It was supposed to be a breakout role for the ages for Jonathan Majors and a favorite in this year’s award season. Now it looks like “Magazine Dreams” will stay on Searchlight‘s shelf indefinitely. THR reports that in the leadup to Majors’ February 6 sentencing for assault and harassment convictions, the studio mulls its options on the film they acquired after its award-winning Sundance premiere.

Continue reading Searchlight Mulls The Future Of ‘Magazine Dreams’ As Jonathan Majors Awaits Sentencing Hearing at The Playlist.

Most people know Alice Englert as the daughter of the great New Zealand auteur Jane Campion. And some may know her as an actress from films like “Them That Follow,” “Body Brokers,” and Campion‘s “The Power Of The Dog.” But Englert is a filmmaker, too, and her feature debut, “Bad Behavior,” is ready for its theatrical release in New Zealand next month.

Continue reading ‘Bad Behavior’ Trailer: Jennifer Connelly Stars As A Former Child Actor In Crisis In Alice Englert’s Feature Debut at The Playlist.

Need a twisty, genre-bending thriller this holiday season? Look no further than “Eileen,” William Oldroyd‘s first feature since 2016’s “Lady Macbeth.” And Oldroyd could do much worse for his latest film than adapting the debut novel of Ottessa Moshfegh, one of the premier female novelists in contemporary American literature.

READ MORE: Fall 2023 Film Preview: 60+ Most Anticipated Movie To Watch

Set in 1960s New England, “Eileen” follows Thomasin McKenzie‘s young secretary at a juvenile detention facility as she falls under the dangerous spell of an alluring female colleague.

Continue reading ‘Eileen’ Trailer: Anne Hathaway & Thomasin McKenzie Star In William Oldroyd’s Twisty Psychological Thriller at The Playlist.

In a different timeline, you might be talking a lot more about “Cassandro.” And, frankly, you should. Roger Ross Williams‘ feature directorial debut found strong reviews out of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was set for a bit of an awards season burst at Telluride. The film’s star, Gael Garcia Bernal, was set to receive a tribute from the Academy’s favorite fest centered around his latest acclaimed performance.

Continue reading ‘Cassandro’: Roger Ross Williams Talks Directing Bad Bunny In His First Movie at The Playlist.

After screening work at the Tribeca Film Festival, Rotterdam, and SXSW, NYC filmmaker Laura Moss made their feature directorial debut at Sundance this past January with “birth/rebirth.” And it didn’t disappoint at the festival: The Playlist’s review says “Moss presents the movie as an eerie amalgam, stitching together horror roots with an off-kilter tone, dreamlike framing, and a focus on human sin over monster shenanigans.

Continue reading ‘birth/rebirth’ Trailer: Laura Moss’ Sundance Horror Film With Judy Reyes Hits Theaters On August 18 at The Playlist.

After eight films and a limited series, Xavier Dolan says he’s retiring from filmmaking. The news comes from Spanish outlet El País, who interviewed the filmmaker about his new limited series “The Night Logan Woke Up.” Despite premiering the series’ first two episodes at Sundance this past January, an American release for it has yet to be announced. And that’s why Dolan’s retiring; after another HBO series he commited to, he plans to leave behind movies and TV for good.

Continue reading Xavier Dolan Says He’s Retiring From Filmmaking: “Art Is Useless, And Dedicating Oneself To The Cinema, A Waste Of Time” at The Playlist.

Given the 10 million films that premiere at the Sundance Film Festival every year—give or take :D— you’ll be forgiven if you didn’t quite remember “Scrapper.” Premiering in the World Cinema Drama section—where it won that top prize—by all accounts, the film, directed by Charlotte Regan and starring up-and-comer Harris Dickinson (“Beach Rats,” “Triangle of Sadness”), is just as its title suggests: scrappy, endearing and charming.

Continue reading ‘Scrapper’ Trailer: Harris Dickinson Stars In Charlotte Regan’s Spirited Sundance Charmer Coming In August at The Playlist.

Of all the buzzy films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, like “Past Lives,” “Eileen,” and the Grand Jury Prize winner “A Thousand And One,” Ira Sachs‘ “Passages” is undoubtedly the sexiest. And by year’s end, it may rank higher than those other three on critics’ top 10 lists for 2023.

Continue reading ‘Passages’ Teaser: Ira Sachs’ Sexy Sundance Drama With Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski & Adéle Exarchopoulous Arrives In Theaters This August at The Playlist.

With HBO‘s “Succession” ending at the end of the month, it’s time for its cast to start thinking about future projects. In Sarah Snook‘s case, she tries her hand at horror in the upcoming Netflix film “Run Rabbit Run,” which had its premiere at Sundance earlier this year.

READ MORE: The Most Anticipated Horror Films Of 2023

So what’s “Run Rabbit Run” about?

Continue reading ‘Run Rabbit Run’ Trailer: ‘Succession’ Star Sarah Snook Stars In Netflix’ Horror Film About Motherhood On June 28 at The Playlist.

Twins Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou have already taken YouTube by storm with their channel/moniker RackaRacka, their outlet for live-action horror comedy videos. Now the filmmaking brothers are ready for their feature debut and have the right studio backing them in A24.

READ MORE: The 25 Most Anticipated Horror Films Of 2023

Fresh off its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, “Talk To Me” boasts a premise in the brothers’ wheelhouse.

Continue reading ‘Talk To Me’ Trailer: A24 Releases RackaRacka’s Buzzy Sundance Horror Hits On July 28 at The Playlist.

