With today’s never-ending sea of content production, we all inevitably miss out on seeing at least a few films on our radar. Catching up the movies somehow passed us by is often how many cinema lovers spend the early months of the new calendar year. Unless you’ve been a-hankering for all the groundbreaking achievements that studios love to drop in January (buy your opening night tickets for “Dr. Dolittle” yet?), most trips to the multiplex will find your average film buff checking out the awards players and festival darlings which friends have been buzzing about for months that passed them by.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2019 You Didn’t See at The Playlist.

Every year, I have a ton of Top 10s that fly across my desk. Many of our writers love to share their opinions on the greatest films of the past year. And yes, we publish quite a few, even if many of them share the same basic choices. We even share some lists from other publications that we feel are well-thought-out and interesting. But coming in right in the nick of time, former leader of the free world, Barack Obama, has turned in his list of the best TV and Movies of 2019 and shockingly, his might be the most well-rounded of them all.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Films & TV Of 2019 Includes Some Sleeper Picks Like ‘Ash Is Purest White,’ ‘Diane,’ ‘Transit’ & More at The Playlist.

With the end of 2019 almost here, we’re seeing lots of “best of the decade” lists, because not only do people love lists, but it’s a fun and simple way of making note of the films you missed out on this decade.

READ MORE: The 100 Best Films Of The Decade [2010s]

While we’re all aware of the dominance of superheroes, the “Mad Max: Fury Road” and the “Blade Runner 2049” and maybe even some of the biggest U.S.

Continue reading The Best And Most Important Latin American Films Of The Decade [Video] at The Playlist.

In the Always On™ age, first impressions are everything. When a movie receives its Sundance premiere in January— but often won’t reach audiences until many months later— reviews are important. However, posters are arguably just as crucial. If you’ve got a good poster, your audience is halfway into purchasing tickets. Some one-sheets are elusive, remembering that simplicity is key and bright colors are good at distracting contemporary viewers with a short attention span.

Continue reading Best Movie Posters Of 2019 at The Playlist.

Look, making a Best of Decade list is an impossibility. As the 2010s come to a close, we’ve been agonizing over this (long-delayed) list for half a year now and even had to take a break and put it away this summer when things got too contentious and overwhelming. And then there’s the notion of resonance and what really lasts and is released too late (Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” is phenomenal, for example, but it’s not even released yet, and it’s just going to have to sit this one out).

Continue reading The 100 Best Films Of The Decade [2010s] at The Playlist.

OK, so we’re in June and basically, we’re at the midway point of 2019. What’s the year like been so far for the cinema? Well, if you’re paying attention to Film Twitter, at this very moment, you will find a lot of writers justifiably griping about 2019’s summer movie season after bombs and flubs like “Dark Phoenix,” “Men In Black: International,” “Godzilla: King Of The Monsters” and the like, but one, barely-even-started season of blockbuster, a year does not make.

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2019… So Far at The Playlist.

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I dig into what proved to be a bruising, doomed double feature in “Birds of Passage” and “Donnybrook,” two films receiving small releases that totally belie the towering filmmaking and thematic weight on display in both. The theatrical reach may be small, but these films feel big. That’s where we find so much to appreciate and recommend, despite both films being a hard sell for audiences (both included on our list of the best movies of 2019, we’ve already seen).

Continue reading ‘Birds Of Passage’ & ‘Donnybrook’: Don’t Sleep On These Indie Masterworks [AYT Podcast] at The Playlist.

“Birds of Passage” is a gangster epic with more than a dozen symbolic and entwined characters over three generations, yet its most striking visual might be a house. The new film from Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego almost aims to startle the viewer with the crime family’s modernist compound, revealing it just after one of the film’s folklore-inspired act breaks. We jump through time, and there it is—part art installation, part military fort sitting lonesome on the barren edge of a northern Colombia desert.

