Another “Watchmen” adaptation, after Zack Snyder‘s 2009 film and Damon Lindelof‘s HBO “remix”? It’s not surprising. Alan Moore‘s 1986 limited series is arguably the greatest graphic novel of all time, and remains one of the writer’s seminal triumphs.  And, let’s face it: Snyder’s film isn’t that great, with Lindelof’s series, while very acclaimed, was its own beast entirely.  

Continue reading ‘Watchmen Chapter 1’ Red-Band Trailer: An R-Rated Animated Adaptation Of Alan Moore’s Classic Superhero Tale Arrives In August at The Playlist.

In 2020, Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” became much more than just a vision of a potential future. As the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, viewers pointed to how much the film’s writer Scott Z. Burns got right about a world-reshaping pandemic. And, if anything, he underestimated how dumb some people would be about it, but that’s another story. But if Burns’ latest project proves similarly prophetic, well, we’re all seriously screwed.

Continue reading ‘Extrapolations’ Review: Apple TV+’s Star-Studded Mini-Series Offers A Terrifying Vision of The Future at The Playlist.

Nearly three years have passed since the gritty reboot of the TV courtroom classic “Perry Mason” debuted on HBO, switching out the case-of-the-week format for one overarching trial. Perry Mason’s (Matthew Rhys) journey from disheveled private investigator to rugged qualified lawyer fuels the first half of the first season, but the act of introducing so many characters hamper the pacing. It is firing on all cylinders by the end of the first season and more than justified its existence.

Continue reading ‘Perry Mason’ Season 2 Review: The Matthew Rhys-Starring Reboot Goes From Good To Great at The Playlist.

For a while, the biggest news surrounding HBO’s reboot of “Perry Mason” was the behind-the-scenes drama, as it took forever for the show to come together. At one point, Robert Downey, Jr. was attached to star. Eventually, RDJ became just a producer, but the series did finally get released with Matthew Rhys as the title character. And when the series did debut on HBO, it shocked many people as it was a really solid period mystery series with solid acting and direction.

Continue reading ‘Perry Mason’ Season 2 Teaser: Matthew Rhys Returns With A New Mystery To Solve In March at The Playlist.

Surprise, surprise! HBO put together yet another prestige show with outstanding performances, cinematography, and direction. The recent remake of “Perry Mason” didn’t so much as show up to thrill us, but confront us with simultaneously beautiful and abhorrent dread, and at the center of that is a masterful lead performance by none other than Matthew Rhys (“The Americans“). Matthew recently sat down with The Playlist Podcast for an interview on the Emmy nominated role and what to expect for Season 2.

Continue reading Matthew Rhys Talks ‘Perry Mason,’ Being Handpicked By Robert Downey, Jr., & More [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

How far would you go to escape your current life? A young woman faces daunting prospects for leaving her own world behind in “Death and Nightingales.” It’s a story that resonates on several levels, with rebellion, fighting to find your place, and even the burdens of family playing into the drama. The limited series is an adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s 1992 novel. While the project is new to American audiences, ‘Nightingales’ premiered to U.K.

Continue reading ‘Death And Nightingales’ Trailer: Starz’s New Mini-Series About Love, Betrayal & Loss Stars Matthew Rhys, Ann Skelly & Jamie Dornan at The Playlist.

There are several reasons why HBO‘s gorgeously well-made, expansively imagined and deeply immersive new “Perry Mason” has critics casting around for synonyms of “timely.” Its twisted tale of gruesome and occasionally graphic baby-murder (the show’s dead-body modelmakers deserve some sort of award for grotesque, gross-out detail) touches on institutional corruption and police brutality, on racism and religious hypocrisy, on the exploitation of the marginalized, the stigmatization of homosexuality and the subjugation of women.

Continue reading HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’ Is A Darkly Dazzling, Top-To-Bottom Revamp [Review] at The Playlist.

The name Perry Mason is legendary in the world of TV. The detective novels were first turned into a legal procedural TV series starring Raymond Burr back in the ‘50s and ran for decades through different iterations and TV films. But now, HBO is bringing back “Perry Mason” for a new audience, but not in the way you might remember.

As seen in the trailer for HBO’s “Perry Mason,” the series looks at the early days of the criminal defense attorney, back when he was just a private investigator in the early 1930s.

