What is it that compels people to sin and give themselves continuous self-inflicted pain? This is one of the central questions raised in the otherwise largely incurious “The Many Saints Of Newark,” David Chase’s prequel film to his “Sopranos” series on HBO.  To pose a related question, what coerces the elite few who have already ascended to the mountaintop of their field—Michael Jordan, George Lucas, David Chase— to want to take another crack at recreating perfection and perhaps mar their legacy in the process?

Continue reading ‘The Many Saints Of Newark’: David Chase Fails To Further Gild The ‘Sopranos’ Legacy With An Underwhelming Prequel [Review] at The Playlist.

What lines would you cross to be with your soulmate? That’s the question posed by the time-travel romance epic “Needle in a Timestack.” The movie’s first trailer gives a taste of what happens to four people put in that situation.

READ MORE: Fall 2021 Movie Preview: 60+ Must-See Films

“Needle in a Timestack,” based on a short story of the same name by Robert Silverberg, follows a blissful married couple, Nick and Janine.

Continue reading ‘Needle In A Timestack’ Trailer: Cynthia Erivo & Leslie Odom, Jr. Star In John Ridley’s Time-Travel Romance at The Playlist.

At one time, the “next Malick,” then a director of stoner comedies, now the go-to guy for reviving dormant horror franchises, David Gordon Green’s directorial career continues to be a peculiar one. The director has been tapped to write and direct not just one but a whole new trilogy of “The Exorcist” films for NBC Universal in a deal upwards of $400 million, the New York Times reports.

Continue reading New ‘Exorcist’ Trilogy: David Gordon Green Directs, Ellen Burstyn Is Back & Leslie Odom Jr. Co-Stars at The Playlist.

The second season of Loren Bouchard’s “Central Park” is back with a vengeance, as well as promises of evil condo owners, high notes, hot dogs, and macaroni. The new trailer gives more or less what you’d expect from the creator of “Bob’s Burgers,” focused on a weirdo family dynamic and the other strange and loveable people in their orbit, with an eclectic voice cast to match.

Continue reading ‘Central Park’ Season 2 Trailer: Song And Dance And Looming Gentrification at The Playlist.

If you tuned in at 8:00 PM EST for the Academy Awards, then odds are you missed some of the best moments of the evening. As expected, the Academy broadcast the Best Original Song performances during the pre-show, with standout performances by Celeste, H.E.R., Leslie Odom, Jr., Laura Pausini, Daniel Pemberton, Molly Sandén and Diane Warren mixed in with red carpet moments galore.

Continue reading Watch the Best Original Song Oscar Pre-Show Performances at The Playlist.

Australian pop singer-songwriter Sia has made the jump from directing music videos, to directing her first theatrical feature film, “Music.” Almost immediately as the first trailer dropped, controversy arose due to the film’s portrayal of autism.

READ MORE: The Safdie Brothers Direct A New Music Video For Their ‘Uncut Gems’ Composer, Oneohtrix Point Never

The trailer for “Music” teases a musical-drama film about a young girl on the autism spectrum that sees the world through music.

Continue reading ‘Music’ Trailer: Sia Makes Directorial Debut With Controversial “Musical Experience” Movie at The Playlist.

One of the biggest surprises coming out of this year’s (pared down) festival season is Regina King’s period drama, “One Night in Miami.” Based on the play of the same name, King surprised festival-goers with a directorial debut that has people whispering, “Oscars.”

READ MORE: Four Legends Spend ‘One Night In Miami’ In Regina King’s Flawed But Promising Debut [Venice Review]

As seen in the trailer for the film, “One Night in Miami” is a period film that follows, uh, one night in Miami where Muhammad Ali invited Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown to his hotel room to hang out and discuss the world after the boxer defeated Sonny Liston.

Continue reading ‘One Night In Miami’ Trailer: Black Icons Meet In Regina King’s Directorial Debut at The Playlist.

With her iconic style, which includes her face being partially covered by hair, singer-songwriter Sia has become one of the most recognizable pop stars on the planet. And as if music domination wasn’t enough, it appears Sia is ready to branch out and take on the world of feature filmmaking with a new project, “Music.”

READ MORE: Cameron Crowe Says Penny Lane From ‘Almost Famous’ Is Not An Example Of A Manic Pixie Dream Girl

According to Hanway Films, the studio has secured the distribution rights to the forthcoming musical, aptly titled, “Music,” which serves as the directorial debut for Sia.

