Doubt Archives - The Playlist

Amy Adams: The Essential Performances

Nicholas Laskin — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:35:08 +0000

Like many brilliant women throughout cinema history who toil in obscurity before eventually being recognized for their greatness, it took some of us a while to notice Amy Adams. After all, Adams wasn’t always enjoying the kinds of starry, awards-friendly roles she is now more or less synonymous with. For some time, Adams was competing for screentime with male co-stars who happened to be comedy icons (“Talladega Nights”) and getting cast in such illustrious parts like “Gorgeous Woman” in mid-tier farces (“Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny”).

Continue reading Amy Adams: The Essential Performances at The Playlist.

The Harrowing Viola Davis/Meryl Streep Scene From ‘Doubt’

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Ok, it’s been reported at many different lengths actually and sorry, we didn’t have a stop-watch in the theater, but YouTube has 7 minutes of the Viola Davis/ Meryl Streep scene from “Doubt” (on further review it seems to cut a few minutes from the top) It’s the only scene in the film that Davis is in, but it was powerful enough to get her nominated for an Oscar. If you haven’t seen “Doubt” you should.

Continue reading The Harrowing Viola Davis/Meryl Streep Scene From ‘Doubt’ at The Playlist.

The Playlist’s Oscar Predictions: Major Categories

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Alright, everyone’s dropping their predictions for the Oscar nominations, so The Playlist is dropping ours. Some picks are probably predictable, but again, this is not a time to be original, if that’s how you perceive Oscar betting, we strongly encourage you to join our Oscar pool so we can rob you of the money you seem too naive to be entitled to.

But here’s always a surprise or two, not because the Academy is trying to be different then say the Globes, the Baftas or what have you (that’s naive thinking), but because it’s a group of some 6,000 people who do not vote together collectively or by committee and make decisions in advance.

Continue reading The Playlist’s Oscar Predictions: Major Categories at The Playlist.

Hoffman Picks ‘Jack Goes Boating’ for Directorial Debut

Adam Sweeney — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:55:00 +0000

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s career has been more a case of swim than sink. He will continue in his attempts to stay above water by directing “Jack Goes Boating” for Overture Films, an adaptation of the Off Broadway play written by Bob Glaudini. Hoffman will also star in the film. The film is the first to emerge from a production deal between Overture and Hoffman’s production company, Cooper’s Town, last summer.

Hoffman, who can be seen currently in “Doubt”, will co-star with Amy Ryan.

Continue reading Hoffman Picks ‘Jack Goes Boating’ for Directorial Debut at The Playlist.

Golden Globe Snubs 2009: ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,’ ‘Milk,’ & ‘Frost/Nixon’ Totally Shut Out

Spencer Martin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:25:00 +0000

The 2009 Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes aired last night and Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned up almost every motion picture award. The praise and credit for ‘Slumdog’ is well-deserved, but the domination was bound to leave other films leaving empty handed. So just in case you missed last-nights awesome live-blogging, here is the rundown on who was left out in the cold by those foreign assholes.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Nominated for five awards (tied with “Doubt” and “Frost/Nixon” for the most nods), the David Fincher-directed won a grand total of zero awards.

Continue reading Golden Globe Snubs 2009: ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,’ ‘Milk,’ & ‘Frost/Nixon’ Totally Shut Out at The Playlist.

For Your Consideration, Academy

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:48:00 +0000

Maybe our feeling will change, but right now, we’re not really feeling very excited for the Oscars or the nominations. Dunno, maybe it’s because we feel this year like an abundant amount of deserving films are going to get honored and awarded and it just feels too… locked in and predictable.

At the same time, if we had to lay money down on the technical sub-categories right now, we’d probably lose our shirts.

Continue reading For Your Consideration, Academy at The Playlist.

Philip Seymour Hoffman Vs. Meryl Streep: Five Minutes Of ‘Doubt’

Rodrigo Perez — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:55:00 +0000

Heavyweights going toe to toe; you really should not miss “Doubt.” It’s vastly underrated and easily one of the better mainstream Oscar-bait films of 2008. We’d rank it above “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” ‘Benjamin Button,’ etc. It’s about on par with “Revolutionary Road” in terms of quality, but it’s likely our favorite Hollywood drama from December. Both of these two have Oscar nominations in the bag, bank on it.

Continue reading Philip Seymour Hoffman Vs. Meryl Streep: Five Minutes Of ‘Doubt’ at The Playlist.

‘Doubt’ Leads Screen Actors Guild With Five Nominations

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Now, we’re talking. Finally some real (and concrete) love for “Doubt.” Forget the critic awards, the Globes, etc. Anyone worth their salt in Oscar predictions knows the closest true bellwether to Oscar nominations are the guild awards and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has just announced their nominees. Topping out the list in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” with five nominations including Best Ensemble (often considered the precursor to Best Picture), Best Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and two nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis and Amy Adams).

Continue reading ‘Doubt’ Leads Screen Actors Guild With Five Nominations at The Playlist.

