Can a friendship survive anything? Two friends are about to test the limits in “I’m Totally Fine.” The film may start with a central character’s journey through loss, but it quickly establishes itself as a quirky comedy. Actor and producer Kyle Newacheck spoke about the influences surrounding the project — namely, its connections to powerlessness during a raging pandemic. “We were making a movie that mirrored what we had all collectively been experiencing over 2020, without being literal,” he told Deadline.

Continue reading ‘I’m Totally Fine’ Trailer: Jillian Bell, Natalie Morales, Reanimated Dead Best Friends & Aliens Mix In A Wacky New Sci-Fi Comedy at The Playlist.

Despite a global pandemic and an uncertain film industry, Natalie Morales is having one of the best years of her career. Not only did she make her directorial debut with the really solid comedy, “Plan B” (which we included in our Best of 2021 So Far list), earlier this year, but the actress-turned-filmmaker already is set to release her second directorial effort, “Language Lessons,” this fall.

Continue reading ‘Language Lessons’ Trailer: Natalie Morales & Mark Duplass Develop A Special Friendship Over Zoom at The Playlist.

For Gen Z, getting birth control should be easier than ever and abortion access is a right, and yet women’s bodily autonomy is still under attack. Last year, there were two films about teens helping each other cross state lines in order to receive the health care they desperately need: Eliza Hittman’s neo-realistic drama “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” and Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s buddy comedy “Unpregnant.” Both films show how access to unfettered health care for teen girls is a state-by-state issue, hitting hardest in rural America. 

READ MORE: Summer 2021 Preview: Over 50 Movies To Watch

Set in South Dakota, Natalie Morales’ directorial debut “Plan B” starts out in the vein of other recent female-led teen sex comedies like “Booksmart”: BFFs Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and Lupe (Victoria Moroles) are horny and ready to do something about it.

Continue reading ‘Plan B’: Natalie Morales’ Road Trip Comedy Follows Familiar Roads But Is Still Funny As Hell [Review] at The Playlist.

The road trip film is a staple of the comedy genre. We’ve seen it done a million times before, where you take two friends, throw them in a car, have them go on a long trip to achieve some sort of time-sensitive goal, and obviously, hilarity ensues. Well, that basic premise gives you an idea of what to expect with the upcoming comedy film, “Plan B.”

READ MORE: ‘Language Lessons’: Natalie Morales Directorial Debut Is Hampered By Its Zoom Meeting Dynamics [SXSW Review]

However, when you watch the trailer for “Plan B,” it becomes pretty clear that the teen comedy is far from your typical entry in the road trip subgenre.

Continue reading ‘Plan B’ Trailer: Natalie Morales’ New Comedy Finds 2 Teen Girls On A Search For A Much-Needed Pill at The Playlist.

In the age of quarantine and pandemics, connection is desperately needed, loneliness is its own epidemic, and mental health and tragedy issues are all-too-relevant, sad byproducts of the COVID-19 era. Now, while it’s arguably (or charitably) unclear if anyone actually wants to actually see any stories set during quarantine—by all accounts, most quarantine-set movies and TV like “Locked Down” and “Coastal Elites” were terrible— all of these aforementioned ideas of isolation, connection, confinement and more, at the center of Natalie Morales’ directorial debut, “Language Lessons.”

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

It’s a noble effort, using the ideas of language to deepen and enrich the themes of connecting with one another in a meaningful way, and the misunderstandings that come with an unfamiliar language, passive-aggressiveness, authentic, honest, communication, coded language, and more.

Continue reading ‘Language Lessons’: Natalie Morales Directorial Debut Is Hampered By Its Zoom Meeting Dynamics [SXSW Review] at The Playlist.

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is in the rear-view mirror, so that means, next up, the SXSW Film Festival that has unleashed its line-up today. Running March 16-20, 2021, SXSW announced the full program for the 28th edition of the SXSW Film Festival. Like Sundance, rather than an in-person physical festival, SXSW Film will be a virtual event online.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

The 2021 Film Festival program has 75 features, including 57 World Premieres, 3 International Premieres, 4 North American Premieres, 1 U.S.

Continue reading SXSW 2021 Film Festival Line-Up: Music Docs Take Over Headliners With Films On Tom Petty, Demi Lovato & Charli XCX at The Playlist.