The list of American screenwriters who have attained name-brand status in the last thirty years is a relatively short one. It used to be that the writer was king in Hollywood; the advent of the so-called auteur theory effectively quelled that notion. Of course, there are still your Aaron Sorkins, your Steven Zaillians, your Eric Roths, your Kevin Willmotts, and your Greta Gerwigs.

Continue reading The Essentials: The Surreal Films Of Charlie Kaufman at The Playlist.

Charlie Kaufman has already given us some of the most unique and surrealistic screenplays in film, having written movies like “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation,” “Anomalisa” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and more. Now the acclaimed filmmaker is turning into an author, as Kaufman is preparing to release his debut novel “Antkind,” about a neurotic film critic who stumbles upon a three-month-long motion picture.

Continue reading Charlie Kaufman Wrote A Novel About A Failed Film Critic In The Most Charlie Kaufman-Sounding Novel Ever at The Playlist.

Kate Winslet about to unveil her fourth film at the New York Film Festival, sat down with Film Comment Editor-In-Chief  Nicolas Rapold for a career spanning conversation to celebrate the release of her newest film “Wonder Wheel.”

“It all started last summer,” she said about her latest film, “my agent called and said, ‘Woody Allen wants to talk to you.

Continue reading Kate Winslet Talks ‘Wonder Wheel,’ Woody Allen & Her Career [NYFF] at The Playlist.

It seems studios making supercuts of themselves is becoming a thing. Yesterday, Focus Features hit CinemaCon not just to unveil their slate of upcoming films, but to affirm their commitment to tackling challenging and artistic material after a brief period of trying to go more mainstream. And to underscore their reputation, Focus put together a video highlighting their 15 years of great movies.

READ MORE: 11 Things We Hope To Learn At 2017 CinemaCon: ‘Thor: Ragnarok,’ ‘Blade Runner 2049’ And More

With 21 Oscars under their belt, and movies like “Lost In Translation,” “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Atonement” and more, Focus has a catalog of contemporary classics.

Continue reading From ‘Lost In Translation To ‘Eternal Sunshine’ And Beyond, Focus Features Celebrates 15 Years With Supercut at The Playlist.

If you haven’t noticed from the decorations, shop displays, email reminders, and worried reminder texts from your partner, it’s Valentine’s Day, the annual celebration of love, sex, romance, coupledom and having arguments in the Uber on the way to the second-choice restaurant. As always, we’re looking through the holiday through the cinematic lens, and whether you’re planning on snuggling up together on the sofa, or putting something on for company while you listlessly swipe through Tinder, we figured you could probably use some movie recommendations.

Continue reading The 50 Best Romantic Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

Writing about movies and television every day, you become slightly numb whenever it’s announced that X-Movie will be turned into Y-TV Series. It’s just the way of the landscape right now, so it’s best to save yourself an ulcer, not worry about it, and get on with your day. But every once in a while comes word of a project that makes you want to break out the Maalox. And today there’s one of them.

Continue reading Forget The Movie, ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ TV Series In The Works at The Playlist.

The Hollywood gender divide isn’t exclusive to acting or directing; there is a serious gap in the world of cinematography, notwithstanding some of the boundless, triumphant work that has been created by women in the past decade (and then some). For every Roger Deakins or Emmanuel Lubezki there’s a Reed Morano or a Maryse Alberti, women who have shot some of the most notoriously beautiful and breathtaking films, yet you, and even this author alike, perhaps didn’t know about all of them.

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Generally speaking, if you’ve seen one “greatest films of all time” list, you’ve seen them all, with the top choices usually containing some configuration of “Citizen Kane,” “The Godfather,” and “Vertigo.” History tends to solidify critical consensus which makes a list of more contemporary movies all the more interesting. With less time and perspective to weigh in, one could argue that a list of the 100 Greatest Films Of The 21st Century, as recently put together by BBC Culture, rides a bit more on gut instinct and personal favorites.

Continue reading BBC’s 100 Greatest Films Of The 21st Century List Includes ‘Tree Of Life,’ ‘Mulholland Drive,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ More at The Playlist.

