20th Century Studios has been trying to get a new “Flash Gordon” movie in development years before the merger with Disney with directors such as Matthew Vaughn (“X-Men: First Class“) and Julius Avery (“Overlord“) attached at various points to bring a fresh incarnation of the pulp sci-fi hero after multiple incarnations over the years including the beloved/campy film from 1980 that featured a score and theme song from the British rock band, Queen.

Continue reading Taika Waititi’s ‘Flash Gordon’ Movie Shifts From Animation To Live-Action at The Playlist.

The pandemic is full of surprises and that includes the delayed 2021 Grammy Awards ceremony. In what we believe is a first for the Grammy Awards, a song nominated for the Song Written for Visual Media category has won before the project was ever released. Billie Eilish and Finneas took the Grammy for “No Time To Die” which is now scheduled for release in the U.S. on Oct. 8, 2021.

Continue reading Billie Eilish’s ‘No Time To Die’ Wins Grammy Award Before Film Is Released at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

This week’s new release slate includes three big Oscar nominees (and one winner), an acclaimed indie that should’ve been up there with them, new Aardman animation on Netflix, a muscular old-school action flick, and two new Blu-rays from Criterion. 

Continue reading The 9 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Jojo Rabbit,’ ‘Beautiful Day,’ ’21 Bridges’ & More at The Playlist.

It’s that time of year, again. The members of the Academy have voted and tonight, the world finds out which people will take home the Oscars. Did “1917” continue to dominate and take home Best Picture? Or maybe, Hollywood came to its senses and recognized the greatness that is “Parasite?” Tonight, we found out.

READ MORE: ‘Parasite’ Wins Best Picture, Makes History And Also Making Everything Alright For Once [Oscars 2020]

As the night wore on, it was clear that the buzz that surrounded “1917” might have worn off by the time Oscar voters turned in their ballots.

Continue reading Oscars 2020: ‘Parasite’ Shocks & Rules Academy Warfare With Huge Historical Best Picture Win [Full Winners List] at The Playlist.

The 92nd Academy Awards are just a week away, but the other film academy across the pond got a chance to have their say in the awards game as the 2020 BAFTA Awards were handed out in London. Universal Pictures’ “1917” dominated the proceedings winning Best Film and Best Director, Sam Mendes. The WW I thriller is a frontrunner to win both awards at the Oscars next Sunday.

“1917” also won Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Production Design and Best British Film.

Continue reading ‘1917’ Wins Best Film & Dominates The 2020 BAFTA Awards at The Playlist.

Usually, the film honors at the WGA Awards are presented towards the end of the ceremony in Los Angeles. This year, with the BAFTA Awards the next “morning” thanks to the truncated awards season, the WGA revealed the winners right off the bat and, boy were they surprising. Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” took the Original Screenplay honor while Taika Watiti took the Adapted Screenplay Award for “Jojo Rabbit.”

READ MORE: Sam Mendes and “1917” triumph at DGA Awards

While potential Oscar winner “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” by Quentin Tarantino was ineligible for the WGA, Joon Ho still triumphed over Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” and Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns “1917.” Waiti overcame even stiffer competition from Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” Steven Zaillian’s “The Irishman” and Todd Phillips and Scott Silver’s “Joker.”

The Netflix documentary “The Inventor,” which was not nominated for an Oscar, won the Documentary series category.

Continue reading ‘Parasite’ And ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Stun At The 2020 WGA Awards at The Playlist.

Liz Garbus’ “Lost Girls” shares a subtitle with the Robert Kolker book it’s based on: “An Unsolved American Mystery.” The mystery in question is that of the Long Island serial killer, who murdered at least ten women— many of them sex workers —over some twenty years, near the South Shore of Long Island. Based on Garbus’ filmography, which includes the Oscar-nominated documentaries “What Happened, Miss Simone?” and “The Farm: Angola, U.S.A,” you might assume this is yet another Netflix-bound true crime doc.

