There was a time when documentary filmmaking felt a little bit like the red-headed stepchild of the film industry, and, to be sure, they still tend not to challenge fiction features at the box office unless they’re furiously topical political manifestos like “March of the Penguins,” awe-inspiring testaments to the grandeur of nature like “Jackass 3D” or gross-out slapstick like “Fahrenheit 9/11.” But the rise of streaming services, and the fall of Western democracy, have given non-fiction filmmaking a new lease on life: not only are the incisive and dedicated perspectives of documentarians of all stripes more necessary than ever now to help us make sense of an increasingly senseless world, they also tend to be more available to us than ever before.

Continue reading The Best Documentaries Of 2017 at The Playlist.

The American Cinema Editors revealed their nominees for the 68th Annual ACE Eddie Awards. to kick off the New Year, which will certainly see Oscar prognosticators adjusting their predictions accordingly.

While the ACE Eddie Awards obviously allow for more contenders with more categories at play, it’s nice to see “Blade Runner 2049,” “Baby Driver,” and “The Shape Of Water” get some recognition, after being mostly shut out so far this awards season.

Continue reading ACE Eddie Award Nominees Include ‘Blade Runner 2049,’ ‘Get Out,’ ‘Dunkirk’ & More at The Playlist.

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I start things off with more chatter about the state of going out to the movies, and how things are rapidly evolving in this streaming era. We then move on to our two main reviews: new Netflix speculative sci-fi drama “The Discovery” and Neon‘s new release in theaters, “Colossal.” The back half of this episode features a grab bag of recommendations, starting with the latest from Romanian master Christian Mungiu, “Graduation,” and then moving to some streaming options in the wonderful documentary miniseries “Five Came Back” and season 2 of “Fargo.” Continuing with our Jesse Plemons theme this episode (he’s in three of the films/shows we discuss), Joe also highlights “Other People” and “Stretch & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.”

READ MORE: Adjust Your Tracking Talks “T2 Trainspotting,” Dave Chappelle’s Netflix Specials, “The New Edition Story” & “Prevenge” 

All episodes of Adjust Your Tracking are part of The Playlist Podcast Network and can be found on iTunes, Soundcloud and Stitcher.  

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Talks ‘Colossal,’ ‘The Discovery,’ ‘Five Came Back’ & More In Streaming Vs. Theatrical Chat at The Playlist.

Amid all the moreish dramas, single-cam comedies, limited event miniseries and true-crime investigations that define our era of Too-Much-TV™, the Netflix documentary “Five Came Back,” about five classic Hollywood film directors and their experiences of filming for the War Department during World War II, is an unexpectedly refreshing change of pace. Unflashily presented, and surprisingly — for want of a less off-putting word — scholarly, it is cleverly, compactly written by Vulture film critic and author Mark Harris (it’s based on his book of the same name), directed by Laurent Bouzereau who is probably the highest profile “Making-of” and “Behind the Scenes” featurette director, and runs to a manageably bingeable 3 hours 15 minutes in total, broken into three distinct but complementary, roughly chronological chapters.

Continue reading 3-Part Doc ‘Five Came Back’ Is A Compellingly Intelligent Slice Of Film History [Netflix Review] at The Playlist.

Every day, plenty of books get passed around Hollywood and deals are made to turn them into movies, or in the case of Mark Harris‘ “Five Came Back,” documentaries. But few of them command the incredible talent assembled for the adaptation of Harris’ “Five Came Back.”

READ MORE: ‘Shadow Of Truth’ Trailer Shows Why It Could Be Netflix’s Next ‘Making A Murderer’ 

Featuring narration by Meryl Streep, and interviews and commentary from Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo Del Toro, Paul Greengrass and Lawrence Kasdan, the series tells the story of filmmakers John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens, whose work producing WWII documentaries brought the realities of the war home to everyday Americans.

Continue reading Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo Del Toro, Meryl Streep, More Bring Netflix’s ‘Five Came Back’ Doc Series To Life at The Playlist.