Following the suggestion of filmmaker Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson has gone to Letterboxd to share a list of some of his favorite films. However, unlike Wright, who shared comedies, Johnson is sharing his favorite musicals of the ‘70s.

READ MORE: Edgar Wright Reveals His 100 Favorite Comedies, For Your Self-Quarantine Enjoyment

The “Knives Out” director prefaced his list of 10 musicals from the 1970s with a simple introduction:

“When you think of the movie musical, the 1970s are not the first decade that comes to mind.

Continue reading Rian Johnson Presents His 10 Favorite ’70s Musicals Including ‘Sgt. Pepper’s,’ ‘Cabaret’ & More at The Playlist.

The days of teenage rebellion are alive and well in Augustine Frizzell‘s writing and directorial debut “Never Goin’ Back.” It feels like the filmmaker came out of nowhere. But Frizzell has been working in the industry for a while now. Frizzell’s work has been comprised of small roles in feature films including “A Ghost Story” and “Pete’s Dragon.” Here, we have a movie that is nothing like those she’s been in before.

Continue reading ‘Never Goin’ Back’ Trailer: Two Rebellious Girls Raise Money And Hell In New A24 Film at The Playlist.

Welcome back to Part Two of our Over/Under Movies year-end extravaganza. Last week, we took our overrated films of 2016 down a peg or two, but this week we return to positivity as we each suggest five different films that might have flown under your radar in 2016.

READ MORE: Podcast: Over/Under Movies Discuss The Most Overrated Movies Of 2016

I’m joined by my co-host Oktay Ege Kozak (Erik McClanahan is out again this week) as we discuss family films, foreign-language films, dark comedies, and more that we feel didn’t get as much love as they should have this year.

Continue reading Podcast: Over/Under Movies Discuss The Most Underrated Movies Of 2016 at The Playlist.

We compiled an aggregated Playlist Best Films Of 2015 which you can find here. However, regular contributors were also given the chance to submit personal lists.

I think we can all agree that 2016 has been a dumpster fire on top of a pile of burning kittens and puppies kind of a year. We lost some of the greatest artists and immeasurably important pop culture icons, and got rewarded with a last minute kick in the nuts after one of the ugliest and enraging election campaigns the U.S.

Continue reading Oktay Ege Kozak’s Top 10 Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

There’s an old saying at the Playlist Mansion: you do not truly know a person until you’ve asked them to chose the one film they feel was most overrated and the one they feel was most underrated in any given year. It’s not very catchy. But it is a credo with a surprising amount of wisdom in it, as well as the welcome potential for our beloved, esteemed and generally faultless contributors to make complete public fools of themselves.

Continue reading The Most Overrated & Underrated Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

It’s been something of a mixed year for movies in some ways — a fairly sparse first half of the year, including the worst blockbuster season in living memory, followed by an absolutely rammed fall season that, even more than most, has seen a wealth of pleasures in movie theaters. But one thing for sure is that it’s been a really great year for music and the movies (and yes, .)

READ MORE: 11-Minute Video Essay Listens To The Power Of A Film’s Score

Perhaps appropriately for a year where a musical looks to be the Oscar front-runner, we’ve had all kinds of wonderful scores and soundtracks, from a young composer turning the biopic on its head to an instantly iconic Netflix synthpop score, from a blast of original hip-hop from a little-seen indie to some unusually convincing comedy songs from some ex-SNLers.

Continue reading The 30 Best Film Scores & Soundtracks Of 2016 at The Playlist.

September is here, and the fall film festivals have started —check out our Venice coverage so far, and our Telluride coverage starts tomorrow and TIFF next week. Nevertheless, the days are getting shorter and the temperature a little cooler, so it’s time to look back on 2016’s moviegoing summer.

In most respects, it was a bad one. Most tentpoles disappointed, and unusually, it seemed that most underperformed at the box office (though it’s interesting to note that total box office is up about 3% from last year, thanks to a few monster hits).

Continue reading The Winners & Losers Of The 2016 Summer Movie Season at The Playlist.

Well, it was what pundits essentially expected from Warner Bros.’ “Suicide Squad” and its second-week box-office performance. The film was dressed down by critics as badly as “Batman v Superman” (they have equal Rotten Tomatoes scores) and the DCU picture took a similar nosedive in its follow-up week, falling 67.3% in week two. It’s a similar crash to that of ‘Dawn Of Justice,’ which tumbled nearly 70% in its second week of release.

Continue reading ‘Suicide Squad’ Holds The #1 Position, Hits $465 Million Worldwide, But Plummets 67% In Week Two at The Playlist.

While it’s been, to put it mildly, a dismal summer movie season, there’s always hope for a few last surprises in August, even if the month has long been reputed to be a dumping ground for sub-par product. Even if the political season has you down, the movies can still be a great source for escapism and good times. My pick for Movie of the Month looks to have both in droves.

READ MORE: 12 Films To See In July

“Kubo and the Two Strings” is the latest film from the small, Portland-based animation house Laika, and if the excellent trailers haven’t got you stoked, allow me to pour it on.

Continue reading 11 Films To See In August at The Playlist.

It can be easy to be cynical about Disney’s relentless franchise machine, a highly lucrative process that sees the studio reimagine, remake or prequel-/sequel-ize valued properties with big budgets and stars. While Disney cares about their legacy titles, they aren’t precious about them, and instead aim to reach a new generation of viewers with versions of those films, or continued storylines, that have the bells and whistles of contemporary tentpoles. From the outside, it can seem like a soulless enterprise, which makes “Pete’s Dragon” all the more remarkable.

