In this week’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast host Mike DeAngelo pops in his earbuds and hits the audiobooks to discuss the Audible Original, “The Best Man’s Ghostwriter.” The audible original podcast follows a speechwriter who makes a living ghostwriting best-man speeches and gets entangled in the often ridiculous world of male friendship. The Audible Original stars Glen Powell, Nicholas Braun, Ashley Park, D’Arcy Carden, Lance Bass, Lukas Gage, Alex Wolff, Debra Messing, George Takei, Jack McBrayer, Nicole Byer, Jason Mantzoukas, and more. 

Continue reading Glen Powell Talks Audible Original Comedy Podcast ‘The Best Man’s Ghostwriter,’ Superhero Roles, ‘Twisters’ & More [Bingeworthy Podcast] at The Playlist.

If you were trying to set a land speed record for how fast you could shoot a film and put it in theaters, filmmakers James Mangold and Jason Reitman (“Young Adult,” “Up In The Air”) would be vying for that title this year. Both shot their respective movies, “A Complete Unknown” and “Saturday Night,” in March of this year and both films are coming out this year.

Continue reading ‘Saturday Night’ Trailer: Jason Reitman’s SNL “Thriller Comedy” Goes Live In October at The Playlist.

A murder mystery involving sheep detectives? It may end up one of Amazon MGM‘s biggest hits in 2026. Deadline reports that the studio has their cast lined for up “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie,” a live-action comedy helmed by “Minions” vet Kyle Balda. And this cast is a whopper, so don’t be surprised if this one ends up as popular as a “Knives Out” mystery.

Continue reading ‘Three Bags Full’: Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, Nicholaus Braun, Nicholas Galitzine & More In Amazon MGM’s Sheep Detective Movie at The Playlist.

Well, it’s arrived: after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Susanna Fogel‘s “Cat Person” arrives in theaters in October. Not sure what all the fuss over “Cat Person” is about? Here’s the short version: Kristen Roupenian‘s short story of the same name was published in The New Yorker in 2017, causing an immediate sensation.  

READ MORE: ‘Cat Person’ Review: Emilia Jones And Nicholas Braun Shine In Gripping, Uneven Adaptation Of Viral Sensation [Sundance]

With a story so viral it needs to be into a film, right?

Continue reading ‘Cat Person’ Trailer: Susanna Fogel’s Genre-Bending Movie About Modern Relationships Hits Theaters On October 6. at The Playlist.

How does a show as complex as “Succession” end? A better question to start with might be, why is creator Jesse Armstrong bringing in his Emmy juggernaut for a landing when it seems to be at the peak of its cultural and critical popularity? At the start of the fourth and now final season, it seems easy to answer that part of the dynamic in that it does feel like the drama between Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his children could start to get repetitive.

Continue reading ‘Succession’ Review: HBO’s Flagship Drama Returns For Brutal, Unforgettable Final Chapter at The Playlist.

Margaret Atwood said it best: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” This age-old discrepancy in the way the two genders experience the world is written both at the initial frame and very heart of Susanna Fogel’s mercurial “Cat Person,” a fiendishly playful relationship-gone-bad quasi-thriller with a sense of humor about its own unknowability. The two parties (who are barely in a relationship) are a beautiful, inquisitive 20-year-old college student testing the limits of her own sexual powers and a painfully average thirtysomething guy dying to impress her via clueless means.

Continue reading ‘Cat Person’ Review: Emilia Jones And Nicholas Braun Shine In Gripping, Uneven Adaptation Of Viral Sensation [Sundance] at The Playlist.

It often feels like none of the characters in Jesse Armstrong’s “Succession“ have a shred of decency in them. Whether they are members of the Roy family or executives maneuvering to survive mergers and power struggles, there are few characters on the program who are looking out for anyone but themselves. And while cousin Greg, played by Nicholas Braun, certainly is looking to climb the company ladder, Braun is quick to remind anyone who questions Greg’s motivations that he’s “on the side of morality on the show.”

READ MORE: “Succession”: Matthew Macfadyen on Tom’s “Betrayal by a thousand cuts” [Interview]

In the third season, Greg finds himself in the middle of a game for control of the company between Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong).

