On paper, Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round” and Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks” don’t share a lot of similarities. You have Vinterberg’s film showing the downward spiral of a group of teachers that test the limits of drunkenness and then Coppola’s feature showing a rather dysfunctional father/daughter relationship. But really, when push comes to shove, these films are both about family. And drinking. But mostly family.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola & Thomas Vinterberg Talk ‘Another Round,’ ‘On The Rocks’ & Family Dramas [Exclusive] at The Playlist.

In spite of the general state of the world, 2020 ended up being a pretty great year for films – expectations for long-awaited auteur projects that were supposed to come out this year obviously being exempt from that conversation – and what’s more, it was a great year for film scores and soundtracks.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020

All of the films featured on this list are films that have drastically less of an impact without music, and there is a wide, rather dizzying array of talent here: seasoned professionals who’ve been doing this a long while, young up-and-comers who are interested in muddying the definition of what a traditional movie soundtrack is supposed to sound like, plus that dude from Phoenix writing new music for his wife’s movie (which is really just another way of saying if you haven’t checked out the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s “On The Rocks” yet, do so immediately). 

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

At times, 2020 seemed like it had made time for every obscure musical subgenre under the sun: dancehall (“Lover’s Rock”), noise-metal (“Sound of Metal”), reggaeton (“Ema”), and Baltimore hip-hop (“Charm City Kings”).

Continue reading The 20 Best Soundtracks & Scores Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Not to exclude stellar photography all the world over, but there’s a common theme here in The Playlist’s picks for Best Cinematography ‘20: America. The year is littered with movies about the red, white, and blue in one form or another, to one extent or another, movies that capture either a period of time, or an enduring ethos, or tall tales and B.S. we tell ourselves as citizens of the self-styled greatest country in the world.

Continue reading The Best Cinematography Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Apple TV+ is entering the first major awards season of its young life. Sure, last year, the fledgling streaming service was around during the big Oscars push, but the service didn’t necessarily have any features that were arriving that could be in the regular awards conversation. This year, that has changed, in a big way, thanks to the new comedy film, “On the Rocks,” from filmmaker Sofia Coppola. 

Continue reading ‘On The Rocks’ Exclusive: Sofia Coppola & The Cast Talk Having Larger Than Life Dads In A New Featurette at The Playlist.

To some degree, it’s become too easy to criticize Sofia Coppola. She’s the daughter of Hollywood royalty, she makes movies about an extremely narrow and generally well-to-do portion of society, and over the course of her career, she’s rubbed shoulders with some of the coolest people you’ve ever heard of. While we are in no way endorsing or even saying that we understand some people’s distaste for Coppola or her films – more on that in a moment – we are attempting to acknowledge the reasons why these folks might have felt comfortable to a fault when unfairly dismissing her work in years past.

Continue reading The Essentials: The Films Of Sofia Coppola at The Playlist.

Festival season continues to ebb and flow with the AFI Festival hitting in just a few weeks, making for the discourse around film to stray from the persistent doom and gloom of all of the rescheduling and push backs of previously scheduled releases for theaters.

READ MORE: Cineworld CEO Blames NY Governor’s “Inflexibility” For Causing Company To Shut Down US & UK Theaters Again

Theaters are in a precarious position right now, evidenced by a letter written to congress from filmmakers urging them to save cinemas, as well as the news that Cineworld is shutting down its theaters in the US and UK once again due to lack of business.

Continue reading 10 Movies To See In October: ‘On The Rocks,’ ‘Possessor,’ Chicago 7′ & More at The Playlist.

Men are incorrigible Lothario scoundrels, motherhood is full of loneliness and self-doubt, and complicated father/daughter relationships are constantly tested in Sofia Coppola’s “On The Rocks,” her latest dramedy, an effervescent, charming, and soulful affair. It’s a mature, economical effort that harkens back to some of the wistful, warm, airy feelings of “Lost In Translation,” but revisits some of the surrogate father/daughter, mentor/protégé ideas of that film with more grown-up sensibilities and concerns.

