Believe it or not, it’s been five years since Pablo Larrain‘s “Jackie” premiered at the Venice Film Festival and earned Natalie Portman several Best Actress nods. The film is the Chilean director’s English language debut and his first feature film outside his home country. Its positive reception at Venice and beyond practically guaranteed Larraín further work in the U.S. market. Instead, Larraín opted to return to Chile for his next film, “Ema.”

READ MORE: ‘Ema’ Exclusive Red Band Trailer: Pablo Larrain’s Erotic Dance Drama Arrives In Theaters Next Month

Now, “Ema,” his follow-up to “Jackie,” finally gets a theatrical release in the US after its debut back in 2019 at Venice.

Continue reading ‘Ema’ Exclusive Clip: Pablo Larraín Returns With A Chilean Drama About Dance, Desire & The Modern Family at The Playlist.

Just as things were seemingly returning to normal – albeit slowly for some – it would seem that we may be going back to studios possibly shifting release dates for their more prominent properties. Or maybe “Clifford the Big Red Dog” is simply an outlier. That said, for the time being, there’s plenty of films on the docket worth keeping an eye out for in a month full of original content and few titles (such as the well-regarded “The Suicide Squad“) based on existing properties.

Continue reading 13 Films To Watch In August: ‘Suicide Squad,’ ‘Candyman,’ ‘Coda’ & More at The Playlist.

Though we’re already halfway through 2021, we’re only a month away from the official North American release of “Ema,” one of our favorite films of 2020. Okay, that’s a bit of an understatement, as Pablo Larrain’s dance drama ended up on our lists of best films, best posters, best cinematography, and best soundtracks/scores. All that to say, we think everyone should go out and see “Ema” when it hits theaters in August.

Continue reading ‘Ema’ Exclusive Red Band Trailer: Pablo Larrain’s Erotic Dance Drama Arrives In Theaters Next Month at The Playlist.

So… I guess we’re back? If you’re an American, chances are you’ve been vaxxed to the max already and or are probably awaiting your second dose, which should come quickly.  As we already noted, folks like Marvel are already flexing, welcoming audiences back to theaters, and well, that means nature is healing, right? Cinema is healing too, and with New York vowing to reopen fully on June 1, that probably means the rest of the country isn’t far behind.

Continue reading Summer 2021 Preview: Over 50 Movies To Watch at The Playlist.

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.

In spite of the general state of the world, 2020 ended up being a pretty great year for films – expectations for long-awaited auteur projects that were supposed to come out this year obviously being exempt from that conversation – and what’s more, it was a great year for film scores and soundtracks.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020

All of the films featured on this list are films that have drastically less of an impact without music, and there is a wide, rather dizzying array of talent here: seasoned professionals who’ve been doing this a long while, young up-and-comers who are interested in muddying the definition of what a traditional movie soundtrack is supposed to sound like, plus that dude from Phoenix writing new music for his wife’s movie (which is really just another way of saying if you haven’t checked out the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s “On The Rocks” yet, do so immediately). 

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

At times, 2020 seemed like it had made time for every obscure musical subgenre under the sun: dancehall (“Lover’s Rock”), noise-metal (“Sound of Metal”), reggaeton (“Ema”), and Baltimore hip-hop (“Charm City Kings”).

Continue reading The 20 Best Soundtracks & Scores Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Not to exclude stellar photography all the world over, but there’s a common theme here in The Playlist’s picks for Best Cinematography ‘20: America. The year is littered with movies about the red, white, and blue in one form or another, to one extent or another, movies that capture either a period of time, or an enduring ethos, or tall tales and B.S. we tell ourselves as citizens of the self-styled greatest country in the world.

Continue reading The Best Cinematography Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Greetings, fellow exhausteds, and welcome to The Best Films of 2020, a year that, despite being less than 365 days old, has aged so rapidly that Gary Oldman is circling the biopic. Some, uh, unusual stuff happened this year – I don’t know if you noticed – and it made compiling this collective list even more interesting than usual. A record-breaking 34 regular Playlist contributors submitted top tens (you can find the complete list of those to blame/praise for this ranking at the end of the feature).

Continue reading The 25 Best Films 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.

Reflecting on the best trailers released in 2020 feels at once vital and torturous – would we have reacted differently upon first viewing, had we known we might not actually see these films for months, or even years in some cases? The film industry soldiers on and rides with the blows, so we sit tight at home while we wait to enjoy so many movies on the big screen. Then, all we have are the morsels of footage strung together to whet our appetites months and months ago. 

READ MORE: The Best Horror Films Of 2020 (So Far)

In some instances, these are mini-masterpieces in themselves, a showcase of all the dizzying talent sure to expand and bloom across 90 minutes or more.

