Remember when “truth is stranger than fiction” used to be a thing that boring people said to fill awkward post-anecdote gaps at dinner parties and before it became the literal truth of every waking moment living in the Western world in 2017? Yeah, us neither. But of all cinematic forms perhaps it’s our appreciation of documentary filmmaking that has been most affected by the experience of living in such unsettled times — with only a few exceptions the docs we’ve been most impressed by this year have commented on the state we’re in right now, even when they ostensibly have done nothing of the sort.

Continue reading The 20 Best Documentaries Of 2017 So Far at The Playlist.

If there is one lesson to be learned from the box office this week, it’s that the pull of nostalgia can be quite lucrative…unless it’s “CHIPS.”

Disney‘s “Beauty And The Beast” continued its commanding hold at the multiplex, spending the second straight week on top of the box office with $88 million domestic, and added another $119 million overseas. This brings the global total after two weeks to $690 million, and it looks like $1 billion worldwide is simply an inevitability at this point.

Continue reading ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Stays On Top, ‘Power Rangers’ Debuts Strong, ‘Life’ Hardly Pulses & ‘CHIPS’ Flops [Box Office] at The Playlist.

Life, love, murder, and the story of a jazz legend flow through “I Called Him Morgan,” which for music fans, should be high on their list of must-see movies this spring. And today we have the exclusive trailer for the documentary which sheds a fascinating new light on the great Lee Morgan.

Directed by Kasper Collin (“My Name Is Albert Ayler”), and featuring cinematography by Bradford Young (“Arrival,” “Selma“), the film is anchored by a remarkable, previously unheard interview with Lee Morgan’s common-law wife Helen, who was convicted of killing the trumpeter in 1972.

Continue reading Exclusive: Fly High With A Jazz Legend In Trailer For Documentary ‘I Called Him Morgan’ at The Playlist.

After ten days, at least 55 films and an obscene amount of poutine and Tim Horton’s breakfast sandwiches, Team Playlist is done with the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is probably the world’s biggest film festival, and if there were any worries about the “death of cinema” spurred by thinkpieces written as the fest was getting underway, they were swiftly dispelled by a line-up that showed the medium to be in fine health, from expensive true-life disaster movies and starry biopics to weird world cinema and tiny microbudget indies.

Continue reading The 15 Best Films Of The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival at The Playlist.

Lee Morgan may not be the most popular name in jazz music, but his talent was exceptional. At just 18 years old, the trumpeter was playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and making a name for himself as a musical force of nature. He quickly rose through the echelons of the genre only to succumb to the depths of heroin and lose his band along with all stability in his life.

Continue reading Jazz Doc ‘I Called Him Morgan’ Is A Lively, Moving Portrait Of Music, Love, & Murder [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.