Nothing is accidental in a film as keenly observed as Diane Kurys’ “Peppermint Soda” (now streaming on the Criterion Channel), but the opening title song seems a particularly important choice. She uses Cliff Richard’s “Living Doll,” and not only to set the picture’s early-1960s scene. The orchestration does that; the lyrics do more.

Got myself a cryin’, talkin’, sleepin’, walkin’, livin’ doll
Got to do my best to please her just ’cause she’s a livin’ doll
Got a roamin’ eye and that is why she satisfies my soul
Got the one and only walkin’, talkin’, livin’ doll

Take a look at her hair, it’s real
If you don’t believe what I say, just feel
I’m gonna lock her up in a trunk so no big hunk
Can steal her away from me

This way of seeing women – not as a person, but as an accessory, and as property – was not unique to popular music among the arts, or unique to the arts among the world in general.

Continue reading ‘Peppermint Soda’: Diane Kurys’ French Coming-Of-Age Classic Is An Essential Criterion Channel Watch at The Playlist.

The 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards were handed out in a ceremony in Santa Monica this afternoon hosted by Aubrey Plaza.  Annapurna Films’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” ruled the afternoon taking three awards including Best Film, Best Director (Barry Jenkins) and Best Supporting Actress (Regina King).  For the most part, however, Film Independent voters spread the love.

READ MORE: Barry Jenkins discusses his transcendent “If Beale Street Could Talk” [Interview]

Fox Searchlight’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” took Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Male (Richard E.

Continue reading ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ Takes Best Film & Rules 2019 Spirit Awards at The Playlist.

For the first time in almost a decade, the Film Independent Spirit Awards are charting their own course.  You won’t see a lot of potential Oscar winners on the stage of this year’s ceremony.  Outside of a few acting and screenwriting nominees, there is very little overlap this time around and, frankly, it’s a welcome sight.   It also means predicting the winners just got a wee bit harder.

READ MORE: Aubrey Plaza is the awards show host on earth [Interview]

Normally, you can predict most of the Spirit Award winners by going with the most commercially successful movie or performance in said films.  

Continue reading 2019 Spirit Awards Predictions: ‘Eighth Grade,’ Regina King, Toni Collette at The Playlist.

In simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles, the Writers Guild of America handed out the winners for the 2019 WGA Awards.  Many of the winners were expected (shocker, “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” wins again!) but in the film categories, the top winners were major surprises.

Bo Burnham’s script for “Eighth Grade,” which did not earn an Oscar nomination, beat major competition from “Roma” and “Green Book” in the Original Screenplay category.

Continue reading ‘Eighth Grade’ & ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me’ Surprise At 2019 WGA Awards at The Playlist.

After countless screenings, Q&A’s, red carpets, screeners, hand holding, for your consideration ads, talk show appearances and cocktail parties, between 160 and 190 contenders are going to be rewarded with Oscar nominations bright and oh, so unnecessarily early on Tuesday morning.  And almost just as many who didn’t hear their name called will try to get back to sleep knowing they no longer have to starve themselves for the February telecast.  Granted, this season hasn’t had the distraction of a historic presidential election or an industry-changing #MeToo movement, but have been controversies late in the game.

Continue reading Final 2018 Oscar Nominations Predictions: ‘Roma,’ ‘Burning,’ ‘A Star Is Born’ at The Playlist.

Presumably, you’re still reeling from last night’s Golden Globes Awards winners, chosen by aliens, errr, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Yes, it was a strange night with the musical, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” somehow not entered into the Musical Or Drama category winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actor – Drama for Rami Malek over the presumed winner “A Star Is Born.

Continue reading Writers Guild Awards Nominees Include ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Green Book,’ ‘Eighth Grade’ & More at The Playlist.

On this episode of The Playlist Podcast, I’m joined by Editor-in-Chief Rodrigo Perez and Managing Editor Charles Barfield, to discuss the 20 Breakthrough Directors of 2018, though it cannot be stressed enough that our topic at hand today was a collective pick from many members of our staff to which we are merely the mouthpiece for. We continue our extensive year-end coverage with our director’s conversation.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019

It’s been talked about at-length how strong the year in film was for 2018, but maybe not as much about how some of the best, most-acclaimed films of the year were from either first-time directors or filmmakers with few directorial credits who made a huge splash with a recent release.

Continue reading The 20 Breakthrough Directors of 2018 [Podcast] at The Playlist.

The recent history of movie comedies is a set of fairly tried and true formulas: parents attempt to stop their kids from growing up; adolescents try to survive school and its social strata; upstart young people duel their out-of-touch superiors to rise professionally. These are tales as old as time — or at least the 1980s. But when standard premises aren’t drawing at the box office, where is your average low or mid-budget comedy suppose to go?

