Early in his new film “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Errol Morris creates one of the most vivid images of a career packed with them: a man in a suit walking through a meadow filled with mirrors. He’s always had a gift for finding specific and memorable visual metaphors for the stories he tells and the themes he’s drawn to; here, what’s noteworthy isn’t just the mirrors but the way the man keeps moving away from them.

Continue reading ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’ Review: Errol Morris’s Latest Works In A Familiar Style, But With New Thematic Concerns [Telluride] at The Playlist.

The pandemic-fueled era of bingewatching was really beneficial to the current age of documentaries. Had a great documentary film idea? Well, folks like Netflix, Apple, etc. wanted an eight-part series instead to make sure subscriber retention remained through the roof. At the same time, true crime documentaries were booming, so doc filmmakers made the most of that era, both financially and from the perspective of content and having more time to tell your story (the matter of quality dipping with too many doc series having too much time thus negatively affecting their projects is another story).

Continue reading ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’ Trailer: Errol Morris Crafts A Riveting Doc Portrait Of Spymaster Author John le Carré at The Playlist.

On December 12, a man called David Cornwell passed away in the English countryside. He was 89 and worked under the alias John Le Carré, a pen name that added a mysterious and sophisticated aura to 60 years of spy novels that were often quietly hellbent on demystifying the very genre he mastered. 

LISTEN: The Most Disappointing Films Of 2020 [The Playlist Podcast]

No single podcast could possibly cover the dozens of revealing narratives Le Carré wove from the ugliness of our world, most especially during The Cold War.

Continue reading Remember John Le Carré: The Film Adaptations Of A Master Spy Novelist [Be Reel Podcast] at The Playlist.

For an industry that worships youth, it’s perhaps surprising that one of Hollywood’s most sought after writers is one now nearly in his 90s, whose work has been making it to the screen for half a century. But the last ten years or so have seen John Le Carré’s spy novels become more popular than ever for film and TV adaptation. Beginning with the acclaimed versions of “The Constant Gardener” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” we’ve seen Le Carré’s work reach screens at an impressive rate, taking in Anton Corbijn’s “A Most Wanted Man,” Susannah White’s “Our Kind Of Traitor,” and the hit miniseries “The Night Manager,” soon to get a second season.

Continue reading Park Chan-Wook’s ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ Is Some Of The Best TV Of The Year [LFF Review] at The Playlist.

The USC Libraries announced the winners of the 2017 USC Scripter Award Saturday night which is awarded to the screenwriter and the author of the material the film or television program is based on.  And, in the television category at least, there was a rare tie.

“The Night Manager” (David Farr, John Le Carré) and “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (Scott Alexander and Larry Kraszewski, Jeffrey Tobin) both took the television prize.

Continue reading ‘Moonlight’ Wins USC Scripter Award, Is The Adapted Screenplay Oscar Next? at The Playlist.

Adaptations of John le Carré novels are formulaic in the best of ways. More cerebral than Bond and Bourne, his on-screen works don’t guarantee chase scenes and gadgets; instead, the audience is treated to a discussion of the ethics and morality of espionage, all set amongst locations around the world. You’ll inevitably be checking your frequent-flyer miles afterward to see if you have enough points to travel to Marrakech or Budapest (you don’t).

Continue reading Ewan McGregor Is In Over His Head In ‘Our Kind Of Traitor’ [Review] at The Playlist.

Berlin Review: Susanne Bier's 'The Night Manager' Starring Tom Hiddleston & Hugh Laurie

Continue reading Berlin Review: Susanne Bier’s ‘The Night Manager’ Starring Tom Hiddleston & Hugh Laurie at The Playlist.