Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach are one of Hollywood’s major power couples of the moment. And the duo collaborate on next year’s “Barbie,” which, if word of mouth is right, may become a cultural sensation when it hits theaters next summer. But if their respective films are up for awards, as they were at the 2020 Oscars, don’t expect either Gerwig or Baumbach to vote for each other’s movies.

Continue reading Greta Gerwig Voted For Her ‘Little Women’ Over Partner Noah Baumbach’s ‘Marriage Story’ For Best Picture At 2020 Oscars 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. 

Two more early-quarantine, pulled-from-theaters titles get their proper disc and VOD releases, and both are worth a watch from those who were saving their pennies for a more reasonable price point.

Continue reading The 5 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Emma,’ ‘The Way Back’ & More 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, we’ve got two of 2019’s best films, one of 2018’s most acclaimed movies, an HD upgrade for a classic of French cinema, and a new way to watch one of the finest American movies of all time.

Continue reading The 5 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Little Women,’ ‘Raging Bull’ & More at The Playlist.

While the talk of the town seems to be the surprise dominance of “Parasite” at last night’s Oscars, there’s still plenty of other winners worth discussing. And how best to do that than to just present the various awards speeches from the winners?

READ MORE: Oscars 2020: ‘Parasite’ Shocks & Rules Academy Warfare With Huge Historical Best Picture Win [Full Winners List]

Leading the way, we have two-time award winner, Renee Zellweger, who capped off her awards season run of Best Actress wins with one more on Oscar night.

Continue reading Laura Dern, Brad Pitt, Taika Waititi & Others Delight With Their Oscars Acceptance Speeches 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.

One of the many, many frustrating things about being a sports fan is the way pundits play fast-and-loose with the definition of the industry. Baseball, for example, is a game when it benefits specific parties and a business when it doesn’t. This kind of double-speak sometimes makes it difficult to have a coherent conversation about the failings of the sport. Players are asking for a bunch of money? They should be happy they make a living playing a children’s game!

Continue reading Olivia Wilde Thinks Greta Gerwig Deserved A Best Director Nomination For ‘Little Women’ 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.

As we pointed out earlier, when discussing Netflix’s domination of the Oscar nominations, Sony is the only traditional studio that came close to matching the streaming service’s total. Thanks to films such as “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Little Woman,” “Pain & Glory,” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Sony collected 20 nominations today, only 4 behind Netflix.

Continue reading Sony Boss Says Streaming “Doesn’t Worry Me Much” & Explains Why “The Theatrical Experience Isn’t Going Anywhere” at The Playlist.

There are plenty of filmmakers and actors out there that will say that awards and nominations don’t matter. Most of the time, those are the people that either win a ton of awards or those that never get nominations. Well, regardless of how you view the importance of something like an Oscars trophy, they’re generally acknowledged as the pinnacle of the film industry. And since filmmakers are cinephiles themselves, they’re always going to have opinions about what should or shouldn’t have been nominated.

Continue reading Rian Johnson Says His Oscar Nomination Is “Surreal” But Is Sad That ‘Uncut Gems’ Was Shut Out at The Playlist.

Another year, another Best Director Oscars controversy. In a year with no shortage of incredible films from female directors, the Academy announced its 2020 Oscar nominations and not one woman was among the Best Director nominees. And as you might expect, just hours after the noms, this has already caused some outrage. Nominations presenter Issa Rae got the ball rolling about the snub, when she said, “Congratulations to those men” when the category was announced.

Continue reading Florence Pugh Calls Greta Gerwig’s Best Director Snub For ‘Little Women’ “A Big Blow” 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.

In a night where three awards resulted in ties and a ton of winners didn’t show up, the Critics Choice Association handed out the 2020 Critics Choice Awards top honor, Best Picture, to “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.”  “Joker’s” Joaquin Phoenix took Best Actor while Renee Zellweger won Best Actress for “Judy.”  Bong Joon Ho and Sam Mendes tied for Best Director for “Parasite” and “1917” respectfully.

Continue reading “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” Wins Best Picture At Critics Choice Awards at The Playlist.

Movie studios have been touting “modern spins on classic stories” ever since the times got modern and the stories got classic. But what does that philosophy mean in practice? A simple update to the current year’s fashions and tastes? A whiz-bang filmmaking approach that’ll keep the kids interested when the epic and literary won’t do anymore? Alterations to centuries-old source material to suit contemporary politics? (I think we’ve seen enough Robin Hood movies to know how this can go wrong.)

READ MORE: Greta Gerwig Arrived At The Golden Globes & Was Greeted Awkwardly By HFPA Members Swearing They Voted For Her

The more thoughtful the better, and that’s where Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” finds urgency and ease in equal measure.

