Call this feature “overlooked films” if you liked, and if you saw them, and yes, there’s some crossover with some of our other Best of 2020 features, like the 25 Best Films Of 2020, the 20 Best Performances Of 2020, etc. but that’s ok!

READ MORE: The Best Cinematography Of 2020

2020 was a year where movie-lovers learned how to watch movies in an entirely different way. Since theaters were shut down across much of America for most of the year and many of the year’s more anticipated offerings were either shuffled off the annual slate until 2021, or relegated to streaming services a la “Wonder Woman 1984,” our regular routine of watching, analyzing, and obsessing over films was more or less completely upended.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2020 You Didn’t See at The Playlist.

“If only I had time,” I remember sighing at some point in late 2019, probably in a pub or a restaurant among a cluster of friends separated by <1 ft of space, lipstick doubtless boozily smeared across my maskless face. “If only I somehow had the time to do nothing but stay in and catch up on all the non-fiction releases I’ve missed through the year!” Little did I know that at that exact moment, the Ministry of Be Careful What You Wish For was listening in.

Continue reading The 20 Best Documentaries Of 2020 at The Playlist.

We have, it’s safe to say, had a whole lot less to look at this year when it comes to the world of cinema. So many parts of our traditional filmgoing experience have been snatched away, for now, while so many of us wait at home for the whole thing to be done. This has meant a lot of things on a lot of levels, but crucially, for this exercise, it means we’ve been staring at the same four walls of our home for quite some time now.

Continue reading The Best Film Posters Of 2020 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 offers a staggering embarrassment of riches, with attention-grabbing titles from three of the big streaming services.

Continue reading The 10 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Palm Springs,’ ‘Greyhound,’ ‘The Old Guard’ & More at The Playlist.

For many people, the worst part of quarantine isn’t the interruption to work (hopefully, most people are able to transfer their work duties to Zoom meetings and/or telecommuting software), but instead, it’s the fact that you can’t congregate at your local hangout spots. And some of the very best places to hang out with your friends and neighbors are local dive bars, as seen in the upcoming film “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.”

Directors Bill and Turner Ross’ new film, “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” is a documentary that follows the final days of a beloved dive bar near the bright lights of Las Vegas.

Continue reading ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ Trailer: Sundance Doc Tells The Story Of The Tragic Last Days Of A Dive Bar at The Playlist.

Just as the new teaser for “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” shows, the documentary doesn’t necessarily want to play by the typical documentary rules. Using still photos, video, silent movie-esque narration, and other tricks, the Sundance standout is poised to be one of the most interesting non-fiction releases of 2020.

READ MORE: The Ross Brothers’ Boozy, Immersive ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ Is A Barfly’s Happy-Sad Lament [Sundance Review]

The film is said to tell the story of the last days of a dive bar in Las Vegas called the Roaring 20s.

Continue reading ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ Teaser: The Ross Brothers’ Doc Takes A Look At The Last Days Of A Vegas Dive Bar at The Playlist.

An improvised Eugene O’Neill ensemble barfly riff wrapped in the construct of a seemingly fly-on-the-wall documentary about the last day at an off-Strip Las Vegas bar, “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” pushes the envelope of nonfiction filmmaking in an exciting, immersive, and transporting way. The frame of the movie is intentional, the supposed regulars are the result of a casting process, the dialogue improvised, and it was primarily shot in New Orleans. But Bill and Turner Ross (“Western,” “Contemporary Color“) make virtues out of those concessions to dramatization and skillfully tease out some truths about improvised communities as well as the highlights and limitations of such alcohol-fueled connections.

Continue reading The Ross Brothers’ Boozy, Immersive ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ Is A Barfly’s Happy-Sad Lament [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.