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 late-2019 releases that didn’t get their due in the year-end mudslide, plus a sharp bio-documentary, one of the previous decade’s best action flicks, and an undervalued late-period entry from one cinema’s true masters.

Continue reading The 5 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Dark Waters,’ ‘Queen & Slim’ & More at The Playlist.

Maybe it’s time to let the old ways of this almost-finished decade die, yeah? But it wouldn’t be complete without our deep dive into the best soundtracks and scores of the 2010s. It’s admittedly somewhat weird and difficult to do. Scores and soundtracks are different beasts; one original musical written for a film that gives it its emotional shape—often the secret MVP of a movie—and the other more of a mixtape, but when well-curated and used next to picture, can be just as deadly and help craft what we know as the visual and aural transcendence that’s known as cinema when it’s at its best.

Continue reading The Best Soundtracks & Scores Of The Decade [2010s] at The Playlist.

“They made a game on top of a game,” laments an old ball coach in Steven Soderberg‘s new Netflix drama “High Flying Bird” (read our review). The character, played by the great Bill Duke, is referring to a league system that treats black players like commodities because it could never beat them on the court. In this way, “High Flying Bird” is a scathing send-up of not only the NBA but all sorts of starry-eyed sports movies.

Continue reading A Game On Top Of A Game: ‘High Flying Bird’ & The Sports Disruptor Movie [Podcast] at The Playlist.

Despite the varying stories that director Bennett Miller tells in his films, there is one element that remains consistent. Miller has brought to the screen profound, enigmatic characters each time. His movies “Capote,” “Money Ball,” and “Foxcatcher” received praise not only for the filmmaker’s direction but the astounding, sometimes surprising, performances of each film’s cast, arguably Channing Tatum and Steve Carell‘s best turns to date, one of Jonah Hill‘s standout dramatic performances and obviously an Oscar for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Continue reading Studying The Dynamic Characters In The Films Of Bennett Miller at The Playlist.

Now celebrating its fourth year, Qumra is a weeklong industry event run by the Doha Film Institute in Qatar. We’ll be bringing you coverage of the stellar lineup of Qumra 2018 Masterclasses, given by such luminaries as Tilda Swinton, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Andrey Zvyaginstev and Bennett Miller in the coming days.

Maybe because he’s only made four films — “The Cruise,” “Capote,” “Moneyball” and “Foxcatcher” — Bennett Miller, despite two director Oscar nominations, still feels like a relatively unheralded quantity.

Continue reading Bennett Miller On False Starts, True Stories, And Philip Seymour Hoffman [Qumra 2018 Masterclass] at The Playlist.

That’s not an error in the headline — there was a version of “Moneyball” that was going to be directed by Steven Soderbergh. The abridged story is that Soderbergh’s movie was just days away from starting filming when the studio pulled the plug and suddenly panicked about the picture. Soderbergh’s take on the data-driven baseball drama would’ve featured real-life players, but there was second-guessing from Sony about the kind of film they wanted.

Continue reading Demetri Martin Talks Losing Role In Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Moneyball’ at The Playlist.

Netflix has had no difficulty (thanks to their pots and pots of cash) in attracting big names to the streaming service. They convinced Kevin Spacey and David Fincher to enter the TV world, they’ve virtually monopolized the stand-up comedy circuit, and they’ve made two deals with Adam Sandler to make a total of eight movies. But this Friday sees probably the biggest A-lister they’ve yet attracted, with David Michôd’s dark satire “War Machine,” starring none other than Brad Pitt.

Continue reading The 20 Best Brad Pitt Movies at The Playlist.

Steven Soderbergh’s sabbatical from making movies is officially over. While he took a detour into television with “The Knick,” the director has two films in the works: “Mosaic,” an experimental project over at HBO (which may not quite resemble a film in the end and could be a kind of a series), and the NASCAR heist comedy, “Logan Lucky.”

But last night at The Nitehawk theaters in Williamsburg, the director, who rarely looks back at his work, was doing just that with a screening of “Haywire” followed by a Q&A afterwards (presented by Soderbergh’s liquor line Singani 63).

Continue reading Steven Soderbergh Admits He Was Once In Talks For James Bond; Discusses New, Weird “Midnight Edition” of ‘Kafka’ at The Playlist.

Continue reading Mychael Danna Scoring ‘Moneyball’ & ‘Life Of Pi’ at The Playlist.