Continue reading The Best (& Worst) Of 2018 Comedies [Podcast] at The Playlist.

A strange thing has happened in the race for Best Picture.  Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” has become the clear frontrunner and likely winner, but the other seven to eight films that join that blockbuster with a nomination?  That’s become a somewhat stranger call.

Granted, there are three obvious locks for a nomination, Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.”  And, trust, neither Netflix, Focus Features nor Fox Searchlight will give up on a potential Best Picture win once each film lands a slew of nominations on Jan 22.

Continue reading ‘A Star Is Born’ Is Still Your Best Picture Frontrunner But The Field Is Getting Murky at The Playlist.

As the year races to a close, we’re all on the verge of killing each other, at least on Film Twitter. Everyone’s ornery as we sprint to make those deadlines, but before we declare war on one another, remember we still have inspiring and movie music to celebrate and soothe us. In crafting this piece over the years – Best Soundtracks and Scores – we’ve discovered it’s one of the most soothing, one of the best balms of the end of the year.

Continue reading The 20 Best Film Soundtracks & Scores Of 2018 at The Playlist.

Karma, they say, is a bitch. Yet it must be down to some cosmic law of balance that as terrible as things have been on a daily basis in other spheres of life, 2018 has been among the most remarkable years for cinema in recent memory. Maybe it’s that the instability and uncertainty of the zeitgeist has ignited channels of creative expression that might have remained dormant in more complacent times; maybe it’s that 2-hour breaks from the constant blithering nonsense that is being alive in 2018 are precious even if you’re watching the “Overboard” remake.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2018 at The Playlist.

The American Film Institute announced their year-end top 10 lists this year and the only real surprise is the continued love for “First Reformed.” Paul Schrader’s drama joined “BlacKkKlansman,” “Black Panther,” “Eighth Grade,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “The Favourite,” “Green Book,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “A Quiet Place” and “A Star is Born” on the top 10 list of AFI Movies of the Year.

READ MORE: ‘Roma’ wins Best Film from NYFCC

On the television side, five new shows made the cut including “Barry,” “Pose,” “Succession,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and “The Kominsky Method.”

“Roma” was ineligible for the film list because of its foreign financing and creative team, but was honored with a special award by the committee.

Continue reading ‘Black Panther,’ ‘The Favourite,’ ‘Pose’ Make AFI’s Top Ten Lists Of 2018 at The Playlist.

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their 2019 year-end awards today and crowned Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” Best Picture.  The Netflix and Participant Pictures release also took Best Director (Cuarón) and Best Cinematography.  Out of all the organization’s winners, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was the biggest surprise as the Sony Pictures Animation title won Best Animated Film.

A24’s “First Reformed” won both Best Actor (Ethan Hawke) and Best Screenplay (Paul Schrader) for “First Reformed” duplicating their wins at the Gotham Awards on Monday night.  

Continue reading ‘Roma’ Wins Best Picture From The New York Film Critics Circle at The Playlist.

In its second weekend at the box office, ‘Fallout’ earned another $35 million, based on estimates.

Continue reading ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ Holds Strong Against Winnie The Pooh And Two Female Spies at The Playlist.

Oh, MoviePass. You just continue to shoot yourself in the foot, don’t you?

As if the temporary outage experience last week wasn’t enough (and to many subscribers, it was the last straw), this weekend saw the world’s biggest film being taken off the service completely. And boy, oh boy, people are not happy.

If you’re a MoviePass subscriber (as am I), you probably opened the horrible app this weekend to notice a distinct lack of “Mission: Impossible — Fallout.” And if you (like me), decided to search for the film, you would have noticed that no matter what theater the film was playing at, there were no available times or dates that would allow you to use your subscription on the film.

Continue reading MoviePass Explains Not Allowing Subscribers To Use Service On ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ at The Playlist.

It’s been over two decades since Tom Cruise and his “Mission: Impossible” franchise first hit theaters. Normally, that would mean diminishing returns, with an aging leading man and a sixth entry in the franchise. However, with “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” Cruise has proven that the spy franchise is doing better than ever.

This weekend, ‘Fallout’ hit theaters and earned an estimated $61.5 million, which was easily good enough for the top spot.

Continue reading ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ Scores Best-Ever Box Office Opening For The 22-Year-Old Franchise at The Playlist.

As this weekend approached, box office analysts predicted that the #1 spot would be a battle between the animated threequel “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” and Dwayne Johnson’s “Die Hard” knock-off, “Skyscraper.” While ‘Hotel Transylvania’ did what was expected, “Skyscraper” ended up burning to the ground, so to speak.

Coming in at #1, surprising no one, is ‘Hotel Transylvania 3,’ with a weekend total of $44.1 million.

