Who are the winners and losers in the SAG-AFTRA strike post-mortem? It might be a bit simplistic but given the box office for films like “The Marvels” that didn’t have its cast to help promote it, and all the studios that pushed some of their projects into 2024, giving them a bit more runaway to work with, you could argue the winners are all those who waited out the strike. Take Focus Features.

Continue reading ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ Trailer: Ethan Coen’s New Comedy Caper With Margaret Qualley & Geraldine Viswanathan Arrives This Month at The Playlist.

So, the Coen Brothers have “broken up,” gone their own way, and aren’t making films anymore, right? One imagines the truth is more nuanced and complicated than that. Take Carter Burwell, their longtime composer. He said Ethan Coen doesn’t “want To make movies anymore,” and Joel Coen himself said last year that “none of the decisions are definitive.” It sounds like they’re taking a break from one another in the meantime?

Continue reading Ethan Coen’s ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ Starring Margaret Qualley & Geraldine Viswanathan, Lands Sept 22 Release & Adds Matt Damon & Pedro Pascal at The Playlist.

Stephen Karam’s directorial debut, “The Humans,” is a big-screen adaptation of his own 2016 Tony Award-winning play. In theory, it’s self-contained setting (a crowded New York City apartment on Thanksgiving) might give some filmmakers pause, but Karam has a major advantage in pulling it off, his cast. Tony Award-winner Jayne Houdyshell is joined by Richard Jenkins, Steven Yeun, June Squibb, Amy Schumer, and Beanie Feldstein.

Continue reading Amy Schumer & Beanie Feldstein On Thanksgiving, Unexpected Roles & ‘The Humans’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

“Don’t you think it should cost less to be alive?” Wow, that’s a sentiment you don’t hear every day in movies. Recently premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, celebrated playwright Stephen Karam makes the jump to directorial debut with the horror-comedy, “The Humans.” Based on his own play and written and directed by Karam, “The Humans” has a great cast that features Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, and June Squibb.

Continue reading ‘The Humans’ Trailer: Richard Jenkins, Beanie Feldstein & Steven Yeun Explore The Hidden Dread Of Family at The Playlist.

In writer-director Stephen Karam’s feature debut, the dark horror-comedy “The Humans,” it’s not so much a bump in the night or the creak in the door that can rupture an untapped fear. Those are merely the externalized notes that grant music to the ever-present existential dread. These are primordial forces that afflict us in our dreams and in our prayers, ones we sometimes paper over with religion or companionship.

Continue reading ‘The Humans:’ Steven Yeun, Beanie Feldstein, & Richard Jenkins, Only Partially Save This Dark Horror Comedy [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

In the wake of documentaries on Britney Spears, Lorena Bobbitt, and other victims of a crueler, “more misogynistic” press machine, the hook to these projects is a prodding at both individual and collective memory. They claim to be recontextualizations, revisions, and rehabilitations, while they are still fundamentally pieced together as amalgamations of fame and identity, with the involvement of the subject or not. There’s a thrill, I assume, in knowing where one was during or remembering the date of a particularly heinous invasion of privacy, an illusion of proximity to a person who has, regardless of their volition, become available to everyone on the planet.

Continue reading ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’: Ryan Murphy’s Latest Sensationalized Scandal Doesn’t Leave A Lasting Impact [Review] at The Playlist.

FX has dropped a new trailer for their latest installment of “American Crime Story” with “Impeachment” pulling from real-life events just like they did with “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.” This time focusing on the widespread media circus of the President Bill Clinton sex scandal that dominated headlines and news coverage for what seemed like the latter half of the 1990s.

Continue reading ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’ Trailer: White House Scandal Retold With An Unrecognizable Clive Owen As Bill Clinton at The Playlist.

The Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky scandal gripped the nation like no other story in the 1990s, save for O.J Simpson’s murder trial (the subject of the first season of “American Crime Story.”). “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” based on President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial, details the seemingly never-ending saga and its memorable cast of characters like Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Linda Tripp, and Matt Drudge.  

READ MORE: The 65 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2021

Sarah Paulson leads a stacked cast as Linda Tripp.

Continue reading ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’ Trailer: The FX Show Takes On Bill Clinton’s Sex Scandal On September 7 at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 819 new members from 68 countries as the ranks of Hollywood’s top club swell to close to well over 9,300. The good news? According to AMPAS, 45% of the 2020 class are women, 36% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 49% international from 68 countries.  This is an impressive result for an organization that announced a goal in 2016 to double the number of women and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities by 2020.