Continue reading ‘Lost Girls’: Harrowing True Crime Drama With A Powerhouse Amy Ryan Still Doesn’t Fully Satisfy [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

The compacted awards season has seen an almost a nightly cavalcade of awards shows this month. Tonight, in a ceremony hosted by Mindy Kailing, the Costume Designers Guild Awards honored the best in costumes in film, television and commercials. The big winners of the night were Jenny Egan in the Contemporary Film category for “Knives Out” and Mayes C. Rubeo in the Period Film category for “Jojo Rabbit.” It’s worth noting that Oscar nominee and potential winner “Little Women’s” Jacqueline Durran, was not nominated by her peers in the latter category.

Continue reading ‘Jojo Rabbit,’ ‘Knives Out’ & ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Big Winners At 2020 Costume Designers Guild Awards at The Playlist.

The 70th Annual ACE Eddie Awards were handed out in a ceremony on Jan. 17 in Beverly Hills, CA and on the film side, it may be a hint of what’s to come in the Best Picture Oscar race. “Parasite,” edited by Jinmo Yang, stunned by taking the top Drama Film editing honor over “The Irishman” and “Joker.” “Jojo Rabbit,” edited by Tom Eagles, took the Comedy Film honor over “Knives Out” and “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.”

READ MORE: Oscars 2020: “Joker” leads all films with 11 nominations

On the television side, the editors of “Killing Eve,” “Fleabag” and “Game of Thrones” took home the giant ACE Awards trophy.

Continue reading ‘Parasite,’ ‘Jojo Rabbit’ & ‘Fleabag’ Top 2020 ACE Eddie Awards at The Playlist.

There have certainly been surprises at the end of the annual Oscar telecast’s the past decade. “Green Book” wasn’t necessarily a given to win versus “Roma.”  “Moonlight” was a joyful surprise over what was believed was an ineveitable winner In “La La Land.”  And some believed “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” could absolutely overtake “The Shape of Water.” In terms of competitive races for weeks on end, however, there were really only two true races after the nominations were announced during that span: “12 Years A Slave” vs.

Continue reading A Best Picture Race For The Ages? at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards bright and early Monday with the Oscars telecast less than a month away.  As always, some lucky nominees saw their dreams fulfilled while even more will have to wait for another day.

READ MORE: Bong Joon Ho Delivers A Demented, Uproarious Class-Conscious Satire With ‘Parasite’ [Review]

Todd Phillips and “Joker” led the pack with 11 nominations, beating the record for the most nominations ever for a comic-book movie, adding to its previous record of being the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, now a follow up is all but guaranteed.

Continue reading Oscars 2020 – Joker Leads The Pack With 11 Nominations at The Playlist.

The Producers Guild of America revealed their 2020 PGA Awards nominations in both film and television setting up races for both the Oscars and Emmys over the next eight months. On the film side, “Parasite,” “1917,” “Ford v. Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker,” “Knives Out,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” made the cut. Television nominees for Drama Series included “Watchmen,” “Big Little Lies,” “The Crown,” “Succession” and “Game of Thrones.”

READ MORE: “Joker” earns 11 BAFTA Awards nominations

The Comedy Series nominees lined up with most of last year’s Emmy category: “Fleabag,” “Veep,” “Barry,” “The Marvelous Mrs.

Continue reading ‘Parasite,’ ‘Little Women’ & ‘Watchmen’ Earn 2020 PGA Awards Nods at The Playlist.

The Writers Guild of America announced the remaining nominees for their 2020 awards and despite a number of key films being ineligible, the screenplays selected turned out to be more than worthy of the honor.  The WGA Awards’ Original Screenplay category was led by “1917,” “Booksmart,” “Knives Out,” “Marriage Story” and “Parasite.”  The Adapted Screenplay field features “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker” and “Little Women.” 