Continue reading ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ Wins The Weekend As ‘Skyscraper’ Crumbles At The Box Office at The Playlist.

With his raw, tender and heartfelt “Eighth Grade,” comedian-turned-filmmaker Bo Burnham has made one of the very best films of the year. Burnham‘s miracle of a movie is made all the more impressive by the fact this is the feature-length debut for the 27 year-old YouTube comedian known for small parts in movies from Judd Apatow and most recently, “The Big Sick.”

The film follows Kayla (Elsie Fisher), whose constant self-reflectiveness is familiar enough to make you cringe at every stutter.

Continue reading ‘Eighth Grade’: Bo Burnham On This Generation’s More Affectionate Version Of ‘Welcome To The Dollhouse’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

June was something of a let down with, albeit, some decent films sprinkled throughout. However, mostly the month featured a list of films that immediately fell off of audience’s radar. Despite there being some high profile talent leading the films and a sequel from an animation titan, nothing felt particularly noteworthy, particularly in the blockbuster realm. July, on the other hand, is exciting due to the bizarre mix and match to be done over the course of the month with everything from a new Marvel Studios film, yet another installment to the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and one of buzzed-about about films of the year, “Sorry to Bother You,” which was a standout at the Sundance Film Festival this past January.

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

Sure, it’s still April, but summer is almost here. At least the summer movie season, which starts extra early this year thanks to Marvel’s early release of “Avengers Infinity War”—yep, blockbusters are even encroaching into the spring because that precious release date real estate is getting harder and harder to find. And summer means blockbusters and huge tentpoles, but for the eclectic, omnivorous filmgoer, there’s a variety of high, low and in the middle art to take in.

Continue reading Summer Movie Preview: 36 Films Worth The Watch at The Playlist.

Back in 2012, the indie-film hub that is the Sundance Film Festival ventured outside the U.S. for the first time with Sundance London, a U.K-based offshoot that took some prime selections from the main festival and gave them their international debuts. The festival’s been going from strength to strength (while 2016 also saw the inaugural Sundance Hong Kong join the line-up) ever since, and the 2018 edition, which announced its roster late last week, is no exception.

Continue reading ‘Hereditary,’ ‘Eighth Grade’ & ‘The Tale’ Lead 2018 Sundance London Line-Up at The Playlist.

Multi-hyphenate comedian Bo Burnham is an interesting phenomenon, as someone who’s probably pretty rich but still a relative unknown to the general public. Starting out as a YouTube comedian in 2006 where he performed music, sang, rapped, and meshed it all with his comedic sensibilities, he seemed on the verge of a mainstream breakthrough for some time (his YouTube videos have apparently 214 million views as of 2017). He’s released several comedy albums for Comedy Central Records, had his own short-lived MTV show and in 2008, Judd Apatow was convinced enough of his own talents that he signed a deal with Universal to write and possibly star in an anti-“High School Musical”-esque comedy.

Continue reading ‘Eighth Grade’ Trailer: Growing Up Is Scary & Weird In Bo Burnham’s Sweet Comedy at The Playlist.

Sundance is in the rearview, Berlin is on the horizon, and the BBQ smoke of SXSW is lays just beyond. Organizers have revealed the lineup for the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, and as per usual, there’s no shortage of movies to talk about.

The opening film will provide plenty of thrills with “A Quiet Place” starring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt.

Continue reading 2018 SXSW Film Festival: John Krasinski’s ‘A Quiet Place’ To Open, Full Lineup Revealed at The Playlist.

The 2018 Sundance Film Festival has pretty much come to an end, and for awards season who braved the snow and freezing temperatures, there is the now the haunting realization that there was very little Oscar gold to mine in Park City’s slopes this year.  And, frankly, that’s a tad eyebrow raising and perhaps more a statement on the current state of “independent” film than anything else.  It’s not like there was one standing ovation after another at the festival this year.

Continue reading Is 2018 The Year The Oscars Skipped Out On Sundance? at The Playlist.

Eighth grade can really suck. You know that pubescent, odorful, pimpled, anxious and, self-reflective middle ground between grade school and high school? Horrific experiences have happened to many during this very sensitive time in a young boy or girl’s life. Sometimes you carry these experiences, or scars, with you the rest of your days.

READ MORE: Sundance 2018: The Most Anticipated Films Of The Festival

Bo Burnham‘s “Eighth Grade,” an altogether impressive debut from the comedian, follows Kayla (Elsie Fisher), whose constant self-reflectiveness is familiar enough to make you cringe at every stutter.

Continue reading Bo Burnham’s ‘Eighth Grade’ Is A Millennial ‘Welcome To The Dollhouse’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.