It’s March again and arguably it’s never stopped being March. Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich. Ever since the global COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. and then basically forced most of the country to shut down and self-isolate in March 2020, the idea of existential despair has been on our brains both consciously and unconsciously. First, of course, it was panic—see stores running out of food and toilet paper—and some were able to channel that anxious energy into a kind of manic hypercreativity or hysterical productivity in the first few months of uncertainty (Steven Soderbergh famously wrote three full screenplays in about the first two months of the pandemic, challenging the nervous energy of not knowing what to do with himself with so much “downtime”).

Continue reading Existential Despair: Essential Movies For When March Never Ends at The Playlist.

‘Twas the night before cinephile Christmas… Film critics and fans from around the world, including Team Playlist, are heading to the south of France for the Cannes Film Festival, the world’s most prestigious celebration of the movies. The 69th festival kicks off tomorrow with the screening of Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society,” and George Miller’s jury will start getting a look at the 21 films in competition soon after that.

Continue reading Ranked: The 21st Century Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or Winners So Far at The Playlist.