Continue reading ‘Succession’: Nicholas Braun On Greg’s Turn To The Dark Side [Interview] at The Playlist.

By now, the odds are you have read the New Yorker short story “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenia. “Cat Person” was the year’s most downloaded fiction published in The New Yorker, and one of the most widely read pieces overall of 2017. The story follows the brief relationship between a young twenty-year-old female sophomore college student and an older man who is a regular at the movie theater where Margot works.  The BBC described the short story as “being shared widely online as social media users discuss how much it relates to modern-day dating.” The true hook of it all that makes the basic plotline more intriguing than it sounds?

Continue reading ‘Cat Person’: Full Cast Includes Geraldine Viswanathan, Michael Gandolfini, Hope Davis & More at The Playlist.

HBO’s “Succession” finally returns this month, over a year after it won the Emmy for Best Drama (along with Writing, Directing, and Best Actor). Concerns that the pandemic-delayed shooting would impact the show’s momentum are abated within minutes of the season premiere. Logan Roy wouldn’t waste time getting to the meat of the discussion in a review so what’s important to state up front here is that “Succession” is as smart, witty, funny, and riveting as it’s ever been.

Continue reading ‘Succession’ Season Three: Well-Crafted Characters Are The Beating-Heart & Creatives Ooze Confidence [Review] at The Playlist.

A little under a year after it was originally expected to return, “Succession” is back for its third season. The 2020 Emmy winner for Best Drama wrangled COVID and the fight over the Roy family legacy will finally continue. Jesse Armstrong’s creation was already a breakout hit after its second season, which aired in 2019, but during the pandemic, an even larger audience caught up on the series. And that begs the question, is there more pressure on Armstrong and his writing team to follow up season two’s shocking cliffhanger than before?

Continue reading ‘Succession’: Creator Jesse Armstrong Doesn’t Feel Pressured To “Amp It Up” In Season 3 [TCA] at The Playlist.

“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” On this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we spoke with writer, director (and actor) Janicza Bravo, who directed and co-wrote A24‘s Sundance-acclaimed indie “Zola.” Delayed by a year because of the pandemic (which the filmmaker addresses in heartbreaking detail), “Zola” finally came out earlier this summer, and now, the film arrives on DVD and Blu-ray (plus Digital) today, August 14.

Continue reading Janicza Bravo Talks ‘Zola,’ Charming Villains, The “PR Of Whiteness” & More [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

Did we ever envision a day when a whole-ass Twitter thread would become a movie? Well, it happened alright; an epic story by A’Ziah King, aka ZOLA, told on Twitter (since deleted) became “Zola.” The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 to major acclaim. Directed by Janicza Bravo (“Atlanta,” “Lemon“) and starring Taylour Paige and Riley Keough, “Zola” is about Aa stripper named Zola who embarks on a wild road trip to Florida.

Continue reading ‘Zola’ Trailer: Riley Keough & Taylour Paige Are The Messy B*tches From An Epic Twitter Thread at The Playlist.

It’s been a big week for “Succession” fans. First, the HBO series landed several Emmy nominations, including acting nods for most of the core cast, including breakout star Nicholas Braun, who plays fan-favorite Cousin Greg. But perhaps the biggest and most surprising news of the week is Braun dropping a charity track about love under quarantine, and the fact that it is an absolute banger.

READ MORE: Emmys 2020 Nominee Reactions: Jeremy Strong, Meryl Streep, Billy Porter, Taika Waititi & More

Braun released a music video for his new, original pop-punk anthem for quarantine dating “Antibodies (Do You Have the).” The song was made in collaboration with fans after Braun put out a call on Instagram for brainstorming interpretations of the song’s chorus.

Continue reading ‘Succession’ Star Nicholas Braun Made A Song About Quarantine Dating And It’s Perfect at The Playlist.

In a cast full of unsung heroes there might not be one more important to the tone of HBO’s “Succession” than Nicholas Braun. His character, Greg Hirsch (aka Cousin Greg), is the outsider trying to fit in among his ravenous billionaire relatives, the Roys. And without Braun delivering to the audience someone charmingly naive and, dare we say it, well-intentioned, the formula for Jesse Armstrong‘s Peabody-winning hit might fall like a house of cards.