Continue reading Awkwafina, Florence Pugh & Cynthia Erivo Among 819 New Academy Members at The Playlist.

Best known for her novels “How to Build a Girl” and “How to Build a Woman” and her prominent work as a journalist and feminist, Caitlin Moran is poised to break into the world of the big screen. Even though she created a television series with her sister Caroline Moran in 2014, her adaption of “How to Build a Girl” starring Beanie Feldstein (“Booksmart,” “Lady Bird”) marks her first foray into screenwriting – and she’s already working on more.

Continue reading Caitlin Moran Talks ‘How To Build A Girl’ And Adapting Your Own Work For The Screen [Interview] at The Playlist.

In the long, inglorious catalog of cheap tricks used by filmmakers to signify a character’s colorful inner life—and by proxy denote their movie as equally creative—having the protagonist carry on conversations with imaginary figures is near the bottom. But to be fair, director Coky Giedroyc’s “How to Build a Girl” had numerous strikes against it without even considering the protagonist’s bedroom wall covered in pictures of her heroes, who come to life just long enough for you to say, “Hey, is that Michael Sheen playing Sigmund Freud?

Continue reading ‘How To Build A Girl’: Beanie Feldstein’s Charm Saves This Derivative Teen Comedy [Review] at The Playlist.

Thanks to great performances in 2017’s “Lady Bird” and last year’s “Booksmart,” Beanie Feldstein has become one of the most interesting up-and-coming actors in Hollywood. And it appears that she’s going to continue that streak of interesting films going with the upcoming IFC Films release “How to Build a Girl.”

READ MORE: IFC Films Celebrates 20 Years Of Independence In New Retrospective Video

As seen in the trailer, “How to Build a Girl” follows the story of a teen girl that dreams of a life that will rip her away from the boringness that she experiences daily.

Continue reading ‘How To Build A Girl’ Trailer: Beanie Feldstein Turns Into Dolly Wilde In The Upcoming Coming-Of-Age Comedy at The Playlist.

The Oscars are officially just 10 days away and The Academy revealed more presenters for the 2020 telecast. The biggest names are arguably Keanu Reeves, Shia Labeouf, Penélope Cruz and Sigourney Weaver. To say there should be some concern about the lack of star power for this show beyond a few of the nominees is an understatement.

READ MORE: Oscars 2020: “Joker” leads all films with 11 nominations

Officially added to the roster are “Cats” feline James Corden, Oscar winner Penélope Cruz, “Booksmart” star Beanie Feldstein, “The Peanut Butter Falcon” star Zack Gottsagen, Oscar winner and four-time nominee Diane Keaton, “Honey Boy” star and screenwriter Shia LaBeouf, “1917’s” George MacKay, three-time Oscar host and honorary winner Steve Martin, 2019’s comeback king Keanu Reeves, Maya “she should be hosting” Rudolph and “why hasn’t she earned an honorary Oscar yet” Sigourney Weaver.

Continue reading Keanu Reeves, Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver New 2020 Oscar Presenters at The Playlist.

There are a few strange quirks about the year 2019 in feature film performance. Unusually — and it will be interesting to see how this translates to the Oscars — it feels like the men had the edge in terms of the sheer volume of masterful, often career-redefining acting, making the Best Actor category likely the more competitive one than Best Actress, which will be the first time that’s been the case in a while.

Continue reading The Best Performances Of 2019 at The Playlist.

Many argue that the film “Boyhood” is the high-water mark in the career of filmmaker Richard Linklater. Sure, “Dazed and Confused” might be iconic, but if you use critical acclaim and awards recognition as your criteria, “Boyhood” stands above any other film from the director. And for many, the fact that Linklater shot the film over the course of 12 years added to the effectiveness of the story.

Continue reading Richard Linklater To Spend Next 20 Years Shooting Sondheim Musical Adaptation Starring Ben Platt & Beanie Feldstein at The Playlist.

After some indecision about which story to tackle next, it would appear that producer Ryan Murphy and FX have decided to focus on the infamous Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal for its upcoming third season of “American Crime Story.”

