What’s more important for a creative person, authentic inspiration or the esteem that fame and success bring?  Thomas Matthews explores that tension in “Ghostwritten,” about a novelist needing a breakthrough to sustain his relevancy and reputation.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2024

Jay Duplass stars in Matthews’ sophomore feature as a writer who accepts a residency on a secluded island to start on a new work.

Continue reading ‘Ghostwritten’ Trailer: Jay Duplass Is A Writer Getting More Than He Bargained For While On Retreat On February 9 at The Playlist.

Every New Yorker has a subway story, a tale of culture clash, entitlement, cacophonic calamity, or worse. The subways of New York City are a breeding ground for tension, what with the rush of strangers, the jarring disruptions, and the uncaringly close quarters. For women, it’s even more stressful, as too many men use the claustrophobic enclosure as a means of exploiting a literally captive audience. This is how “Materna” begins, on a subway with one ranting man (Sturgill Simpson) disturbing his fellow passengers.

Continue reading ‘Materna’ Sets Up A Subway Thriller But Refuses To Go Deep [Review] at The Playlist.

Ideas are contagious, like a virus, Christopher Nolan posited, coldly and conceptually, back in 2010 with “Inception.” In 2020, filmmaker Amy Seimetz takes that a few steps further with an emotional edge and the presciently eerie idea of infectious diseases that will spread and kill you as thoughts. In her feature-length sophomore feature, “She Dies Tomorrow,” characters aren’t overtaken by the belief that everyone, or even several people, will die— just themselves.

Continue reading ‘She Dies Tomorrow’: Amy Seimetz Creates A Presciently Disturbing Surreal Mystery About Viral Ideas That Kill [Review] at The Playlist.

What would you do if you knew deep down in your bones that tomorrow you were going to die? Would you sit back and let it happen? Perhaps you’d enjoy your final hours and do what you’ve always wanted? Or maybe you’ll convince your friends that you’re really going to die tomorrow and thus, convince them that maybe they’re going to die as well? It’s that latter situation that exists in the new feature, “She Dies Tomorrow.”

READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh Has Written A ‘Sex, Lies & Videotape’ Sequel; Says George Clooney & More Set For ‘Kill Switch’

As seen in the trailer for “She Dies Tomorrow,” the film follows the story of a woman that is utterly convinced she will perish the next day.

Continue reading ‘She Dies Tomorrow’ Trailer: A Woman Is Convinced She’s About To Perish In Amy Seimetz’s New Thriller at The Playlist.

Christmas parties are almost always terrible. And what makes the average holiday party even worse is when it’s full of old high school friends. Therefore, it makes sense that Margaret and Henry are ready to ditch that terrible scene and enter into a night of debauchery in the new film “Lost Holiday,” which is set to premiere at the upcoming Slamdance Film Festival.

READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh’s ‘High Flying Bird’ Premiering At Slamdance Before Hitting Netflix In February

And to honor the film’s upcoming debut, we’re lucky enough to present an exclusive clip from the film, which shows that the evening of craziness begins to bleed into the daytime for these folks as they attempt to solve the kidnapping of a socialite, while pretty hungover.

Continue reading ‘Lost Holiday’ Exclusive Clip: Slamdance Film Features Friends Attempting To Solve A Kidnapping After A Long Night Of Partying at The Playlist.

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

It’s been well over 40 years since 29-year-old TV reporter Christine Chubbuck walked into her Channel 40 newsroom in Sarasota, Fla., and committed suicide on live television. By all accounts (and there aren’t very many of those), Chubbuck was a lonely and terribly depressed woman, struggling to find a way to love herself, living a seemingly uneventful life.

Continue reading ‘Kate Plays Christine’ Starring Kate Lyn Sheil Is Devastatingly Complex & Remarkable [Review] at The Playlist.

This year at the Sundance Film Festival, there were two movies about Christine Chubbuck, the Florida reporter who shockingly committed suicide live on-air in 1974. “Christine” starring Michael C. Hall and Rebecca Hall, approached the material in a more straightforward manner, but it was “Kate Plays Christine” that intriguingly added a meta-movie approach, and the experimental drama is gearing up to hit the big screen.

