Fisherman, family, blue-collar life, debts that pile up, and crime all swirl together in the new drama, “Finestkind” from Oscar-winning writer/director Brian Helgeland, who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “LA Confidential” in 1998. Helgeland’s done a ton since, writing the Oscar-winning “Mystic River” for Clint Eastwood, “Man on Fire” for Tony Scott, and directing the Jackie Robinson biopic “42,” “Legend” with Tom Hardy, and now, “Finestkind.”

“Finestkind” stars Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, Tommy Lee Jones, and Jenna Ortega, and it’s a crime drama about a crew of fishermen who tread dangerous waters after their debts start piling up.

Continue reading ‘Finestkind’ Trailer: Bluecollar Fisherman Get Ensared In Crime Starring Ben Foster, Jenna Ortega, Tommy Lee Jones & More at The Playlist.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” star Ismael Cruz Córdova is the first person of color to play an elf in a screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s groundbreaking fantasy series — and as the actor himself tells it, the public reception to his casting hasn’t been all warm and fuzzy.

In a new interview with Esquire, Córdova says he’s been forced to contend with “pure and vicious hate speech” from a slew of real-life trolls in the two years since his part in the franchise was announced.

Continue reading ‘The Rings of Power’ Star Ismael Cruz Córdova Says He’s Been Harassed With ‘Hate Speech’ Since He Was Cast at The Playlist.

As our society has watched the likes of billionaire Richard Branson and Amazon mastermind Jeff Bezos proclaim themselves interstellar pioneers with their recent self-funded forays to the edge of space, it’s serendipitous to see a newly released movie about people inhabiting Mars following an ecological disaster on Earth and a story that unfolds where things predictably go awry.  Though said effort, entitled “Settlers” and helmed by Wyatt Rockefeller, foregoes the sleek spacecraft Branson & Bezos have both commandeered in favor of a stark, eroded landscape appropriate for the red planet.

Continue reading ‘Settlers’ Does Home Invasion & Stockholm Syndrome In Space When They Could’ve Stayed Home [Review] at The Playlist.

The Tribeca Film Festival is almost wrapped up, but that doesn’t mean a few key titles aren’t playing. Screening Friday night was the sci-fi thriller, “Settlers,” with the strong cast of Sofia Boutella (“Star Trek Beyond“), Ismael Cruz Córdova (HBO‘s “The Undoing“), Brooklynn Prince (“The Florida Project“), Nell Tiger Free (M.

Continue reading ‘Settlers’ Trailer: Sofia Boutella, Brooklynn Prince & Jonny Lee Miller Star In New Tribeca Sci-Fi Thriller at The Playlist.

A new synopsis from Amazon’s ridiculously expensive “Lord of The Rings” series has made its way online. First posted by The One Ring, it has been authenticated by Deadline and IGN. The synopsis has plenty of hints of what is going to happen in the high-fantasy show that takes place during The Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” or “The Lord of Rings” trilogies.

Continue reading ‘The Lord Of The Rings’: Series Synopsis Teases Tolkien’s “Greatest Villain” & The Fall of Númenor at The Playlist.

The creative team of Nicole Kidman, HBO, David E. Kelley, and Academy Award-winning director Susanne Bier (also an Emmy winner) screams high-end prestige TV project. The limited series, “The Undoing,” a pulpy melodrama mélange of ‘90s sex thriller intrigue and nail-biting courtroom drama, is decidedly not high end in the prestige-y, awards-winning sense. Granted, it’s not campy or necessarily too silly (mostly), but theatrically soap-opera-ish and bingeable in the same way Kelley’s “Big Little Lies” was.

Continue reading ‘The Undoing’: Nicole Kidman Awakens From A Privileged Cocoon Of Self-Delusion In Susanne Bier’s Pulpy Thriller [Review] at The Playlist.