Continue reading Universal And Sony Find New Fall 2011 Dates For ‘The Thing’ And ‘Moneyball’ at The Playlist.

Given it’s a movie about baseball, and is filming in an actual ballpark, it’s no surprise that set photos have leaked at the rate usually reserved for boring tentpoles (zomg, a picture of car that might be Transformer!).

Continue reading Former Oakland A’s Assistant GM Paul DePodesta Requests His Name Taken Out Of ‘Moneyball,’ Character Changed To Peter Brand at The Playlist.

Continue reading First Look At Philip Seymour Hoffman In ‘Moneyball’ at The Playlist.

Continue reading First Look: Brad Pitt & Jonah Hill In ‘Moneyball’ at The Playlist.

With shooting finally beginning today, almost a year after Steven Soderbergh’s version was halted, literally hours before it was to start filming, “Moneyball” is firming up the final bits of casting.

Continue reading Updated: Kathryn Morris Wants To Play ‘Moneyball’; Chris Pratt Takes First Base at The Playlist.

Justice was an outfielder and designated hitter who was recruited by Athletics’ assistant GM Paul DePodesta for a final season in 2002 as an experiment on the effect of age with hitters. His success seemingly argued that hitters retained their abilities. Interestingly, Steven Soderbergh’s earlier iteration of the Lewis adaptation would have seen Justice play himself with comedian Demetri Martin playing DePodesta.

Continue reading Stephen Bishop To Play Baseballer David Justice In Bennett Miller’s ‘Moneyball’ at The Playlist.

Yes, we’re talking “Moneyball” once again, a project that has become one of the more paroxysmal and convoluted ones to almost hit the screen in recent years.

Continue reading More Backspin: Steven Zaillian Writing On ‘Moneyball’ Script at The Playlist.

The veteran actor is apparently set to appear in “The Hatfields and The McCoys,” a retelling of the legendary 19th century family feud, which has been written by Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”), and has “Crazy Heart” director Scott Cooper attached to helm at Warner Brothers.

Continue reading ‘Crazy Heart’ Helmer Scott Cooper May Direct Brad Pitt In ‘The Hatfields and The McCoys’ at The Playlist.

Kimmel’s resume, while brief, is fairly stellar. “Capote,” “Lars & The Real Girl,” “Jesus’ Son,” Spike Jonze’s short “I’m Here” and Mark Romanek’s forthcoming “Never Let Me Go” all bear his credit.

Continue reading Cinematographer Adam Kimmel Arrested at The Playlist.

Frankly, we’re kind of shocked. If we wrote up every little piece of dirt we had heard about the maligned-“Moneyball” project we would have had about five or six stories on the site dealing with the minutia of its problems, but like everything in Hollywood: things ebb, flow, fluctuate and change.

Continue reading ‘Moneyball’ Confirmed For A July Start Date at The Playlist.

Continue reading SXSW Review: ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ Is A Big Fail at The Playlist.

Continue reading SXSW Interview: Jonah Hill Says ‘Moneyball’ Will Shoot This Summer & Wants To Use A Score By Ratatat For ‘The Sitter’ at The Playlist.

We’ll try to keep the history concise, so bear with us.

Continue reading Jonah Hill To Replace Demetri Martin In ‘Moneyball’ at The Playlist.

Does the name Lewis sound familiar? If you recall, he was the writer behind “Moneyball” which was brutally shut down literally hours before filming was supposed to begin last summer.

Continue reading Brad Pitt Options Housing Bubble Book By ‘Moneyball’ Author at The Playlist.

Us: This morning, one of our trusty sources says, Marc Webb will direct “Spider-Man,” a “deal is definitely being worked out now” (you’ll recall we knew Marc Webb wasn’t getting “Moneyball” earlier this year when everyone else said he was…though it was close at one point).

So we fumbled around trying to find more sources, to double-confirm, etc… and too late.

Continue reading Breaking: Marc Webb Offered Next Three ‘Spider-Man’ Reboot Films at The Playlist.

It should be no surprise to you by now what type of film we generally cherish (non-pandering intelligent cinema), which ones we typically loathe (lowest common denominator chum meant to plop popcorn munchers in seats) and which ones we treat with suspicion until otherwise verified as something being other than slightly above reproach.

Continue reading More 2010: The Potentially Decent Escapist Entertainment Films (Or Potentially Interesting Indie Ones) Of 2010 at The Playlist.