Award Season Watch: San Fran, Phoenix, San Diego And St. Louis Critics Laud Usual Suspects, Mostly ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:21:00 +0000

Can there be any doubt that “Slumdog Millionaire” has gone from the little movie that could to sure-fire Best Picture Oscar nominee? The film has taken another slab of critical awards.

More Crit awards from around the U.S. The Phoenix Film Critics Society have given Best Picture and Director to “Slumdog Millionaire” and Danny Boyle. Sean Penn’s “Milk” performance took Best Actor and Meryl Streep scored Best Actress for her ferocious performance in “Doubt.” [PFCS]

The San Diego Film Critics Awards have always given ‘Slumdog’ the Best Film prize, Best Foreign Film to “Let The Right One In,” and Best Original Screenplay to Tom McCarthy’s “The Visitor.” Kate Winslet finally wins an award for Best Actress in… not “Revolutionary Road,” but “The Reader.” Odd.

Continue reading Award Season Watch: San Fran, Phoenix, San Diego And St. Louis Critics Laud Usual Suspects, Mostly ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ at The Playlist.

‘Day The Earth Stood Still’ Tops Box-Office; ‘Doubt,’ Gran Torino’ And ‘Che’ Do Great Per-Screen Indie Business

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:23:00 +0000

As you probably figured, Keanu Reeves, “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” won the box-office derby this weekend with a $31 million,” cume, but the earth didn’t really move and a lot of pundits are calling this a “soft” opening and that the film underperformed from expectations. Reeves is one of the worst big-named actors in the world and it’s kind of sad, because he seems like a genuinely nice person, but a good performance by him is far and few between.

Continue reading ‘Day The Earth Stood Still’ Tops Box-Office; ‘Doubt,’ Gran Torino’ And ‘Che’ Do Great Per-Screen Indie Business at The Playlist.

Do Not Doubt (Or Sleep On) ‘Doubt’; Why Is It Not An Best Picture Oscar Nominee?

Rodrigo Perez — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 01:03:00 +0000

Ok, here’s an opinion you might not have fully expected from The Playlist. We say that because we saw “Doubt” Friday night with very little expectations and as you can tell we haven’t really written about it a lot this year. We expected it to be a stock drama that was boring, frankly, but we just wanted to check off our list of all the Oscar-bait of the season and holy shit!

We kid you not: John Patrick Shanley’s was devastatingly good.

Continue reading Do Not Doubt (Or Sleep On) ‘Doubt’; Why Is It Not An Best Picture Oscar Nominee? at The Playlist.

Weekend Box-Office For December 12; ‘Doubt,’ ‘The Reader’ ‘Gran Torino,’ ‘Wendy & Lucy,’ ‘Che’ More…

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:36:00 +0000

For once, this is actually a very crowded, movie-going weekend with tons of Oscar-bait going head to head. Of course garbage like “The Day The Earth Stood Still” with Keenooo Reeves is probably going to rule the roost, but well, box-office was never an indication of smarts now was it? It has a laughable 24% Rotten Tomato rating, woo!The two big films of the weekend in terms of b.o. might are that and the Latin comfort food movie, “Nothing Like The Holidays,” aka, “Latinos are as crazy as the rest of you people and we eat turkey too!” It has a 52% RT rating which is a slightly better bet.

Continue reading Weekend Box-Office For December 12; ‘Doubt,’ ‘The Reader’ ‘Gran Torino,’ ‘Wendy & Lucy,’ ‘Che’ More… at The Playlist.

‘Benjamin Button,’ ‘Frost/Nixon’ And ‘Doubt’ Top Golden Globes With Five Nominations Each

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:21:00 +0000

The 2008 Golden Globes are out! Kristen Scott Thomas nominated for Best Actress, woo! Updates in a moment. Man, as we kinda figured (and certainly hoped), “The Dark Knight” was completely shut out outside of Heath Ledger scoring a Best Supporting Actor nod, and “Wall-E” relegated to Best Animated Picture, thank god life is making sense again.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” and “Doubt” all landed five nominations apiece, including Best Director for David Fincher and Ron Howard, but not for John Patrick Shanley.

Continue reading ‘Benjamin Button,’ ‘Frost/Nixon’ And ‘Doubt’ Top Golden Globes With Five Nominations Each at The Playlist.

‘Milk’ & ‘Benjamin Button’ Lead Critics’ Choice Awards With Eight Noms Each

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:15:00 +0000

The Critics Choice Awards are lame, right? We mean it airs on VH1 on January 8, 2009 for Christsake.

Well, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Milk” lead the pack with eight nominations each and “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Doubt” and “The Dark Knight” aren’t far behind with six nods a piece.

It’s hosted by the new “At the Movies” duo Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz co-hosted the announcement of the noms in Times Square.

Continue reading ‘Milk’ & ‘Benjamin Button’ Lead Critics’ Choice Awards With Eight Noms Each at The Playlist.

‘Doubt’ Is A Compelling Moral Chess Match

David Benjamin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:40:00 +0000

“Doubt” is an intricate and engaging film that concerns itself not with guilt or innocence, rather the nature of preconception and power of suspicion.