Continue reading First Trailer For Sundance Winning Meta-Movie ‘Kate Plays Christine’ Starring Kate Lyn Sheil at The Playlist.

Zachary Treitz and Kate Lyn Sheil’s “Men Go To Battle” sets its story in the 1860s, treating the Civil War period as a background prop on a miniscule stage, in an intimate and muted story about two brothers. It’s a film that would make for an attention-grabbing double bill with “The Keeping Room” (coming to theaters in October), considering their mirrored parallels.

Continue reading ‘Men Go To Battle’ Is A Quietly Resonant Cinematic Experience [Review] at The Playlist.

Alison Bechdel is blameless in all this, but a couple of years ago, when the reductive-but-snappy litmus test for cultural sexism that bears her name was upwafting on the zeitgeist, it inspired a thought experiment of my own. Now, most of the mental quizzes I set myself when bored have mayfly lives, because after a while (and this is the problem with the Bechdel test and its subsequent dogmatization too), applying such agenda-based filters as a method of cultural critique becomes as robotic as Mr.

Continue reading How The Outstanding New Starz Series ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Gives Us A Female TV Antihero For The Ages at The Playlist.

Continue reading Sundance Review: Robert Greene’s Remarkable And Captivating ‘Kate Plays Christine’ Starring Kate Lyn Sheil at The Playlist.

Watch: Awesome New Trailer For 'Queen Of Earth' Shows Off Amusing Old School Psychological Horror

Continue reading Watch: Awesome New Trailer For ‘Queen Of Earth’ Shows Off Amusing Old School Psychological Horror at The Playlist.

SXSW Review: 'A Wonderful Cloud' Starring Kate Lyn Sheil Is A Good Kind Of Weird

Continue reading SXSW Review: ‘A Wonderful Cloud’ Starring Kate Lyn Sheil Is A Good Kind Of Weird at The Playlist.

Review: Absorbing, Thoughtful 'The Heart Machine' Starring John Gallagher Jr. And Kath Lyn Sheil

Continue reading Review: Absorbing, Thoughtful ‘The Heart Machine’ Starring John Gallagher Jr. And Kath Lyn Sheil at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Hit Replay With This Clip From 'The Heart Machine' Starring John Gallagher Jr. And Kate Lyn Sheil

Continue reading Exclusive: Hit Replay With This Clip From ‘The Heart Machine’ Starring John Gallagher Jr. And Kate Lyn Sheil at The Playlist.

Interview: Kate Lyn Sheil & John Gallagher Jr. Navigate Tech-Dating & Obsession In 'The Heart Machine'

Continue reading Interview: Kate Lyn Sheil & John Gallagher Jr. Navigate Tech-Dating & Obsession In ‘The Heart Machine’ at The Playlist.

Watch: First Trailer For Indie Drama ‘The Heart Machine' Starring John Gallagher Jr. & Kate Lyn Sheil

Continue reading Watch: First Trailer For Indie Drama ‘The Heart Machine’ Starring John Gallagher Jr. & Kate Lyn Sheil at The Playlist.

Casting: Elle Fanning Will Learn 'How To Talk to Girls At Parties,' Penelope Cruz Joins 'Grimsby' & More

Continue reading Casting: Elle Fanning Will Learn ‘How To Talk to Girls At Parties,’ Penelope Cruz Joins ‘Grimsby’ & More at The Playlist.

SXSW Review: ‘The Heart Machine’ Starring Kate Lyn Sheil & John Gallagher Jr.

Continue reading SXSW Review: ‘The Heart Machine’ Starring Kate Lyn Sheil & John Gallagher Jr. at The Playlist.

Venice Review: Ti West's 'The Sacrament,' Starring AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg & Amy Seimetz

Continue reading Venice Review: Ti West’s ‘The Sacrament,’ Starring AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg & Amy Seimetz at The Playlist.