Continue reading ‘On The Rocks’: Sofia Coppola & Bill Murray Charm With A Sparkling, But Soulful Father/Daughter Dramedy [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Despite studios moving films such as Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake out of the calendar year and questions about whether some films will actually hit theaters, there are still new Oscar contenders being revealed for critics and AMPAS members alike. Over the past 48 hours, Netflix virtually screened Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” for select media, and A24 and Apple debuted Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks” at the 2020 New York Film Festival.

Continue reading Awards Season Verdicts: ‘The Trial Of The Chicago 7’ & ‘On The Rocks’ at The Playlist.

As we’ve mentioned ad nauseum this fall, cinema is different this year and so are film festivals. While the pandemic knocked Cannes, Telluride, and SXSW out of action, festivals with the benefit of more time have worked extremely hard to find a way to pull off a virtual film festival with drive-in screenings. Chief among them and so far, the only major American film festival to pull it off, the New York Film Festival, has done a remarkable job of pulling their festival together, using both virtual screenings, that expand all over North America and not just New York, and drive-in screenings around the five boroughs.

Continue reading NYFF 2020: 12 Most Anticipated Films You Need See at The Playlist.

Yep, festival season is a little weird this year, but if the currently-ongoing Venice Film Festival and just-started Toronto International Film Festival are any indication, the 58th New York Film Festival is going to be just as good, albeit enjoyed from a safe distance. The festival has a terrific line-up that includes movies from Steve McQueen (three films from his “Small Axe” anthology, Chloe Zhao‘s “Nomadland” starring Frances McDormand, “David Byrne’s American Utopia” from director Spike Lee, “The Human Voice” from Pedro Almodóvar, Orson Welles’ doc “Hopper/Welles,” “On the Rocks” from Sofia Coppola,” and so much more.

Continue reading NYFF 2020 Trailer Teases Looks At Steve McQueen’s ‘Small Axe,’ Sofia Coppola’s ‘On The Rocks’ & More at The Playlist.

In light of the slew of canceled film festivals in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s New York Film Festival is hoping to pull out all the stops and become the premier film event in the US. And as a way of showing what that means, the NYFF organizers announced the Spotlight section for this year’s fest.

READ MORE: ‘The Human Voice’ Clip: Tilda Swinton Stars In Pedro Almódovar’s Venice-Bound Short

NYFF describes the Spotlight section as a showcase of sneak previews, gala events, screenings with live elements, and other special evenings.

Continue reading NYFF 2020 Spotlight Section Includes New Films From Spike Lee, Pedro Almodóvar, Orson Welles & More at The Playlist.

COVID-19 is over! Movies are back! And everything is… safe? Hardly. It’s been a weird 2020.5 (an adjunct year that started in March) and it’s been going on for about 2.5 years so far. Sundance and Berlin in the 1st half of 2020 were definitely a few years ago and the new normal is so normal… it’s ok to go back to theaters? We’re as dubious, nervous and hesitant as you. In fact, we’d given up on doing most kinds of film festival previews this year—we threw any ideas of a summer film preview out the window given that the summer schedule kept constantly changing and any predictions about reopening theaters turned out to be as premature and overly optimistic as we all thought.

Continue reading 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch at The Playlist.

Sofia Coppola likes her collaborations and collaborators. It’s been a minute since her first proper feature-length narrative film, 2017’s “The Beguiled,” but the filmmaker is back with a story that includes familiar friends. “On The Rocks,” her latest dramedy stars Bill Murray, the actor who scored his first Oscar nomination for her 2003 film, “Lost In Translation.” The film also stars Rashida Jones, who also worked with Coppola on 2015’s variety/musical/comedy Netflix special, “A Very Murray Christmas,” which obviously featured Bill Murray too.

Continue reading ‘On The Rocks’ Trailer: Sofia Coppola Reunites With Bill Murray & Rashida Jones at The Playlist.

Even almost two decades after the film’s debut, “Lost in Translation” still ranks as one of the best films in both the careers of Sofia Coppola and actor Bill Murray. And now, the duo is teaming up yet again for the upcoming dramedy, “On the Rocks,” but instead of Scarlett Johansson playing opposite Murray, there’s Rashida Jones.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola Says Rashida Jones Helped Workshop ‘Lost In Translation’ Script, Playing Scarlett Johansson’s Role at The Playlist.