Continue reading ‘Perry Mason’ Trailer: Matthew Rhys Explores The Character’s Early Days In HBO’s New Mystery Series at The Playlist.

HBO’s “Perry Mason” is proving to be stacked both behind and in front of the camera, and fans are finally being treated to a first look. Matthew Rhys brings author Erle Stanley Gardner’s criminal defense lawyer Perry Mason to life. Rhys, who is probably most well-known for starring in the FX smash hit “The Americans,” is riding into “Perry Mason” with a little extra star power, as he recently starred in the Oscar-nominated, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

READ MORE: ‘Betty’ Trailer: The ‘Skate Kitchen’ Spin-Off Arrives On HBO Next Month

Tatiana Maslany and John Lithgow co-star alongside Rhys in the upcoming HBO miniseries.

Continue reading ‘Perry Mason’ Trailer: HBO Brings a Beloved Character Back To TV Screens 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.

Get your tissues ready, because another trailer for the Mister Rogers biopic “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” has dropped. In perhaps what may be a perfectly cast role, America’s dad Tom Hanks will don the iconic red cardigan as he steps into the role of the beloved children’s TV show host Fred Rogers. This story goes beyond the classic TV show to discuss who Fred Rogers was outside of his TV persona and the impact he had on those around him.

Continue reading New ‘A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood’ Trailer Is Here To Make You Cry Happy Tears at The Playlist.

There’s a moment in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” where Lloyd Vogel, the fictional counterpart of one Tom Junod played by Matthew Rhys, addresses an audience of fellow journalists and admits to them that he writes for magazines because doing anything else doesn’t feel like living properly.

READ MORE: 2019 Toronto International Film Festival: 25 Most Anticipated Movies

Writing reviews of movies in the blur of a festival can feel strange.

Continue reading ‘A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood’: This Is No Safe Mister Rogers Biopic & Tom Hanks Is Transformative [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

After a long development process that saw original star Robert Downey, Jr. step away, the reimagined “Perry Mason” TV series is officially ready to go and has the green light from HBO to begin production. The go-ahead came just after it was announced that director Tim Van Patten has come aboard to helm the limited series that will now star Matthew Rhys in the title role.

Continue reading ‘Sopranos’ & ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Director Hired To Helm HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’ Series Starring Matthew Rhys at The Playlist.

PARK CITY – Thanks to almost non-stop political upheaval and 3-hour news cycles, some of the biggest stories of the century haven’t gotten their proper due. One of those moments was the 2012 release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture.  The investigation was overseen by the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and researched by staffer Daniel J. Jones along with a minimal staff of associates.

Continue reading Annette Bening & Adam Driver Power Slightly Too Dense Drama ‘The Report’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

If you care, the 2019 Critics Choice Awards were handed out tonight. The annual event where the venerable Broadcast Film Critics Association dolled out their honors in order to keep getting those screeners every year and plush interview slots.  And, thankfully for broadcast network the CW, they nominated enough stars in each category that at least some big names showed up.

Oh, and did you know they tell some nominees the night before they haven’t won so they don’t have to show up if they don’t want to?  

Continue reading ‘Roma,’ ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ & ‘The Americans’ Top 2019 Critics Choice Awards at The Playlist.

In Hollywood, where original ideas are an endangered species, the race against time in delivering your formula is always a critical factor. For every “Capote” there’s an “Infamous,” for every “Braveheart,” there is a “Rob Roy“—aka the lesser, after-the-fact and often-ignored, second version of the same movie that arrives in theaters too late and yet too soon following its predecessor.

Continue reading ‘Mowgli’: Andy Serkis Crafts A Darker, Murkier ‘Jungle Book’ Tale [Review] at The Playlist.

With so many close races it was obvious there would be some upsets at this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, but no one expected this many. Netflix’s “The Crown” scored unexpected Directing and Best Actress in a Drama Emmys for Stephen Daldry and Claire Foy, respectively. And “The Americans” took the Drama Writing and Best Actor statues for series showrunners Joe Weinberg and Joel Fields; and Matthew Rhys.

Continue reading Best And Worst Of The 2018 Primetime Emmys at The Playlist.

The Hollywood Reporter continues their roundtable discussions, in anticipation of the Emmys, focusing now on the dramatic actors. The hour-long long conversation features J.K. Simmons (“Counterpart”), Jeff Daniels (“The Looming Tower”, “Godless”), Michael B. Jordan (“Fahrenheit 451”), Darren Criss (“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”), Jason Bateman (“Ozark”), and Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”), and touches on everything from auditioning to being typecast.