Continue reading ‘Succession’s’ Nicholas Braun Reminds Us Of The Quiet Genius Of Cousin Greg [Podcast] at The Playlist.

When a first-time director begins their film with a series of beautifully composed shots of Manhattan, juxtaposed against a backdrop of simple piano notes, one cannot escape an undesirable comparison to Woody Allen. And when you cast yourself as the cynical, yet charming, lead character who garrulously waxes about believing in God once, the similarity grows even more noticeable. So, while Michael Angarano’s supple debut feature, “Avenues,” certainly is heavily indebted to the spirit romantic/comedic of Woody Allen (minus the icky problematic-ness), the movie aspires to be much more than just tribute; subtly unfurling itself as a Richard Linklater/’Before’-style bromance, not just another film about a self-involved, desperate chatterbox who’d like to get laid when he goes out for his birthday celebration later that night.

Continue reading ‘Avenues’: Michael Angarano’s Directorial Debut Is A Promising Effort About The Jokes We Use To Mask Grief [Review] at The Playlist.

Actor Michael Angarano may be only 31 years old, but he’s pretty much a veteran of the movie industry by now and has worked a list of terrific filmmakers. Angarano started as a child actor in the late 90s and played the 11-year-old version of the protagonist in Cameron Crowe‘s semi-autobiographical film “Almost Famous” in 2000 (Before that he was one of the finalists for the role of young Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace“).

Continue reading ‘Avenues’ Trailer: Michael Angarano’s Directorial Debut Follows Friends That Meet In An Off-Chance Encounter at The Playlist.

Writer Jesse Armstrong (“Peep Show”, “The Thick of It”) returns to TV with the HBO series “Succession.” The series, produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, will track the lives of the Roy family, successful owners of one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world, as the patriarch decides to retain power, throwing everyone into disarray.

Continue reading ‘Succession’ Trailer: HBO’s New Drama Fights For Corporate Power at The Playlist.

Coming-of-age films, especially those about transitioning from the goldfish bowl of high school to the unchecked freedom of college, are a genre unto themselves. Some of the best, such as Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” and James Pondsolt’s “The Spectacular Now,” capture the bittersweet evolution of young life, frozen in a moment of time. Chris McCoy’s “Good Kids,” examines this specific point of change by following the misadventures a group of straight-and-narrow teens who decide to cram four years worth of partying, sex and drugs into one summer before heading off to college.

Continue reading ‘Good Kids’ Is An Uneven Coming-Of-Age Film About The Joy Of Having One Last Hurrah [Review] at The Playlist.

Party With 'Everybody Wants Some!!' Star Zoey Deutch In NSFW Trailer For 'Good Kids'

Continue reading Party With ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Star Zoey Deutch In NSFW Trailer For ‘Good Kids’ at The Playlist.

Continue reading Watch: First Trailer For ‘Get A Job’ With Anna Kendrick, Miles Teller, Alison Brie, Bryan Cranston, And Many More at The Playlist.

Watch: Dakota Johnson Learns 'How To Be Single' In New Trailer With Rebel Wilson, Alison Brie, Leslie Mann & More

Continue reading Watch: Dakota Johnson Learns ‘How To Be Single’ In New Trailer With Rebel Wilson, Alison Brie, Leslie Mann & More at The Playlist.

They're Here: Watch The First Trailer For The 'Poltergeist' Remake With Sam Rockwell & Rosemarie DeWitt

Continue reading They’re Here: Watch The First Trailer For The ‘Poltergeist’ Remake With Sam Rockwell & Rosemarie DeWitt at The Playlist.

Watch: 19-Minute Short Film 'In A Relationship' With 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Star Dakota Johnson & Nicholas Braun

Continue reading Watch: 19-Minute Short Film ‘In A Relationship’ With ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Star Dakota Johnson & Nicholas Braun at The Playlist.

Continue reading John Cusack Takes A ‘Kickback,’ Anton Yelchin & Dakota Johnson Go Shakespeare & More at The Playlist.

'Breathe In' Star Mackenzie Davis Joins Monster Movie 'Kitchen Sink' Along With Nicholas Braun

Continue reading ‘Breathe In’ Star Mackenzie Davis Joins Monster Movie ‘Kitchen Sink’ Along With Nicholas Braun at The Playlist.