Screenplays that were not eligible because the writers are not members of the WGA included last night’s Golden Globe winner for Best Screenplay, “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” by Quentin Tarantino, “Pain and Glory” by Pedro Almodovar and “The Farewell” by Lulu Wang, among others. 

Continue reading ‘Knives Out,’ ‘Parasite’ & ‘Little Women’ Earn 2020 WGA Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

The opening day reviews have been rapturous and the early box office strong. From an awards perspective, that’s exactly what Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” needed. In fact, its Oscar hopes may hinge on it.

The Sony Pictures release kicked off its campaign with strong initial screenings at the end of October. Many, including this pundit, thought it was more than a likely Best Picture nominee. Adapted Screenplay was a given and stars Saorise Ronan and Florence Pugh were pretty safe acting nominees in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress fields, respectively.

Continue reading Is ‘Little Women’ Making A Best Picture Comeback? [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

It seemed like much of the latter half of this year was spent arguing about what is or is not cinema. To be fair, it’s a debate that’s very much worth having, particularly considering how oversaturated our media landscape has become: streaming options are endless, franchise efforts are abundant to a degree that seems punishing rather than bountiful, and some days, it seems like all anyone wants to talk about is how #twisted the Joaquin Phoenix-starring “Joker” movie was (spoilers right here: you will not find Todd Phillips’ self-serious Clown Prince of Crime flick anywhere on this list).

Continue reading Nicholas Laskin’s Top 10 Films of 2019 at The Playlist.

As countless films look for attention as the days countdown to the beginning of Oscar nomination voting, one film’s below-the-line contributions have been slightly unheralded.  Well, at least in the media.  The guilds have already given “Jojo Rabbit” significant love with ADG Awards (production design), ACE Eddie Awards (editing) and CDGA Awards (costumes) nominations.  One aforementioned aspect of Taika Waititi’s word of mouth wonder that deserves slightly more love is Mihai Mălaimare Jr.’s cinematography. 

Continue reading ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Exclusive: Taika Waititi On The Film’s Shifting & Bold Color Palette at The Playlist.

The American Cinema Editors announced the nominees for the 2020 ACE Awards and even with two categories there were a number of surprises.  On the Feature Film – Comedy side “Knives Out,” “Dolemite is My Name,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and “The Farewell” earned nominations.  For Feature Film – Drama the field features “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” “Joker” and “Parasite.”  

READ MORE: “The Irishman,” “Fleabag” and, yes, “Parasite” top 2020 SAG Awards nominations

Intriguing omissions on the feature side included “Uncut Gems,” “Bombshell,” “The Report” and “Little Women.”  Additionally, the three Animated Film contenders were “Frozen 2,” “I Lost My Body” and “Toy Story 4.”

Television nominees over four narrative categories included “Killing Eve,” “Russian Doll,” “Chicago Med,” “Watchmen,” “Game of Thrones,” “Euphoria” and “Schitt’s Creek.”

The 70th Annual ACE Eddie Awards will be handed out on Jan.

Continue reading Knives Out, Parasite & Euphoria Among 2020 ACE Eddie Awards Nominees at The Playlist.

It should go without saying that performances, films and episodic programs the Screen Actors Guild annoints as SAG Awards nominees are not always reflective of the Motion Picture Academy or the Television Academy, for that matter.  But, if you are in the acting branch of either you are 99% likely a member of, arguably, the most powerful union in Hollywood.  And, in the case of the Oscar race, their picks often suggest a direction of consensus opinion for the industry.  

Continue reading SAG Awards Snubs & Surprises: ‘Little Women,’ ‘Parasite,’ ‘Succession,’ ‘Schitt’s Creek’ at The Playlist.

The Costume Design Guild announced the 22nd Costume Designer Guild Awards nominations this morning and there were a number of expected nominees. For instance, Michael Travers work for “Hustlers,” Ruth E. Carter’s creations for “Dolemite is My Name” and Julian Day‘s nominations for “Rocketman” were not surprises when the three different film categories were revealed. What was unexpected were the two major designers who didn’t make the cut for their high profile films this year.