Continue reading ‘Music’ First Look: Kate Hudson Stars In Sia’s Directorial Debut Musical at The Playlist.

Director Regina King’s “One Night In Miami” comes to the Venice Film Festival as an out of competition entry. This timely project features four important figures—Muhammed Ali (then Cassius Clay), Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown—in a fictional meeting of the minds. It all unfolds over one night set against a divided country seeking its own reckoning during the civil rights movement.

Continue reading ‘One Night In Miami’ Clip: Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown & Sam Cooke Find Themselves In The Same Hotel Room at The Playlist.

An audacious what-if scenario lies at the heart of Regina King‘s poised, well-crafted but conceptually conflicted directorial debut, “One Night in Miami,” a high-minded drama that plays as an all-star real-life Black superhero team-up: What if newly-crowned World Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay, singer Sam Cooke, NFL record breaker Jim Brown and a Malcom X on the cusp of breaking with the Nation of Islam, spent the pivotal night of February 25, 1964 sparring, bickering and mutually inspiring in a hotel room in Miami?

Continue reading Four Legends Spend ‘One Night In Miami’ In Regina King’s Flawed But Promising Debut [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

American composer, actor, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda has so many major accolades to his name: a Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2018. And while his rise to fame started with “In The Heights,” it’s the Broadway musical “Hamilton” that really started it all for Miranda. And for most of the public, his claim to fame starts here.

Continue reading ‘Hamilton’ Trailer: Lin-Manuel Miranda Brings His Award-Winning Broadway Musical To Disney+ at The Playlist.

Animator Loren Bouchard first opened the doors on “Bob’s Burgers” back in 2011, telling a working-class narrative about a dysfunctionally loving family struggling to keep their oceanside burger joint afloat despite the efforts of competing restaurants, vengeful health inspectors, and their pernicious kooky landlord to put them out of business. The series determinedly downplays politics: Bouchard and his writers prioritize the Belcher clan first and baked-in socioeconomic concerns second, letting interactions between the former tease out the latter.

Continue reading ‘Central Park’: ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Creator Crafts A Funny, Smart Musical Series With A Talented Cast [Review] at The Playlist.

While we wait for the FX adaptation of “Y: The Last Man” to maybe, finally see the light of day, there’s a new film coming out soon that takes a similar premise, and asks us how far we’d be willing to go to protect those we love. The first trailer for “Only” was released and it stars Leslie Odom Jr. and Freida Pinto.

READ MORE: In Dystopian Drama ‘Only,’ It’s The Men Who Grapple With Female Suffering For Some Reason [Tribeca Review]

In the trailer, Odom Jr.

Continue reading ‘Only’ Trailer: Freida Pinto And Leslie Odom Jr. Star In New Sci-Fi Thriller About A Mysterious Plague at The Playlist.

As the 24-hour news cycle pummels us with constant stories of social and political unrest, the line between modern society and fictional dystopia can seem blurry. Art continues to imitate life, and filmmaker Takashi Doscher is throwing his hat into the sociopolitical sci-fi ring with “Only,” a Tribeca Film Festival premiere about sexist violence.

Freida Pinto and Leslie Odom Jr. play Eva and Will, a couple in a world overrun by a deadly, incurable illness.

Continue reading In Dystopian Drama ‘Only,’ It’s The Men Who Grapple With Female Suffering For Some Reason [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.

Now seems like a good time for a new take on “Murder on the Orient Express.” Sidney Lumet had memorably adapted the Agatha Christie novel (originally published in 1934) back in 1974 (Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for her role in the film) but a more modern take on both the story’s classic whodunit mechanics and its cast of racially diverse characters could have been an absolute treat.

Continue reading ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ Is A Joyless Ride [Review] at The Playlist.

As a film genre, the whodunnit has rather gone out of fashion, but the mystery elements of hit TV shows, even non-fiction ones like “Making A Murderer,” is proof that there’s still a desire to guess who did what, with what murder weapon, in which room. And 20th Century Fox are hoping that they can find a big-screen audience for the genre again with this fall’s remake of Agatha Christie’s classic “Murder On The Orient Express.”

Previously filmed by Sidney Lumet in 1974 to the tune of six Oscar nominations and great box office, the new version is directed by Kenneth Branagh and penned by “American Gods” co-writer Michael Green, and promises a similarly star-studded cast to the earlier version, as the first-look photos from Entertainment Weekly prove.

Continue reading First Look At Johnny Depp, Kenneth Branagh, Daisy Ridley & More In ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ at The Playlist.