I’ve been holed up in Brooklyn since early March, save a few treks across state lines via rental car, and on each of those trips I’ve been sure to visit a drive-in. That’s how I caught “Jaws” on the Fourth of July, and “Boys State” and “The Rental.” But half of the movies on this, my top 10 favorite movies of 2020 list, are ones that I saw in honest-to-god theaters way back in the spring. 

Continue reading Lena Wilson’s Best Films Of 2020 at The Playlist.

What’s most notable about 2020’s slate of great performances is the element of surprise. Sure, most anybody betting on Frances McDormand being heaped with praise at year-end will likely win their bets. But 2020’s best films range so far in terms of their “stuff”—themes, style, genre, atmosphere—that it stands to reason the best performances should range, too, in terms of gravity and veterancy. The Playlist’s picks for 2020’s best performances oscillate from bubbly to brooding, effervescent to angry, calm to utterly petrified; the actors responsible for these performances range from newcomers to old stalwarts, talents developing their careers and legends at the peak of theirs. 

Continue reading The 20 Best Performances Of 2020 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.

Greetings, fellow exhausteds, and welcome to The Best Films of 2020, a year that, despite being less than 365 days old, has aged so rapidly that Gary Oldman is circling the biopic. Some, uh, unusual stuff happened this year – I don’t know if you noticed – and it made compiling this collective list even more interesting than usual. A record-breaking 34 regular Playlist contributors submitted top tens (you can find the complete list of those to blame/praise for this ranking at the end of the feature).

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2020 at The Playlist.

We have, it’s safe to say, had a whole lot less to look at this year when it comes to the world of cinema. So many parts of our traditional filmgoing experience have been snatched away, for now, while so many of us wait at home for the whole thing to be done. This has meant a lot of things on a lot of levels, but crucially, for this exercise, it means we’ve been staring at the same four walls of our home for quite some time now.

Continue reading The Best Film Posters Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Reflecting on the best trailers released in 2020 feels at once vital and torturous – would we have reacted differently upon first viewing, had we known we might not actually see these films for months, or even years in some cases? The film industry soldiers on and rides with the blows, so we sit tight at home while we wait to enjoy so many movies on the big screen. Then, all we have are the morsels of footage strung together to whet our appetites months and months ago. 

READ MORE: The Best Horror Films Of 2020 (So Far)

In some instances, these are mini-masterpieces in themselves, a showcase of all the dizzying talent sure to expand and bloom across 90 minutes or more.

Continue reading The Best Trailers Of 2020 at The Playlist.

It’s October, and that means it’s the time of year when everyone loves horror movies, even now when horror’s modern mainstream popularity is at a high. So, here’s a modest proposal: Stop releasing horror movies after October. This is the month where we should stop and take stock of what the genre has to say in a given year, and on a given slate, and then decide which films rise above the rest and demand attention.

Continue reading The Best Horror Films Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Being the son of one of Canada’s most heralded genre filmmakers casts a large shadow often resulting in tired comparisons between their respective works that might not have been drawn otherwise. The desire for film fans to group filmmakers together due to familial ties isn’t exactly a new concept (even if it is unfair), however, it is something Brandon Cronenberg has had to grapple with his entire filmmaking career. It’s fair to acknowledge an overlap of interests given both he and his father, David Cronenberg, have a knack for practical effects-driven body horror.

Continue reading Brandon Cronenberg Talks ‘Possessor,’ Practical Effects, & Phillip K. Dick [Fourth Wall Podcast] 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.

If you’re a hit-person, given the assignment to murder a high-profile CEO, wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you could do that without actually endangering your own body and/or identity? Well, for the assassin in Brandon Cronenberg’s “Possessor,” that’s exactly what she does.

As seen in the new “uncut” trailer for “Possessor,” Andrea Riseborough plays Tasya Vos, a corporate assassin that is able to use brain-implant technology to “possess” another person’s body and use them to commit her murders.

Continue reading ‘Possessor’ Uncut Trailer: Brandon Cronenberg’s Sci-Fi Thriller Puts A Mind-Bending Twist On Killing at The Playlist.

Though the title might lead you to believe otherwise, “Possessor” is not a new PG-13 jump scare-filled horror film from Blumhouse. Instead, it’s an incredibly stylish psychological thriller from the mind of Brandon Cronenberg, son of the legendary David Cronenberg. And honestly, this is a much better idea than another lame horror film.

As seen in the NSFW trailer for “Possessor,” Cronenberg’s feature follows the story of an assassin that uses advanced technology to “possess” a person to use their body to execute her targets.

Continue reading ‘Possessor’ Trailer: Andrea Riseborough Stars In Brandon Cronenberg’s Wild Sci-Fi Thriller at The Playlist.

Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a deadly contract killer, who works for a secretive biotech company run by a former hired gun Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The organization carries out their kills by kidnapping a victim, usually someone personally close to their real target, and inserting an implant into their brain; after which, an agent takes over that person’s mind and body. Through their hosts, the assassin can commit deadly acts against paid hitsec without impunity.

Continue reading Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’ Is A Wild, Tech-Fueled Fever Dream [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

The Sundance Film Festival is enterting a new decade, in fact, it’s the first major festival to usher in the new era, but color us slightly concerned about its upcoming slate. While the documentary features are as intriguing as ever (outside of the eyebrow raising inclusion of a Netflix Taylor Swift doc) many of the narrative selections seem eerily familiar. Such is the state of the global independent film scene it seems.

Continue reading Sundance 2020: The 25 Most Anticipated Films At The Festival at The Playlist.