Continue reading The Best Trailers Of 2020 at The Playlist.

The first half of 2020 has been one of the most tumultuous periods in the century-plus history of the motion picture industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire activity of theatrical movie-going for the first time since… well, since the last pandemic, back in 1918. As rules have been (literally, in some cases) rewritten, high-profile releases have been delayed, rescheduled, and delayed again, in an increasingly desperate and depressing game of Kick the Can. 

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2020… So Far at The Playlist.

Each year, countless films premiere at festivals across the world. Filmmakers are celebrated for their artistic vision. Projects are praised for their ability to push the boundaries of what we expect from national cinemas. Then, just as quickly as these films burst on the scene, many disappear from the public eye. Some fall through the cracks of distribution. Others are snapped up by discriminating studios but languish in the vault as executives work to puzzle out the perfect date and platform for their release.

Continue reading The 25 Best Movies Of 2020 We’ve Already Seen at The Playlist.

Everything-is-epic culture has transformed film trailers over the last few years. What used to be a commercial for a movie has now changed into a mini-event. Now, we get the teaser, the teaser for the teaser, the teaser trailer, the full trailer, the NSFW trailer, and the extended trailer. But here, we are paradoxically, hypocritically, contradictorily complaining about marketing, but also celebrating the art that’s sometimes part of it—at least the non-promotional aspect of it, if you can separate that from the product.

Continue reading The Best Movie Trailers Of 2019 at The Playlist.

Night; crackling embers fall from a traffic sign set ablaze. A blonde woman with a blow torch stands admiring her work as the fire’s red glow envelops the screen. She’s the eponymous villainous heroine who opens Pablo Larraín’s erotic and suspenseful character study “Ema.” The Spanish-language film, the follow-up to 2016’s “Jackie,” sees a couple working to reclaim their son, even after the boy’s disturbing string of events.

Continue reading ‘Ema’: Pablo Larraín Creates An Erotic, Suspenseful Character Study [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Pablo Larrain’s last directorial outing was “Jackie,” a cerebral portrait of grief with horror elements. Also, much like “No” and “Neruda,” the critically-acclaimed film was a biopic. With his latest feature “Ema,” Larrain is breaking from stories about real-life people to tell a fictional family drama. However, he’s reuniting with his frequent collaborator, Gael Garcia Bernal.

Continue reading ‘Ema’ Trailer: Filmmaker Pablo Larrain & Gael Garcia Bernal Reunite For A New Family Drama at The Playlist.

Let’s get right to it. The Venice Film Festival is about to pop off this week which means, welcome to the madness of fall and the annual season when we lose our minds. It’s a terrific time to be a movie lover, a festival goer especially, maybe not so much as movie critic or writer trying to stay on top of it all, but we suppose that’s our problem.

READ MORE: 2019 Fall Preview: The 45 Most Anticipated Films

As per usual, the Lido kicks things off first.

Continue reading 2019 Venice Film Festival Preview: 15 Must-See Movies at The Playlist.

While films starring Scarlett Johansson (two of them, in fact), Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix, and other major stars seem to dominate the headlines coming out of this morning’s 2019 TIFF lineup announcement, there are plenty of under-the-radar films from acclaimed directors that are screening at the fest that are worthy of your attention.

READ MORE: TIFF 2019 Line-up: New Films By Rian Johnson, Steven Soderbergh, Safdie Brothers, Noah Baumbach, & The Joker Lands A North American Premiere

One of the most anticipated films comes from indie director Drake Doremus, called “Endings, Beginnings.” The film, which stars Shailene Woodley, Sebastian Stan, and Jamie Dornan, tells the story of a love triangle between an idealistic woman, a bad boy, and a scholar.

Continue reading Here’s Your First Look At A Bushy-Bearded Russell Crowe, Shailene Woodley, Charlie Hunnam & More From TIFF 2019 Films at The Playlist.

After what feels like a year made up of roughly 5 million weeks (fun fact: the film “Black Panther” was released in 2018! It’s true!), December has rolled around and the light at the end of the 2018 tunnel is in sight. And around these parts, that means that it’s time to roll out the annual smorgasbord of year-end features, looking at the best, and sometimes worst, of the year in film and TV.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019 at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Pablo Larraín was a busy man in 2016, with the release of two separate critically-acclaimed, awards season contenders “Jackie” and “Neruda.” Now, it appears he’ll be performing double-duty in 2019, as well, as he pushes one production back and fills in the gap with a new, exciting, last-minute film, according to IndieWire.

Since it was announced back in 2017, “The True American” is the film that many believed would be Larraín’s next feature.

Continue reading ‘Jackie’ Filmmaker Pablo Larraín To Begin Production On Surprise Project ‘Ema’ Featuring Gael García Bernal at The Playlist.