What will bring the “The Umbrella Academy” together for one last fight? The villains are familiar and strange in this final season of Netflix’s popular series. The Hargreeves siblings may be far away from one another but forces are conspiring to bring about an unavoidable reunion. The project comes from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s Dark Horse comic book series. Both are co-executive producers on this live-action adaptation.

Continue reading ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 4 Trailer: Netflix’s Superhero Series Comes To An End In August at The Playlist.

Look, let’s be honest. From the opening seconds of its debut trailer, we all knew that Alex Garland’s “Civil War” would not be a pill that went down easily. Garland may have built his career around challenging visions of the future, but a film about a second American Civil War—in an election year, no less—is the kind of thing that gives even professional discourse writers a headache. 

So, if it helps, I have both good news and bad news.

Continue reading ‘Civil War’ Review: Alex Garland’s Latest Is Both Unforgettable & Challenging As Hell [SXSW] at The Playlist.

Lots of excellent movies premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year, like “Poor Things,” “Maestro,” and “Priscilla.” But while those films already have awards buzz swirling around them, don’t forget about Ava DuVernay’s “Origin,” a complex drama about a journalist grappling with tremendous tragedies in her life and the global journey she embarks on.

Continue reading ‘Origin’ Trailer: Ava DuVernay’s Acclaimed Drama With Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Starts Expanding January 19 at The Playlist.

Can one man save Christmas? Chris Carver will do anything to make the holiday memorable in “Candy Cane Lane.” The Prime Video film offers a light-hearted spin on the usual seasonal madness, with families competing for the best decorations. Carver is willing to make a deal with an elf this time that could spell trouble for the entire town. ‘Candy Cane’ comes from a script by Kelly Younger — whose previous credits include “Muppets Haunted Mansion.” Acclaimed director and producer Reginald Hudlin helms the project, his first since 2022’s “Sidney.”

READ MORE: Eddie Murphy: The Essential Performances

Comedy legend Eddie Murphy heads up the cast, including Tracee Ellis Ross as his wife, Carol.

Continue reading ‘Candy Cane Lane’ Trailer: Eddie Murphy Tries To Save Christmas This December at The Playlist.

Can holiday decorating go too far? Eddie Murphy stars in his first holiday-themed film, “Candy Cane Lane.” The project sees Murphy portray a father going overboard to win a neighborhood contest: what he doesn’t count on is an elf intent on causing trouble. Together, they set in motion events that will push the entire town into chaos. ‘Candy Cane’ represents a long overdue reunion between Murphy and the “Boomerang” team of director Reginald Hudlin and producer Brian Grazer.

Continue reading ‘Candy Cane Lane’ Trailer: Eddie Murphy’s First Christmas Film Arrives In December On Prime Video at The Playlist.

When Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) first conceived of the multifaceted premise that would eventually become the lauded non-fiction book “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents,” her editors were concerned about whether she would manage to cohesively merge her personal experiences with all the moving parts of her research across cultures and continents to prove that it all interconnects.  

Venice Film Festival 2023: The 17 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch

That’s in turn the same task that writer-director Ava DuVernay faced to convey the big-picture ideas and Wilkerson’s revelatory odyssey to put them on the page in an enticingly cinematic manner.

Continue reading ‘Origin’ Review: Ava DuVernay Adapts Isabel Wilkerson’ ‘Caste’ With Dazzling Inventiveness [Venice] at The Playlist.

Ava DuVernay‘s “Caste” has been shooting in Savannah, GA for weeks without any casting news save for “King Richard” star Aunjanue Ellis leading the cast. But now Deadline has the scoop on who joins Ellis for the upcoming film, and it’s an intriguing list.  Niecy Nash-Betts, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Connie Nielson are all on board for DuVernay’s race drama.

Continue reading ‘Caste’: Ava Duvernay’s Upcoming Racial Drama Adds Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman & More To Cast at The Playlist.

Call it the COVID effect: 2022 has been a year of directors returning to their past and reinterrogating it. Alongside prominent works of autofiction like James Gray’s “Armageddon Time” or Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” there’s a less conventional but no less revelatory work that also emerged this year: Mark Pellington’s “Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit.” Note the semantics of the title. Pellington doesn’t provide a director’s cut here, with him simply making a few tweaks to present a slightly altered version of what audiences first saw.

Continue reading Mark Pellington on Creating a New, Old Ben Affleck Movie with ‘Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

Whether it’s Netflix‘s “The Witcher” or Paramount+‘s “Halo,” it’s safe to say there’s a renaissance going on for videogame adaptations on TV and streaming. If two doesn’t cut it, well, another one is on the way soon: HBO‘s take on the hit game “The Last Of Us.” 

