There’s an old saying at the Playlist Mansion: you do not truly know a person until you’ve asked them to chose the one film they feel was most overrated and the one they feel was most underrated in any given year. It’s not very catchy. But it is a credo with a surprising amount of wisdom in it, as well as the welcome potential for our beloved, esteemed and generally faultless contributors to make complete public fools of themselves.

Continue reading The Most Overrated & Underrated Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

We have a love/hate relationship with movie trailers (don’t even get Kevin started on teaser trailers), that is, we love to talk about how much we hate them. But they’re an unavoidable fact of the business, and while we try not to feed the beast of pre-trailer teasers and trailer release date hype, we can’t ignore that our trailer posts are among the best performing parts of our news coverage – we might dislike them in general, you might dislike them in general, but apparently most of us watch them.

Continue reading The 20 Best Movie Trailers Of 2016 at The Playlist.

It was a weekend of binge-eating, bargain shopping, and also trying to find ways to fill time with the family. And it seems the movie of choice for those headed to the multiplex was an all-ages offering from Disney.

The studio’s dominance over Thanksgiving weekend continued with “Moana” opening to $55.5 million, giving Disney nine out of the 10 all-time best openings over the holiday (the figure is $88.1 million if you include the dollars accrued between Wednesday and Friday).

Continue reading ‘Moana’ Rides Big Thanksgiving Wave, While ‘Allied,’ ‘Bad Santa 2’ & ‘Rules Don’t Apply’ All Struggle [Box Office] at The Playlist.

Jessica Chastain is a great actress, but with “Miss Sloane,” she also proves that she’s a great movie star. Headlining the sort of pulse-pounding adult thriller that studios rarely produce anymore — and, as evidenced by this past May’s “Money Monster,” even more rarely succeed with at the domestic box office — Chastain is a one-woman force of nature as a dominant D.C. lobbyist mired in a fierce political battle with her former firm.

Continue reading Jessica Chastain Is A Force Of Nature In The Pulse-Pounding ‘Miss Sloane’ [Review] at The Playlist.

One of the many reasons we love Jessica Chastain is that she’s constantly doing new things. Ever since the busy 2011 that introduced, we’ve seen her vast range, from embodiment of maternal love in “The Tree Of Life” to comic relief in “The Help,” and she’s only continued to mix up ever since: in the last twelve months alone, we’ve seen her as a fearsome villainess in “Crimson Peak,” a compassionate space commander in “The Martian,” and an ass-kicking warrior in “The Huntsman: Winter’s War.”

But her next film, and the one that could put her into awards contention again, looks in some respects to be a return to past glories, playing a complex, potentially unlikable role in a movie tackling a hot-button issue, just as her last Oscar-nominated turn in “Zero Dark Thirty” did.

Continue reading Jessica Chastain Gets Ruthless In The First Trailer For Political Thriller ‘Miss Sloane’ at The Playlist.

It seems a bit remarkable that we’ve only had one movie so far this year starring the always busy Jessica Chastain, and it’s one that many would rather forget about (“Huntsman: Winter’s War“). But it wouldn’t be awards season without the actress, and she has a movie coming in the months ahead which could once again put the two-time Oscar nominee in the conversation.

READ MORE: The 50 Most Anticipated Films of The Fall Season

“Miss Sloane” sees Chastain directed by John Madden (“Shakespeare In Love“), and joined by Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, Sam Waterston, and John Lithgow in a thriller about a lobbyist working in the cutthroat world of Washington, D.C.

Continue reading New Look: Jessica Chastain In ‘Miss Sloane’ at The Playlist.

It seems that every movie vying for Oscar gold this fall is going to show up somewhere in the next six to eight weeks, either at festivals in Telluride, Venice, Toronto or New York City. But there are always a handful that arrive late in the game and tend to shake things up. Could “Miss Sloane” be one them?

Certainly, the potential is there, with John Madden (“Shakespeare In Love“) directing the always terrific, two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain in this thriller about a lobbyist working the high-powered corridors of Washington, D.C.

Continue reading First Look: Jessica Chastain In Oscar Contender ‘Miss Sloane’ at The Playlist.

Let’s face it, 2016 has so far been sort of a crappy year for movies. It’s been a particularly bad summer blockbuster season, with almost everything coming up short. But even the indie world has been quieter than usual, with some dizzying highs — “The Witch,” “Embrace Of The Serpent,” “Green Room,” and “The Lobster” are among featured on our list of the best of the year so far — but some disappointments too.

Continue reading The 50 Most Anticipated Films Of The Fall Season at The Playlist.