With a number of feature films being delayed into 2021, there are fewer and fewer exciting features arriving this fall, whether it be on the big screen or streaming. However, one of the most anticipated titles that is still going to grace us in 2020 is none other than “On the Rocks,” from filmmaker Sofia Coppola and starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones. And now, we have new photos from the film, giving us a hint at what we might expect this October.

Continue reading ‘On The Rocks’: Sofia Coppola Reveals Photos & Details About Her “Sophisticated Comedy” From Apple & A24 at The Playlist.

Perhaps even more important than actually screening your film at the Cannes Film Festival (which is a great honor and pretty damn important itself) is the badge given to filmmakers to add to marketing materials calling your feature an “Official Cannes Selection.” Well, the French film festival understands this and is planning on unveiling its 2020 selections in a week. But before that, according to Variety, we know some of the films that are expected to be given the selection badge.

Continue reading Cannes 2020: Films From Wes Anderson, Thomas Vinterberg, Sofia Coppola & More Expected To Be Among Official Selections at The Playlist.

While the world continues to deal with the chaos stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still plenty of things in the realm of film to be excited about, including the upcoming project from Sofia Coppola, titled “On the Rocks.” And in a new interview with 92Y and Annette Insdorf (via IndieWire), the filmmaker finally sheds some light on her upcoming project, and what roles the stars Bill Murray and Rashida Jones play.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola Details Her New Bill Murray Film ‘On The Rocks’ & Teaming With A Streaming Service at The Playlist.

Academy snubs be damned, 2019 was a spectacular end to a decade of outstanding films directed by women. Joanna Hogg reinvented visual memoir with “The Souvenir,” Lulu Wang challenged American conceptions of family and death in “The Farewell,” and Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” adaptation upended one of the most iconic American novels by and about a woman.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2020 at The Playlist.

You like movies, we like movies, right? Yes, we know you’re trying to wind down the year, think about the best of 2019, the best of the decade and whatnot, but we also like to look ahead. Every year, we put together our 100 Most Anticipated Films of the Year list and we’ve done the same once again for 2020.

READ MORE: The 100 Best Films Of The Decade [2010s] 

It will be another big year, and yes, lots of tentpoles and superhero films, blockbusters, and whatnot, but for us, there’s much more to look forward to than just the next Marvel thing (though, hell, we usually enjoy those too).

Continue reading 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Apple is set to launch its streaming service Apple TV+ in November. But before the service goes live, the tech company is hoping to solve one of the major issues that has affected Netflix over the last year — theatrical release.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is already meeting with theater chains and seeking help from the former IMAX head of entertainment, Greg Foster, in an effort to make sure that the tech company is seen as an ally for theaters and not an adversary, a la Netflix.

Continue reading Apple Is Planning Full Theatrical Runs For Certain Original Films Including Sofia Coppola’s ‘On The Rocks’ at The Playlist.

Back a few months ago, it was revealed that the duo of Bill Murray and filmmaker Sofia Coppola were going to reteam for a new film, the first in the partnerships between Apple and A24, titled “On the Rocks.” Since then, we haven’t really heard anything about the film, except for the fact that Coppola appeared in a teaser video unveiled during Apple’s recent press conference where the tech company announced it’s content-making plans.

Continue reading Marlon Wayans Joins Sofia Coppola’s Apple/A24 Film ‘On The Rocks’ Opposite Bill Murray at The Playlist.

Film fans had to wait four long years, between the releases of “The Bling Ring” and “The Beguiled,” for more Sofia Coppola goodness. But it appears it won’t take her that long to come back with her latest film, and she’s bringing one of her favorite collaborators along for the journey.

According to The Wrap, Coppola has agreed to write and direct her next film “On the Rocks” for A24 and Apple.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola Teams With Bill Murray & Rashida Jones For First Film In The A24/Apple Partnership at The Playlist.