Continue reading ‘Hustlers,’ ‘Star Wars’ & ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Earn 2020 Costume Designer Guild Awards Nods at The Playlist.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominees for the 2020 Golden Globes on Monday morning. On the film side, “Marriage Story” led with six nominations including Best Picture-Drama and nods for stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Laura Dern.  On the television side, three programs tied with three nominations; “Chernobyl,” “The Crown” and “Unbelievable.”

READ MORE: “Parasite” wins Best Picture and Best Director From LA Film Critics

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” each took five nominations while “Joker” and “The Two Popes” surprised somewhat with four.

Continue reading ‘Marriage Story’ & ‘The Crown’ Top Golden Globe Awards 2020 Nominations at The Playlist.

When the Academy Award nominations are announced on Jan 13, don’t be surprised if “Jojo Rabbit” ends up with more craft nominations than you might have anticipated.  Taika Waititi’s farcical dramedy is set in a small German town in World War II, but features a look and style rarely seen with such period films.  Much of that is due to the work of production designer Ra Vincent.

READ MORE: “Jojo Rabbit,” “The Producers” and the legacy of Nazi satires [Podcast]

The New Zealand native earned an Oscar nomiantion for his work as a set director on “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” but its his collaborations as a production designer with Waititi that have really showcased his talents.  

Continue reading Exclusive: Ra Vincent On The Unexpected Use Of Color In ‘Jojo Rabbit’s’ Production Design at The Playlist.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association continues to fascinate, perplex, and frustrate the industry at large.  Despite its impressive philanthropic achievements (that broadcast rights money has to go somewhere), the HFPA appears to have gotten too smart for its own good.  At least that’s the case when it comes to studios and networks figuring out if their films, programs, and stars are going to get coveted Golden Globes nominations every year.

READ MORE: “Uncut Gems” and “The Lighthouse” lead 2020 Spirit Awards nominations 

It used to be that most members of the HFPA were an open book.  

Continue reading 2020 Golden Globe Award Nominations Predictions: ‘Knives Out,’ ‘Succession’ & Jennifer Lopez at The Playlist.

So here we are suddenly, after all that fuss, in December — the nursing home of the year — looking back with wistfulness, regret and not a little self-mythologizing at the friends we made and betrayed, the tall tales we’ve heard and the, um, houses we’ve painted in the year of our Lord 2019. That’s right, I am comparing the compilation of The Playlist’s Best Films of 2019 list to the mental reckoning of a lonely, aging mob hitman who may or may not have been involved with the death of Jimmy Hoffa.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2019 at The Playlist.

Let’s see, so if someone told you about a year ago that Oscar-winner Sam Mendes was directing a WWI period drama consisting of mostly one-take shots from famed cinematographer Roger Deakins and it would feature a supporting cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong and Colin Firth, you’d probably think that film has all the ingredients to be a Best Picture contender.  And that’s taking into consideration that, at the time, no one was aware Andrew Scott was going to be a “thing” after his role as the hot priest on “Fleabag” or that Richard Madden would be a rising star thanks to “Bodyguard,” “Rocketman” and his, um, ex-“roommate.”  Technically, that constitutes what is known as Oscar bait, but considering how personal “1917” is to Mendes, that’s simply a favorable coincidence.

Continue reading Sam Mendes’ ‘1917’ Is The Best Picture Player We Knew It Was [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

A funny thing may have happened on the way to the Oscar stage.  Despite significant hype and massive critical acclaim, it doesn’t look like Martin Scorsese’s “Irishman” or Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” is in the driver’s seat for Best Picture.  Instead, that other contender from way back in July, Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” may have taken the lead.

Maybe.

Granted, at the moment, the fact that there is so little time this season in between the nomination announcements and final voting makes the entire process feel somewhat up in the air.

Continue reading Does ‘Once Upon’ Have Enough ‘Time’ To Win Best Picture? [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.