.

Continue reading Lucasfilm Reveals ‘Andor’ Coming Summer 2022, ‘Mandalorian’ S3 Late 2022/Early 2023 & More at The Playlist.

It’s hard to resist a clever, well-made generational-skewering satire and the A24 horror “Bodies Bodies Bodies” really seems to fit the bill. The English-language directorial debut of Dutch filmmaker/actress Halina Reijn (“Instinct,” “Black Book”), “Bodies Bodies Bodies” debuted at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year and appeared to be a massive hit.

Our review from SXSW breaks it down well.

Continue reading ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Trailer: There Are No Safe Spaces In A24’s New Gen-Z-Is-The-Worst Horror at The Playlist.

Last December, Lucasfilm made a surprise announcement that they would be developing “The Acolyte,” a brand new “Star Wars” series for Disney+. Set during The High Republic, “The Acolyte” would take place within a new era, hundreds of years before The Skywalker Saga, that is central to a whole new line of novels, video games, and comic books.

Created by “Russian Doll” showrunner Leslye Headland, “The Acolyte” was expected to follow a new character to the live-action realm of the franchise.

Continue reading ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’: Amandla Stenberg Eyed For Lead Role In Disney+ Series at The Playlist.

On paper, an empathetic film depicting teenagers who live with mental health issues finding their way out of their high school years, which can truly be hell, seems like something we might need right now. Unfortunately, Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of the Tony-awarding-winning musical “Dear Evan Hansen” is not that movie. Frankly, the musical, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and book by Steven Levenson, itself is where the fault lies.

Continue reading ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Is Emotionally Manipulative & An Irredeemably Exploitative Look At Mental Health [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Musical films, at least in the modern era, are pretty hit or miss. You’ll get a decent one, such as “Mamma Mia!” and then there will be a “Cats.” Maybe you loved “La La Land?” Well, then you’ll maybe have to suffer through “The Prom.” But on paper, even though there is so much that can go wrong, there’s seemingly no way in the world that the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, “Dear Evan Hansen” can be bad, right?

Continue reading ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Trailer: Ben Platt, Amy Adams & Julianne Moore Bring The Beloved Musical To The Big Screen at The Playlist.

Netflix’s “The Eddy” is often a strange brew of a series. Created by Jack Thorne and initially directed by Oscar-winner Damien Chazelle, the contemporary drama is as infused with a jazz aesthetic that, in theory, would seem apt for its Parisian jazz club setting. The eight episodes feature four directors of differing styles and melodramatic moments fit for a night of singing the blues. And, yet, besides Joanna Kulig‘s blessed vocals every episode (truly magical) there is one guiding light in the series, Amandla Stenberg.

Continue reading ‘The Eddy’: Amandla Stenberg On Improvising Through The Jazz Directed Series [Interview] at The Playlist.

If standard episodic television is comparable to pop music – designed to be instantly pleasing, catchy, moreish, and to adhere to familiar patterns – “The Eddy,” Netflix‘s new 8-part limited series has the admirable ambition to be jazz. Set in and around the struggling eponymous club, in an untrendy quarter of modern-day Paris, it’s truly impressive the degree to which it succeeds: over its eight episodes, seven of which follow different individual members of The Eddy’s house band or someone intimately associated with it, it becomes a single, long, rambling number, full of detours and details that spotlight first this soloist, then the next, each riffing almost unrecognizably on the same themes, before touching back in with the ensemble.

Continue reading ‘The Eddy’: The Sprawling, Free-Form Paris Jazz Drama Is A Bold New Riff On Episodic TV [Review] at The Playlist.

The most famous, borderline self-parodic maxim about jazz, usually attributed to Miles Davis, tells us mystically that it is more about the notes you don’t play than the notes you do. But the first two Damien Chazelle-directed episodes of instantly captivating Netflix limited series “The Eddy,” seem to play all the notes – with the filmmaking taking over and filling in seamlessly where the music, all performed and recorded live, leaves off.