READ MORE: HBO First Look: Teaser Footage Of ‘The Last Of Us,’ ‘Succession’ S4, ‘White Lotus’ Season 2 & Many More

Based on Naughty Dog‘s 2013 videogame of the same name, the new series follows Pedro Pascal as Joel, a survivor in the post-apocalyptic US tasked with smuggling a young girl across the country.

Continue reading ‘The Last Of Us’ Trailer: Pedro Pascal Stars In New HBO Show Based On Acclaimed Video Game at The Playlist.

Take the location of last summer’s hit “The White Lotus,” the let’s-solve-a-mystery comedy structure of “Only Murders in the Building,” some of the underlying foundation of “Search Party,” and toss in a dose of “The Twilight Zone,” and you have the TV recipe for Peacock’s ambitious new comedy “The Resort.” It’s a quirky show that falls a little bit into the shadow of its inspirations and the brisk nature of its season, but its ace ensemble manages to keep it consistently entertaining.

Continue reading ‘The Resort’ TV Review: Great Cast Holds Together Trippy Thriller-Comedy at The Playlist.

The 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards wonderfully returned to an in-person event on Sunday. That was the good news. The not-so-great news, and the elephant in the room, was that it wasn’t the finest three hours for first-time hosts Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. This was somewhat unexpected, because, unlike the Oscars, Emmys, or Golden Globes, the Spirits have a very long track record of strong host performances. In fact, the last time the Spirits had this weak of an emcee was when Seth Rogen hosted a decade ago and even that wasn’t a major misfire (it was more disappointing than anything else).

Continue reading 7 Takeaways From The 2022 Spirit Awards at The Playlist.

As the SAG Awards demonstrated on Sunday, in-person awards telecasts are “really” back. For anyone looking for a distraction from real-world horrors, award season is in full swing. There are a number of ceremonies this upcoming weekend, but the highlight will be the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards hosted by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman.

READ MORE: “Zola” rules the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards nominations

Speaking to The Playlist last week, Offerman, who has been married to Mullally since 2003, seemed genuinely excited about the gig noting, “The thing I love is overall, it’s just occurring to me that our two [hosted] shows so far are the Sundance Awards and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, because in the film world, [I associate] those with the cool kids that sit in the back of the bus.

Continue reading Nick Offerman: Hosting The 2022 Spirit Awards Is Hanging With The Cool Kids [Interview] at The Playlist.

The Oscars still haven’t announced their host (or hosts), but the Spirit Awards are all set. Film Independent’s venerable showcase is returning to the beach and to two new hosts. This year, Megan Mullaney and Nick Offerman will emcee the annual Santa Monica beach event.

READ MORE: “Zola” leads the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards nominations [Complete List]

In a statement, Mullally and Offerman remarked, “We are sincerely excited to be hosting the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Continue reading Megan Mullally & Nick Offerman Hosting 2022 Independent Spirit Awards at The Playlist.

Much as he did for the story of Tonya Harding in his Oscar-winning “I, Tonya,” Craig Gillespie attempts to add new chapters to a story that people think they know with the 8-part series “Pam & Tommy.” Once again, a persuasive argument is made that history has recorded the wrong narrative, especially when it comes to a woman in the spotlight who was turned into a punchline after her privacy was invaded.

Continue reading ‘Pam & Tommy’ Review: Lily James & Sebastian Stan Help Expose The Notorious Celeb Sex Tape Scandal at The Playlist.

When it was announced a little less than a year ago that Sebastian Stan and Lily James were cast as the leads in a new series about Tommy Lee and Pam Anderson, people were shocked. But when the teaser image was released and it was clear both actors fit those roles perfectly, the excitement for “Pam & Tommy” grew. Now, with the first teaser trailer, it’s clear Hulu could have something special coming in February.

Continue reading ‘Pam & Tommy’ Teaser: Sebastian Stan & Lily James Are The Leads In Hulu’s Upcoming Scandalous Series at The Playlist.

Co-created by Ava DuVernay and former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — who silently took a knee during the US national anthem in 2016 in protest of the racial inequality and indiscriminate killing of Black Americans by police — “Colin in Black and White,” the limited docudrama series from Netflix, follows its subject as he looks back on his formative years as an adopted, biracial high school and college athlete with his eyes set on becoming a professional quarterback.

Continue reading ‘Colin in Black and White’: Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick’s Series Simmers With Promise [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Since its inception five years ago, Guillermo del Toro‘s fantasy series “Tales Of Arcadia” has grown into a franchise behemoth for Dreamworks Animation. Its three different shows on Netflix have earned countless Daytime Emmy, BAFTA, and Annie Award nominations. The critical success has spawned a series of YA novels, two comics, and a videogame. That’s not too shabby for a project that started as a book del Toro and Daniel Kraus collaborated on in 2015 in hopes that a studio would greenlight it as a series.