Continue reading ‘Birds of Passage’: Cristina Gallego Discusses Co-Directing And Fighting Cultural Amnesia With Cinema at The Playlist.

We’re about ready to pack up from our snowy trip to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival which means we’re already beginning to feel the post-festival blues, especially as we’re thrust back into an infuriatingly dull Oscars season conversation (mention “Green Book” or “Bohemian Rhapsody” again and this writer may burst into hives). What’s worse is that after the excitement of the festival that produced a number of stellar films, we’re forced to face the wasteland that is early-2019 theatrical releases.

Continue reading 11 Movies To See In February at The Playlist.

We are robots. We cover film and our best of year-end lists cover every single possible angle of film and TV. And yes, we’re oh so tired and we hope this doesn’t feel too perfunctory. Look, we’ve covered, as suggested, every stripe of 2018 movie and TV coverage performances, new directors, breakout actors and actresses, documentaries, all kinds of new exciting talents and each year we say to ourselves, “eh, let’s dial this back, it’s too much, no one cares that much do they?” And each year we find ourselves going, “Oooh, ooh, oooh!

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2019 We’ve Already Seen at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist for the 2019 Foreign Language Film Oscar today and, as expected, Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” easily made the list. The Netflix and Amazon Studios releases join seven other films that will be screened next month and pared down to the five nominees announced along with all the Oscar nods on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

READ MORE: Yalitza Aparcio Overcame Her Fear Of Water To Triumph In ‘Roma’ [Interview]

Six of the nine films were determined by voters in Los Angeles and overseas who were required to watch at least eleven of this year’s submissions.

Continue reading ‘Roma’ & ‘Cold War’ Lead Foreign Language Film Oscar Shortlist at The Playlist.

“Embrace of the Serpent” helmsman Ciro Guerra continues with the animal imagery and the ruminations on Colombian history with “Birds of Passage,” a rise-and-fall cartel drama set in the early days of the nation’s illegal drug trade. Though the esteemed director is now at feature film number four, this will be the first that sees him team up with a co-director – one Cristina Gallego, who worked as executive producer on ‘Embrace’ – and adapt a script that he himself didn’t write.

Continue reading ‘Birds Of Passage’ Trailer: Ciro Guerra’s Cannes Masterpiece Arrives Early Next Year at The Playlist.

In a surprise to no one, Mexico announced it was submitting Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” as the nation’s submission for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. This was a foregone conclusion months ago and was even more of a lock after the Netflix title earned rave reviews at the first three fall film festivals as well as took home the Golden Lion at Venice. Now the question is how much of an impact “Roma” can have in the other Academy Awards categories and who else is a player in Foreign Language Film.

Continue reading ‘Roma’ Is Mexico’s Foreign Language Film Entry But Who Else Is In the Mix? at The Playlist.

With Venice, Toronto, and Telluride becoming this fall’s go-to places to premiere a film, we had no idea that the BFI London Film Festival had an ace up its sleeve. Today, the LFF announced its lineup of films appearing in the Official Competition, and while there are some incredible films from throughout this year, the big surprise was a new entry from acclaimed filmmaker Ben Wheatley.

That’s right, Ben Wheatley, best known for his films “High-Rise” and 2016’s “Free Fire,” is back with a film that we didn’t even know was finished, titled “Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.” The film seems to be a bit of a departure for Wheatley, as its described as a family dramedy focused on the titular Colin and his dysfunctional family around New Years.

Continue reading Ben Wheatley’s Surprise New Film Headlines BFI London Film Festival’s Official Competition Slate at The Playlist.

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” may win Best Picture or it may not, but it should certainly take the Foreign Language Film category. If not, Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” has support in numerous guilds and could surprise. The chances “Roma” loses here are quite slim though. [Updated Feb. 12]

Predictions
1. “Roma” (Mexico), Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
2. “Cold War” (Poland) Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
3.

Continue reading 2019 Foreign Language Film Oscars Predictions at The Playlist.