Continue reading Netflix’s Electrifying Paris Jazz Club Drama ‘The Eddy,’ Eps 1&2 Directed By Damien Chazelle [Berlin Review] at The Playlist.

If there’s one feature each year than can make winter feel like spring, it’s our annual rundown of the brightest budding talents to have burst into bloom over the past twelve months. But every year we stumble over the same semantic difficulties: just what is it that turns a good performance from a less-well-known actor into a breakout? Since there’s no hard-and-fast answer, the following list features both done-deal breakthroughs — people whose names we might not have easily summoned back in January but who, come December, we can’t remember ever not being obsessed by — as well as a few more wishful thinking choices.

Continue reading The 25 Biggest Breakout Performances Of 2018 at The Playlist.

Writer/director Amma Asante has carved out a compelling niche for herself as a cinematic interpreter, or re-interpreter, of history, based around the realization that she can challenge entrenched historical narratives simply by giving a voice to mixed-race persons in the past, either in true stories or heavily researched fictions. The fact that her latest, “Where Hands Touch,” has already attracted some controversy, sight unseen, proves that interracial romance can still be seen as politically inconvenient, complicating narratives that we wish were simple.

Continue reading ‘Where Hands Touch’: History Overwhelms This Amandla Sternberg-Led Drama [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Although her role in this summer’s “The Darkest Minds” did little to inspire, Amandla Stenberg seems to be headed to a star-making fall season, as two of her films will make their debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her performance as Starr in the YA-book adaption “The Hate U Give” is already building buzz, and it looks as though she will shoulder that film’s all-too-relevant themes of today quite powerfully.

Continue reading ‘Where Hands Touch’ Trailer: Amandla Stenberg Falls In Love With A Hitler Youth at The Playlist.

One of the most common, and frankly annoying, trends in entertainment reporting is the silly question that reporters ask actors about who they’d like to play in [Insert Relevant Franchise]? Then the headline reads “[Insert hot up-and-comer] Wants To Play [Fan-Favorite Character] In [Your Favorite Franchise].” All that amounts to is just a bit of fantasy casting and a cheap headline.

That being said, one of those fantasy films that’s been mentioned twice in the last week or so is “Kill Bill Vol.

Continue reading Two Actresses Say They Want To Star In ‘Kill Bill Vol. 3’ But Sorry, It Ain’t Happening at The Playlist.

Following the teaser’s initial premiere at VidCon earlier this week, we now have a full trailer for “The Hate U Give,” the newest teen/social injustice drama from soulful director George Tillman Jr. Playing as a coming-of-age story, the film centers on a young and underprivileged high school student Starr Carter (played by Amandla Stenberg from “Everything, Everything”). Surrounded by a boisterous and multifarious community, Starr is forced to find and raise her voice against injustice after she witnesses the murder of her childhood friend at the hands of the police.

Continue reading ‘The Hate U Give’ Trailer: The Black Lives Matter Movement Meets The Coming-Of-Age Teen Experience Drama at The Playlist.

Admittedly, I’m not familiar with Nicola Yoon‘s well-received YA novel “Everything, Everything.” Though if Stella Meghie‘s earnest, if underwhelming, sophomore feature is a proper indication, it doesn’t live up to the source material. As proven by multiple underwhelming book-to-film translations of late, whether they might be “American Pastoral” or last month’s sorely disappointing “The Circle,” there’s a fine art to proper book-to-film translations, yet even the most assured, dedicated filmmakers can miss the mark.

Continue reading ‘Everything, Everything’ Leaves You Desiring A Little Bit More [Review] at The Playlist.

We’re nearing the end of post-Oscar week here, and having delighted in the shock win for “Moonlight” and watched the video of the end-of-show trainwreck countless times, we’re ready for an awards-y break. But before we move on to other matters, we traditionally look ahead to help give you an idea of what people will be talking about as Oscar contenders in six months or so when the season picks up again (LOL, it’s really more like two months, with Cannes on the way).

Continue reading Premature Oscar Predictions: 2018 Best Actor & Best Actress Nominees at The Playlist.