Speaking at a TCA panel (via Variety), FX not only revealed plans to begin production on “Impeachment: American Crime Story” in early 2020 but also gave us a hint at who will be headlining the new limited series.

Continue reading Beanie Feldstein Will Play Monica Lewinsky In FX’s New ‘American Crime Story’ Focused On The Clinton Impeachment at The Playlist.

“You can tell so many different types of stories in so many different genres; you don’t have to pick one thing. I think we have to allow ourselves as human beings to experience so many different things and try out all different kind of dimensions of our personalities and I think as artists, it’s really important to do that too” expressed “Booksmart” director Olivia Wilde as she spoke on how to avoid losing herself to a singular vision – a theme very present in her directorial debut.

Continue reading ‘Booksmart’ Director Olivia Wilde Reveals Filmmaking Lessons Learned From Her Acclaimed Directorial Debut [Video] at The Playlist.

Olivia Wilde has been acting in film and television for over two decades. Each role she embraces, she does so with the dexterity of somebody with experience years beyond what her filmography suggests on paper. And her passion and artistry extend further than acting. Aside from her well-known activism work, Wilde is an acclaimed producer of both topical documentaries (“Fear Us Women“) and indie features (“Meadowland“).

Continue reading Olivia Wilde & The Cast Of ‘Booksmart’ On Teen Film Inspiration, Creating Chemistry & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

The final R-rated trailer has been released for Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart,” a coming-of-age comedy about two over-achieving high school students who decide to cram all the fun they missed while studying into one wild night. Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein star as the straight-A students who have sacrificed parties for grades… until they realize that their rowdy classmates also ended up in good schools.

Continue reading ‘Booksmart’ NSFW Trailer: The Overachieving Teens Of Olivia Wilde’s Comedy Get Straight As, But Give Zero F*cks at The Playlist.

Since its debut at SXSW, “Booksmart” has been gaining lots of hype. As of this writing, it holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 100% positive reviews and has been compared to comedic successes like “Superbad.” Based around two nerdy, straight-A students who decide to use their last night in high school to make up for all the antics that they missed out on while they were busy studying, this film takes the “one wild night out” cliché and reinvents it for the modern audience.

Continue reading ‘Booksmart’ Trailer: Olivia Wilde’s Hilarious Coming Of Age Comedy Gets Straight A’s & Gives No F*cks at The Playlist.

Spike Jonze has directed plenty of music videos in his time. And many of those videos are some of the most visually interesting that you’ll ever see. He’s also worked with Karen O before, on various projects including the soundtracks to both “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Her.” But what the duo did on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is something very different.

Continue reading Spike Jonze Teams With Karen O & Danger Mouse For A “Live Music Video” On ‘The Late Show’ at The Playlist.

Olivia Wilde brought the house down at SXSW with the premiere of her directorial debut “Booksmart” infusing a ton of style and personality in what is sure to be the coming of age film for a new generation. With plenty of gut-busting laughs and a heartfelt message of friendship at its core, Wilde’s film is a relatable and sincere joy ride that’s an absolute blast from start to finish.

Continue reading ‘Booksmart’ Cast Explains How Director Olivia Wilde Inspired Them & Performs An Impromptu ‘Shallow’ Cover [Video] at The Playlist.

A radically inspired, hyper-fresh, and even slightly overcooked take on the high school teen comedy— a dynamite, stylish mash-up of “Superbad” and John Hughes for “Lady Bird” overachievers and “Eighth Grade” keeners — actress Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart” is something just shy of a sensational masterpiece and miracle, a coming of age classic for the Thank U, Next Generation.

Continue reading ‘Booksmart’: Olivia Wilde Crushes A Superdope Friendship Goals Teen Comedy For The ‘Lady Bird’ Generation [SXSW Review] at The Playlist.

Actress Olivia Wilde is set to release her directorial debut this year with “Booksmart,” a buddy teen comedy in the tradition of “American Pie” and, most recently, “Blockers”, where a couple of teen girls on the cusp of graduation decide to let loose for their final day of high school.

Here’s the film’s synopsis:

The story follows Amy and Molly, two academic superstars and best friends who, on the eve of their high school graduation, suddenly realize that they should have worked less and played more.

Continue reading ‘Booksmart’ Red Band Trailer: Olivia Wilde Makes Her Directorial Debut In This Raunchy Female Coming-Of-Age Story at The Playlist.