It’s been almost a week since the 71st Festival de Cannes came to a close and the festival bubble is starting to dissipate. That means the realization of what we assumed before it all began comes into clearer focus: the 2019 Oscar season really isn’t starting until the Venice, Telluride and Toronto trifecta. Foreign Language Film category notwithstanding, of course.

Outside of “Black Panther” not one legit Best Picture contender that has screened publicly up to this point.

Continue reading Oscar Still On Hold After Foreign Language Focused Cannes at The Playlist.

We humans have a mania for classification. We divide things into epochs and eras — Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous; Elizabethan, Victorian, Edwardian. We draw borders around regions, cutting rivers in half, like the flowing waters care, and creating nations so notional that a sneeze in one can bury a town beneath an avalanche in another. We boil sprawling cultures and variegated ethnicities down to single words, the better to pop up on census forms with a little checkbox next to them, waiting for your x.

Continue reading Ciro Guerra & Christina Gallego’s ‘Birds Of Passage’ Is A Colombian Crime Saga Masterpiece [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

Going into this year’s Cannes Film Festival, one of the biggest stories surrounding the event involved a feud with streaming giant Netflix. After controversy surrounded Netflix taking part in last year’s festival, Cannes took the initiative to enforce rules about films requiring a French theatrical run. This resulted in Netflix pulling out of this year’s festival, but with a warning – the streamer said they planned on being major players in the purchasing game.

Continue reading Netflix Leaves Cannes Almost Empty-Handed As Deals Get Turned Down By Multiple Filmmakers at The Playlist.

It should just be a given by now, but filmmaker Ciro Guerra’s latest film, which premiered at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, “Birds of Passage” is getting rave reviews. Guerra has made a habit of producing high-quality films that win awards and premiered at major film festivals. His last film, “Embrace of the Serpent” was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2016 Academy Awards.

Continue reading 3 Clips From Ciro Guerra’s ‘Birds of Passage’ Gives A Look At One Of The Most Talked About Films Coming From Cannes at The Playlist.

Underwhelmed by the recent announcement of the full Cannes Film Festival lineup and perhaps its lack of big-name auteurs? Some of the suspects you are looking for, Claire Denis, Terry Gilliam, et al, are still missing and may never turn up frankly, but today’s Directors’ Fortnight announcement may give cinephiles more to look forward to in May.

READ MORE: Cannes: Films By Spike Lee, David Robert Mitchell and Jean-Luc Godard Lead The 2018 Festival Lineup

The 50th edition of the Director’s Fortnight announced its full lineup and highlights include the surprise inclusion of a new, previously unknown Gaspar Noé picture called “Climax.” Never before discussed or reported, “Climax” follows on the heels of “Love,” Noé’s pornographic/erotic 3D drama that premiered in Competition at Cannes in 2015.

Continue reading Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Announces Gaspar Noé’s Latest, Nicolas Cage’s ‘Mandy’ & More at The Playlist.

Colombian writer/director Ciro Guerra is a wunderkind and made his first film, 2004’s  “Wandering Shadows” at the ripe old age of 23. While not the most well-known filmmaker internationally, at least not compared to the auteurs consistently hitting Cannes and overseas festivals, Guerra’s been in the Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight sections so far and his 2015 breakthrough film “Embrace Of The Serpent”  was the first Colombian film ever to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Continue reading ‘Birds of Passage’ Trailer: ‘Embrace Of The Serpent’s Ciro Guerra Tackles The Drug Trade at The Playlist.

We’re just getting started with our look at the best in film and TV of 2017, but before we really got sucked into the retrospective, we wanted to take a minute to look forward to what’s to come in the next twelve months or so. Lord knows we need things to keep us going in the shitshow that has been the second half of the 2010s, and fortunately, cinema has provided.

After a slow start, 2017 turned out to be a pretty great year for movies, and 2018 looks to keep that up in a big way.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2018 at The Playlist.