Set in a Bronx Catholic school during the 60s, the story pits Philip Seymour Hoffman’s vibrant, forward thinking Father Flynn against Meryl Streep’s intransigent, stuck in the past Sister Aloysius, the school’s principal. Rigid and feared by the entire school, Aloysius doesn’t like the progressive Flynn from the beginning.

Continue reading ‘Doubt’ Is A Compelling Moral Chess Match at The Playlist.

The Final 7-8 For Oscars Best Picture Race?

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:50:00 +0000

Everyone’s talking about the how the Oscar Best Picture race is an eight-legged one. David Carr, the New York Time’s “Carpetbagger” (a man who is the Oscar intelligence for the Gray Lady, yet has admitted that he’s barely seen any of the films this year, “I’ve seen almost nothing. It’s like showing up at school when everyone’s four chapters ahead.” lol), says the list is looking like this: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Milk,” “Doubt” and “The Reader.” He also says keep an eye out for Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino.”

Despite the Bagger’s ignorance, this final 7 or 8 does seem to be a general consensus, plus “The Dark Knight” of course.

Continue reading The Final 7-8 For Oscars Best Picture Race? at The Playlist.

Doubt For ‘Doubt’ Because Of Meryl Streep’s “Iffy” Performance?

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:26:00 +0000

“The considerable integrity and strength of John Patrick Shanley’s play prevail despite a questionable central performance in ‘Doubt.’ ” Ok, so the cast includes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, uhh…, Variety’s Todd McCarthy isn’t ragging on Meryl Streep is he?

Why yes he is. The Variety scribe was impressed with the film, calling it an, “intelligent, absorbing drama,” but to him, the 14-time Academy Award nominee (and two-time winner) is the films weakest link.

Continue reading Doubt For ‘Doubt’ Because Of Meryl Streep’s “Iffy” Performance? at The Playlist.

‘The Dark Knight’ And ‘Wall-E’ Announce Their Bids For Best Picture Oscar

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:17:00 +0000

As you’d have expected, given all the premature Oscar talk in the summer, Disney and Warner Bros. have announced that they will campaign, “Wall-E” and “The Dark Knight” respectively for the Oscar Best Picture.

At the moment, Oscar-bait is weak so it could happen, but we can’t help but not take either of these films too seriously as Best Picture contenders. Neither film was that good. Still, populists that don’t enjoy the fall season will be banging the drum loudly for both films.

Continue reading ‘The Dark Knight’ And ‘Wall-E’ Announce Their Bids For Best Picture Oscar at The Playlist.

AFI Gets Its Happy Opening With ‘Doubt’

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:20:00 +0000

So it turns out David Poland was correct when he said John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” would probably replace Joe Wright’s “The Soloist” as the opening night selection for the AFI Film Festival, only I was not aware of the fact that “Doubt” was as of yet unfinished – which is how it will be shown at the festival on the 30th of October.

“The movie is still being finished, but we were so excited to show Doubt and help our friends at AFI Fest and the American Film Institute at the same time.

Continue reading AFI Gets Its Happy Opening With ‘Doubt’ at The Playlist.

The Wrestler Gets A Release Date, David Foster Wallace Wasn’t Writing An Adaptation Of ‘Infinite Jest’

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:34:00 +0000

Bought, lauded and fresh off great buzz from Venice and Toronto film fests, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” now has a release date of December 19 – just in time for Oscar qualifying season like everyone predicted. [/Film]

Howard Shore had stepped in to replace Phillip Glass for the score to “Doubt,” featuring Phillip-Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. [In Contention]

Watch 7 minutes of “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly (we still can’t figure that one out) cause we surely won’t.

Continue reading The Wrestler Gets A Release Date, David Foster Wallace Wasn’t Writing An Adaptation Of ‘Infinite Jest’ at The Playlist.

Trailer: ‘Doubt,’ Catholicism In The Bronx Made To Look Classy, Again.

Nick Plowman — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:46:00 +0000

One of the more elusive films of the year has finally landed a [vague] trailer. Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, the film centres on a priest who is accused of abusing a black student but then obviously denies it and religious, moral and authority issues ensue. That is all I know. After watching the trailer, that is still all I know.

Continue reading Trailer: ‘Doubt,’ Catholicism In The Bronx Made To Look Classy, Again. at The Playlist.

Trailer: ‘Changeling,’ Angelina Wants Her Son, And An Oscar Too?

Nick Plowman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:45:00 +0000

What is it about Clint Eastwood and his fascination with missing/possibly dead children? Sure, he has only made two films that fit that bill, to my knowledge, the first being “Mystic River,” which garnered a Best Actor win for Sean Penn for his portrayal of a grieving/revengeful father, and the second being “Changeling,” which could do the same for Ms. Angelina Jolie. After all, she knows a thing or two about children, ahem, and if anyone had to tap into the emotions that would result from losing one of them, I’m sure she’d do a great job of that, providing that she has a little more to say/over dramatically scream than,” I want MY son back.” Which I am sure she does.

Continue reading Trailer: ‘Changeling,’ Angelina Wants Her Son, And An Oscar Too? at The Playlist.