Continue reading Jeff Daniels, J.K. Simmons, Michael B. Jordan & More Talk Auditioning, Being Typecast, Choosing Roles at The Playlist.

Let it be clear that the “bear necessities” of Warner Bros. upcoming “Mowgli” are much darker than you’re probably used to. Director and actor Andy Serkis’ version sticks closer to Rudyard Kipling’s original moodier story. At CinemaCon, he mentioned that his take on the classic focuses on “the journey of Mowgli of being an outsider…” and that “through the mentorship of all the different creatures that surround him, he eventually finds a way to go from this orphaned child to becoming a leader of the jungle.”

READ MORE: Summer Movie Preview: 36 Films Worth The Watch

That idea is clearly evident in the first trailer and synopsis.

Continue reading ‘Mowgli’ Trailer: Andy Serkis Creates A Darker, Scarier Jungle Book at The Playlist.

This is pretty much Sterling K. Brown‘s too lose.  Matthew Rhys has a shot for the upset in his last up to bat for “The Americans” (this is his third nomination), but the “This Is Us” star should repeat.  Maybe.  [Updated July 17]

Predictions
1. Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us”
2. Matthew Rhys, “The Americans”
3.

Continue reading 2018 Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series Emmy Predictions at The Playlist.

Despite all the numerous wigs, elaborate disguises, and covert missions, “The Americans” has never really been about espionage or even the tensions between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. during the 1980s. Instead, when you strip all of that away, it’s simply about a marriage: one that just happens to be between two Russian spies in the Cold War. That focus has never been more clear in the first three episodes from the sixth – and final – season of the FX series from Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields.

Continue reading ‘The Americans’ Season 6 Is A Worthy Ending To One Of The Decade’s Best Series [Review] at The Playlist.

All good things must come to an end. And so it goes for “The Americans,” FX’s critically-acclaimed series, set in the 1980s, about two Soviet spies living undercover in Washington D.C. (insert obvious Trump joke) will begin airing its sixth and final season this March. Though each season so far has run for 13 episodes, season six will be condensed to ten.

While of course much of the plot has been kept under wraps thus far, we have managed to obtain bits and pieces of information that will impact season six’s direction, as seen in the new trailer.

Continue reading ‘The Americans’ Season 6 Trailer: Cold War Spy Thriller Makes The Final Curtain Call at The Playlist.

Steven Spielberg’s career has always been marked by two distinct characteristics: optimism (there’s not a cynical bone in his body), and a sentimentality that underlines most characters, subjects and approaches. The former trait — supported by a thrilling, propulsive approach to storytelling — has contributed to countless classic pieces of cinema, but the latter, mawkish qualities have marred many of his films. When the two elements dovetail, one gets the magical uniqueness that epitomizes Spielberg at his best.

Continue reading Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Post’: A Stirring, Sentimental & Feminist ‘All The President’s Men’ Prequel [Review] at The Playlist.

Even if audiences didn’t embrace “The BFG,” any new movie from Steven Spielberg is an event, and his latest, “The Post,” is shaping up to be a major Oscar contender. America’s top newspapers are in the midst of a renaissance and “The Post” portrays the Washington Post during its golden era, just prior to Watergate, as the paper battled the federal government for the right to publish the Pentagon Papers, the collection leaked by Daniel Ellsberg which revealed the extent to which the government had lied about the Vietnam War.

Continue reading ‘The Post’ Trailer: Steven Spielberg Releases The Pentagon Papers at The Playlist.

Lena Dunham’s “Girls” didn’t go quietly into the night in its six and final season. Dunham and producing partner Jenni Konner continued to push the creative boundaries of the half-hour “comedy” format. One of their most impressive endeavors was “American Bitch” which was written by Dunham and directed by series veteran Richard Shepard (“The Matador,” “Dom Hemingway”).

The season’s third episode finds Hannah (Dunham) agreeing to meet a noted author Chuck Palmer (a fantastic Matthew Rhys) after she’s published a story with allegations that he coerced college students into having sex with him.

Continue reading ‘Girls’: Richard Shepard On That Shocking Moment From ‘American Bitch’ That Wasn’t In The Script [Emmy Interview] at The Playlist.