Continue reading ‘Trollhunters: Rise Of The Titans’ Trailer: The ‘Tales Of Arcadia’ Saga Comes To An End On July 21 at The Playlist.

With everyone stuck and home, with fewer new TV and film releases than before, we could all use a good laugh. So right on time comes NBC, uploading the delightful and heartwarming half-hour “Parks and Recreation” reunion for free on YouTube so you can laugh at Jean Ralphio, cry over Li’l Sebastian and revisit the greatest fictional town in Indiana.

READ MORE: TV Execs Warn That Love Scenes & Close-Contact Fight Scenes Will have To Be “Reimagined” When Production Begins Again

The special was written and shot specifically to accommodate the current quarantine.

Continue reading NBC Gives Us All A Much-Needed Laugh During Quarantine And Puts The Entire ‘A Parks and Recreation Special’ On YouTube at The Playlist.

Hear me out. FX‘s “Devs” brings both Nietzsche and Goethe to mind (stay with me). The polymath and poet behind Elective Affinities once famously wrote, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Goethe, who interrogated human concerns through the lens of science, was speaking to brain chemistry behind passion and romance (still here?), but clearly free will and determinism are pointedly addressed.

Continue reading ‘Devs’: Alex Garland Examines False Techno Prophets Via A Stunning Astral Algorithmic Intelligence [Review] at The Playlist.

When it comes to sci-fi films and technology, Alex Garland is no stranger to the topic, especially in his films. Now he is taking on TV with his brand new series, “Devs.”  After the critical success of the films “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation,” Garland has written and directed all eight episodes of what is one of our most-anticipated shows of 2020.

Continue reading ‘Devs’ Trailer: Alex Garland Directs FX’s High-Tech Sci-Fi Thriller With Nick Offerman, Sonoya Mizuna & More at The Playlist.

Here’s to Alex Garland, a writer who has made his career out of a straightforward question: “What the future, but bad and scary?” From his early work on titles like “Sunshine” and “Never Let Me Go” to his current directorial work that has cemented his status as a Hollywood visionary (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation“), Garland has emerged as one of the most exciting voices in the realm of science-fiction.

Continue reading ‘Devs’ Teaser: Alex Garland’s New Television Series Is Giving Us Some Serious ‘Ex Machina’ Vibes at The Playlist.

Where you are, and when you are, make you who you are, in Drew Goddard‘s deliriously over-designed, entertainingly inventive, surprisingly sprawling “Bad Times at the El Royale” which has its fixation with location and period right there in the title. The place is the El Royale — a bifurcated motel half in California, half in Nevada with a divider line running down the middle of the cavernous lobby.

Continue reading ‘Bad Times At The El Royale’ Is A Tasty Genre Mashup Throwback [San Sebastian Review] at The Playlist.

While it’s true that Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Apple seem to be snatching up all the big-name talent for their television ventures, FX is out there making moves as well. And today, we found out that one of their biggest moves to date is their partnership with acclaimed filmmaker Alex Garland on the new series “Devs.”

Garland has discussed his upcoming sci-fi/thriller series previously, but today FX has announced that they are moving forward on “Devs” and will premiere all eight episodes in 2019.

Continue reading FX Announces Series Order For Alex Garland’s Sci-Fi Conspiracy Thriller ‘Devs’ Starring Nick Offerman at The Playlist.

Remember when TV networks would come up with interesting, original sitcoms and dramas every fall for viewers to potentially fall in love with? Those were the good ol’ days!

Now, we just wait for the latest revival, remake, reboot, sequel, or all of the above to grace our TV screens (or iPads). “Roseanne,” “Will & Grace,” “X-Files,” and many more have been revived for primetime.

Continue reading Amy Poehler Says “We’ll All Do It” When Asked About ‘Parks And Rec’ Revival at The Playlist.

Based on Peter Bognanni’s novel, “The House of Tomorrow,” starring Alex Wolff, Asa Butterfield, and Nick Offerman, follows brilliant but sheltered 16-year-old Sebastian (Butterfield) as he attempts to liberate the renegade dwelling within himself under the tutelage of the angst-driven Jared (Wolff). While dissimilar in personality, the two leads are perfectly cast as outliers to society. As their performances infuse unexpected charisma into a rather simple coming-of-age storyline, “The House of Tomorrow” amuses and keeps viewers engaged despite its formulaic presentation.

Continue reading ‘The House of Tomorrow’ Is A Charming Coming-Of-Age Tale About A Futurist And A Punk [Review] at The Playlist.