On this latest episode of the podcast in which an overrated and underrated film within the same genre, style or tone are pitted against each other, the hosts of Over/Under Movies get neurotic as hell and dive into their anxieties about creativity and their life struggles. This episode is a Charlie Kaufman special, as host Oktay Ege Kozak chose “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” as the overrated up against “Adaptation” as the underrated. 

Continue reading Podcast: Over/Under Movies Gets Lost In Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ & ‘Adaptation’ at The Playlist.

It’s impossible for us to choose a single favorite genre from the wealth that cinema offers. But if some sort of “Sophie’s Choice” situation were to occur, we probably would be able to point to one that occupies a more central place in our hearts: science fiction. The term encompasses multitudes: sci-fi runs the gamut from stark, philosophical inquiry to space western to brainless robot-go-bang-bang; it hybridizes beautifully with other genres like comedy, horror and romance and as such is maybe the most expansive and elastic genre of them all.

Continue reading The 50 Best Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

Last year we took a crack at the 25 best sci-fi films of the century so far. The list was populated by a handful of obvious — though necessary — choices, like “Looper,” “Interstellar,” and “Inception.” But the bulk of the picks came from the relatively new tradition of low budget sci-fi. Certainly sci-fi flicks of all shapes and sizes have been around since the dawn of cinema, but advances in digital cameras and post-production effects have made it a far more accessible genre for filmmakers, both budding and established, to tackle with a minimal budget (see the watermark: Shane Carruth‘s “Primer,” which he made for just $7,000).

Continue reading Incept Yourself Into The Best Sci-Fi Films Of The Century So Far at The Playlist.

Last summer, BBC Culture compiled their list of the 100 Greatest American Films, voted on by critics around the world. The results featured the expected heavy hitters like Orson Welles‘ “Citizen Kane” and Alfred Hitchcock‘s “Vertigo” sitting comfortably near the top, more contemporary movies like “25th Hour,” “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” and even “Forrest Gump” making the grade, while superheroes weren’t forgotten either, with Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” sliding in the mix.

Continue reading Supercut Celebrates BBC’s 100 Greatest American Films at The Playlist.

Watch: 8-Minute Supercut Celebration Of Charlie Kaufman's Filmography

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As kids, we looked ahead to the imminent 21st century and thought of a big bold, sci-fi future. The robot butler and trips to the drug store in hovercars version hasn’t yet arrived, but the first 15 years of this century have been extremely fruitful for big-screen science fiction.

Sci-fi is almost as old as cinema itself —1902’s Georges Méliès’ “A Trip To The Moon” is generally seen as the first example— but it became hugely popular in late 20th century filmmaking in the aftermath of “Star Wars,” if also somewhat watered down.

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The 10 Best Films Of 2004

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Blessed Are The Forgetful: Remembering ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ On Its 10th Anniversary

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The novel follows the story of a physicist named Phillip who begins to lose romantic interest and fellow scientist, Alice, to an obsession with a vacuum of nothingness called Lack that has been created in a lab by their team of scientists.

Continue reading David Cronenberg Attached To Helm An Adaptation Of Jonathan Lethem’s Sci-Fi Romance Tale ‘As She Climbed Across The Table’ at The Playlist.

While sprawling, ambitious and super-heady, ‘Synecdoche,’ was met with mixed results usually by people who loved it or hated it and not much in between.

Continue reading Will Spike Jonze And Michel Gondry Have To Look Elsewhere For Scripts; Charlie Kaufman Sounds Like He Wants To Go It Alone For Good at The Playlist.

Continue reading Catherine Keener Hints At Emotional Tough Side Of ‘Synecdoche, New York’ at The Playlist.

Of course the two are already familiar with one another, Brion having already scored the Kaufman-penned “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind,” that was directed by Michel Gondry (and did scores for David O.

Continue reading Jon Brion Scoring Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’ at The Playlist.

We suppose we’re in a Sofia Coppola kind of mood (or you could even say ‘hipster film’ mood), cause we have two songs from her soundtracks, both “Lost In Translation” and “Marie Antoinette.” From everyone’s favorite fish-out-of-water trip to Japan comes the moody synth track by Brian Reitzell/Roger Joseph Jr.

Continue reading Four For <strike>Friday</strike> Wednesday: ‘Eternal Sunshine,’ ‘Lost In Translation,’ ‘Marie Antoinette,’ ‘The Squid & The Whale’ at The Playlist.