Continue reading ‘Pete’s Dragon’ Is A Lovely, Endearing & Homespun Antidote To Summer Movie Spectacle [Review] at The Playlist.

You may not remember, but Disney’s original “Pete’s Dragon” from 1977 was actually a musical. While David Lowery’s 2016 version won’t feature actors belting it out on camera, the newly released tracklist shows that it won’t be pushing music to the side.

Disney has enlisted a talented set of musicians to fill the “Pete’s Dragon” soundtrack, which features three original songs written for the film.

Continue reading ‘Pete’s Dragon’ Soundtrack Features Songs By St. Vincent, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Leonard Cohen, The Lumineers & More at The Playlist.

This past weekend’s “Ghostbusters” was billed by many as a reboot, and in some ways that’s fair — the film discards the continuity of earlier films in the franchise and starts again from scratch, which is more or less the definition of a reboot. But we’d argue that it’s closer to a remake in many ways. It has the same basic set-up; characters who, while they’ve switched genders, follow a rough template of the ones who came before; and most of the same story beats (paranormal activity is discovered to be real, a ragtag group of ghost hunters establish themselves, battle various ghosts, leading to giant spectacular climax).

Continue reading Why Hollywood Needs To Question Their Faith In Remakes at The Playlist.

In the recent trailer for “Pete’s Dragon,” audiences have seen brief glimpses of Elliot, but for the most part, Disney has kept most of the dragon action to a minimum leading up to the film’s release. In one of the two new clips released by the studio, the spotlight is on the loveable green beast, and it’s clear Disney has spent a great amount of time and effort making the massive, hairy dragon come to life.

Continue reading Elliot Takes Center Stage In 2 New Clips From David Lowery’s Disney Remake ‘Pete’s Dragon’ at The Playlist.

Disney has had a huge amount of success with recent reimaginings of their classic catalog of films. “Cinderella,” “Maleficent,” and, most recently, “The Jungle Book” have made a lot of money for the studio, and “Pete’s Dragon” hopes to continue that success when the film, starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Karl Urban, and Robert Redford, opens later this summer.

Continue reading Robert Redford & Bryce Dallas Howard Discuss A Friend In The Forest In First Clip From ‘Pete’s Dragon’ at The Playlist.

There will be no shortage of big creatures for families to choose from this summer. Next month, Steven Spielberg brings “The BFG” to multiplexes across the country, and in August, Disney has their own movie about a small kid with a giant friend.

READ MORE: The 40 Most Anticipated Movies Of Summer 2016

David Lowery has made the blockbuster leap, going from indie “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” to big studio picture “Pete’s Dragon,” a reboot of 1977 live action/animated musical, just sans the music.

Continue reading Discover ‘Pete’s Dragon’ In The New Trailer For Disney’s Reboot Directed By David Lowery at The Playlist.

Obviously the biggest event of the summer is The Playlist moving to the shiny new digs in which you’re now seeing us. But seriously, the summer movie months are packed with films both big and small guaranteed to thrill, delight and provoke you, and keep you out of the sunshine, and inside basking in air-conditioned comfort.

The time when big movies were released only in summer has long gone — this year has seen “Deadpool,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” and “The Jungle Book” among those that were smashing box office records while the temperatures were still low and the days still short.

Continue reading The 40 Most Anticipated Movies Of Summer 2016 at The Playlist.

Summer Movie Photos: 'Jason Bourne,' 'Café Society,' 'The BFG,' 'Star Trek Beyond,' 'Ghostbusters,' And More

Continue reading Summer Movie Photos: ‘Jason Bourne,’ ‘Café Society,’ ‘The BFG,’ ‘Star Trek Beyond,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ And More at The Playlist.

Watch: First Trailer For David Lowery's 'Pete's Dragon' Remake With Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, And More

Continue reading Watch: First Trailer For David Lowery’s ‘Pete’s Dragon’ Remake With Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, And More at The Playlist.

'Ghost In The Shell' With Scarlett Johansson Sets 2017 Release Date, 'Jungle Book' Pushed To 2016

Continue reading ‘Ghost In The Shell’ With Scarlett Johansson Sets 2017 Release Date, ‘Jungle Book’ Pushed To 2016 at The Playlist.

Bradley Cooper May Direct ‘Honeymoon With Harry,’ Michelle Williams Joins 'Manchester-by-the-Sea' & More

Continue reading Bradley Cooper May Direct ‘Honeymoon With Harry,’ Michelle Williams Joins ‘Manchester-by-the-Sea’ & More at The Playlist.

Channing Tatum Will Make His Directorial Debut With Drama 'Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock'

Continue reading Channing Tatum Will Make His Directorial Debut With Drama ‘Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock’ at The Playlist.

Scarlett Johansson Offered 'Ghost In The Shell,' Robert Redford Rides David Lowery's 'Pete's Dragon'

Continue reading Scarlett Johansson Offered ‘Ghost In The Shell,’ Robert Redford Rides David Lowery’s ‘Pete’s Dragon’ at The Playlist.

Casting: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Eyes Oliver Stone's Edward Snowden Film, Matt Damon Climbs 'Great Wall' And More

Continue reading Casting: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Eyes Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden Film, Matt Damon Climbs ‘Great Wall’ And More at The Playlist.

'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' Director David Lowery To Helm Disney Remake Of 'Pete's Dragon'

Continue reading ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ Director David Lowery To Helm Disney Remake Of ‘Pete’s Dragon’ at The Playlist.

Continue reading ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ Director David Lowery Jumps To Disney To Write New Take On ‘Pete’s Dragon’ at The Playlist.