Continue reading Greta Gerwig Infuses ‘Little Women’ With Deep Reflection & New Vigor [Be Reel Podcast] at The Playlist.

One of the more unexpected viral moments of this year’s Golden Globes actually happened well before the ceremony and telecast even began. Thanks to a picture shared on Twitter, “Little Women” filmmaker Greta Gerwig was shown in an empty theater all dressed up and by herself. The picture was shared as a silly way of pointing out that Gerwig was the first A-lister to find her seat at the ceremony.

Continue reading Greta Gerwig Arrived At The Golden Globes & Was Greeted Awkwardly By HFPA Members Swearing They Voted For Her 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.

Traditionally, the first weekend in January is a pretty boring time for the box office. If we’re lucky, there’s a horror film that surprises everyone and does great business. However, by and large, what we’re left with are holiday holdovers trying to scrape together the most post-Christmas money before families go back to work and kids go back to school. So, it shouldn’t be any real shock that this weekend was pretty boring, especially when our lone hope for shaking things up — “The Grudge” — failed in spectacular fashion.

Continue reading Audiences Hate ‘The Grudge’ As ‘Star Wars’ Wins The First Box Office Weekend Of 2020 at The Playlist.

I am a movie crier. The ending of “Jojo Rabbit” had me alternating between hiccuping sobs and giggles with a similarly afflicted friend over just how much we were crying. I sniffled my way through the entirety of two viewings of “Little Women,” amassing a heap of movie theater napkins into an appropriated cupholder that had spilled over by the end. I couldn’t catch my breath at the end of “Queen & Slim,” and I felt the tears coming again as I thought about what I’d just seen as walked down the block away from the theater.

Continue reading Kimber Myers’ Top 10 Films Of 2019 at The Playlist.

The week of Christmas is one of the more unpredictable frames at the box office. Sure, we all know that people just love going to the movie theater during the holidays, but with the sheer number of highly-anticipated films being released around this time (especially with a new “Star Wars” feature), the 2019 holiday box office has been surprising, to say the least.

Of course, we have to start the discussion with a review of what “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” was able to do during the holiday week.

Continue reading ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ Catching Up To ‘The Last Jedi’ After 2 Weeks As ‘Uncut Gems’ Scores Big For A24 [Box Office] 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.

While everyone is fighting over “Rise of Skywalker” and “Cats,” Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-hopeful adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” is out there screaming at you because you are choosing to see weird and/or bad movies instead of good ones. While most if not all filmmakers ask someone for advice when making a film, Gerwig had none other than Steven Speilberg to give some counsel on how to best portray the setting of the film.

Continue reading Steven Spielberg Advised Greta Gerwig To Shoot ‘Little Women’ On Film at The Playlist.

Judging by the reviews (currently with a solid 96% on Rotten Tomatoes), “Little Women” is poised to be a big hit and a major awards contender. However, something strange has happened in the recent awards nominations at the Golden Globes and SAG — “Little Women” has been left out in the cold, pulling in only two Globes noms (Best Actress, Best Score) and zero SAG noms. Producer Amy Pascal thinks she might know why.

Continue reading Amy Pascal Says ‘Little Women’ Isn’t Getting Awards Season Recognition Due To A “Completely Unconscious Bias” at The Playlist.

The USC Libraries named the finalists for the 32nd-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s most accomplished film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. The honor can be seen as a potential indicator for the nominee for Oscar’s best Adapted Screenplay. On the film side, “Jojo Rabbit,” “The Irishman,” “Little Women,” “The Pope,” “The Irishman” and, somewhat surprisingly, “Dark Waters” made the cut.

Continue reading ‘Jojo Rabbit,’ ‘Fleabag’ & ‘Watchmen’ Earn 2019 USC Scripter Award Nominations at The Playlist.

Along with eight other categories, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist for the Hairstyling and Makeup Oscar this afternoon.  As expected nominees included films such as “Bombshell,” “Joker,” “Judy” and “Rocketman.” For the first time ever, there will be five nomineees in this category when the Oscar nominations are announced next month.

Snubbed films included “Jojo Rabbit,” “Harriet,” “Us,” “Marriage Story” and “The Irishman.”

READ MORE: Renee Zellwegger captures the final days of Judy Garland in “Judy” [Review]

This year’s potential nominees are as follows:

“Bombshell”
“Dolemite Is My Name”
“Downton Abbey”
“Joker”
“Judy”
“Little Women”
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
“1917”
“Once upon a Time…in Hollywood”
“Rocketman”

All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on Jan.

Continue reading ‘Bombshell,’ ‘Joker’ & ‘Judy’ Make 2020 Hairstyling & Makeup Oscar Shortlist 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.