Fresh off its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Davis Guggenheim‘s “Still: A Michael J. Fox” movie hits Apple TV+ next month. The doc looks at the life and career of the celebrated actor and his highly-publicized battle against Parkinson’s disease, which Fox was diagnosed with at age 29.

READ MORE: Sundance Film Festival 2023: New Works From Nicole Holofcener, Ira Sach, Brandon Cronenberg & More [Full Lineup]

The Apple Original Films production incorporates documentary, archival and scripted elements to tell Michael J.

Continue reading ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Story’: Documentary About The Actor’s Life, Career & Battle Against Parkinson’s Premieres On Apple TV+ On May 12 at The Playlist.

Fresh off its world premiere at Sundance last month, A.V. Rockwell‘s feature directorial debut, “A Thousand And One” hits theaters everywhere in March. And thanks to it winning Sundance’s Grand Jury prize, Rockwell’s debut is one of the must-see movies of early spring (read The Playlist’s review of the film here).

READ MORE: ‘A Thousand And One’ & ‘The Persian Version’ Top 2023 Sundance Film Festival Awards

“A Thousand And One” stars Teyana Taylor as Inez, a single mom fresh out of prison who kidnaps her young son out of the foster system in hopes of making a live together.

Continue reading ‘A Thousand And One’ Trailer: A.V. Rockwell’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Hits Theaters On March 31 at The Playlist.

One of the most delightfully warming and comically offbeat films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Babak Jalali’s “Fremont” tells the story of Donya, a former Afghan translator for the U.S. government who’s felt adrift in the titular California city since resettling there to evade the Taliban. 

READ MORE: ‘Fremont’ Review: An Afghan Insomniac Tries To Find Purpose In A Refreshingly Unique & Jarmuschian-Esque Indie Dramedy [Sundance]

Living in an apartment complex alongside other Afghan immigrants, working at a Chinese-American fortune cookie factory in San Francisco, and spending evenings alone at a local restaurant that plays Afghan soap operas, Donya — portrayed, in a captivating debut performance, by real-life Afghan refugee Anaita Wali Zada —longs for companionship.

Continue reading ‘Fremont’: Babak Jalali & Anaita Wali Zada On Their Delightful & Comically Offbeat Sundance Gem [Interview] at The Playlist.

After making history in 2022 with “CODA,” its first world premiere to win Best Picture, the Sundance Film Festival had a slightly disappointing Oscar tally for 2023. The festival didn’t make the Best Picture cut, but “Living” landed an Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor (Bill Nighy) nomination. And, once again, Sundance dominated the documentary category with four nominees: “All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “A House Made of Splinters” and “Navalny.” It also landed documentary short and animated short nominations with “The Martha Mitchell Effect” and “The Flying Sailor,” respectively.

Continue reading Did The 2024 Oscars Begin At Sundance? at The Playlist.

It’s challenging and/or impossible to speak about Chilean art and disassociate it from Chilean politics— the two are forever tragically intertwined, bonded together by trauma in a way that few modern countries have experienced. Because Chile suffered a collective social trauma in the 1970s, the country has never recovered and still grapples with it today. A military coup—sanctioned by the U.S. government and Henry Kissinger—overthrew a democratically elected socialist government, murdered the President and plunged the country into chaos and a dictatorship for 17 years.

Continue reading ‘The Eternal Memory’ Review: Maite Alberdi’s Moving Doc Is A Love Story About The Trauma Of Remembering & The Decay Of Memory [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Leave it to “Blade” star Stephen Dorff to torch superhero movies and how far he feels they’ve fallen. At the Sundance Film Festival to support the premiere of his latest movie, Eddie Alcazar‘s gonzo sci-fi odyssey “Divinity,” Dorff talked with The Daily Beast about how he feels about the present Hollywood climate, in particular Marvel movies. His diagnosis?

Continue reading Stephen Dorff Misses When Superhero Movies Took Risks & He’s Done With “Worthless Garbage” Like ‘Black Adam’ at The Playlist.

After a two-year virtual in-person hiatus, the Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City and that meant an old-fashioned in-person awards ceremony as well. Well, sorta. The post-ceremony party was absent this year (as well as its traditional host), but there was undoubtedly a lot of joy in the room as the honors were handed out. In the prestigious U.S. Dramatic Competition, the top prize went to A.V. Rockwell’s “A Thousand and One.” “The Persian Version” took two prizes including the Audience Award, U.S.

Continue reading ‘A Thousand And One’ & ‘The Persian Version’ Top 2023 Sundance Film Festival Awards at The Playlist.

The avant-garde video artist Nam June Paik gets his own adulatory portrait in Amanda Kim’s documentary “Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV.” An act of biographical recovery that also, somehow, flattens a controversial artist, Kim’s film provides just enough contextual information to maintain interest, even if it’s never as radical as its titular subject. 

READ MORE: 25 Most Anticipated Films At The Sundance Film Festival

Moving succinctly from birth to death, Kim provides a broad overview of Paik’s history and aesthetic interests.

Continue reading ‘Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV’ Review: The Founder Of Video Art Gets A Documentary That is Never As Radical As Its Subject [Sundance] at The Playlist.

In 2021, filmgoing audiences were treated to “CODA,” an affectionate look at a music-loving high school senior and her complicated bond with a deaf mother, father, and sibling. A year earlier, “Sound of Metal” presented the devastating journey of a rock drummer’s hearing loss and subsequent attempts to cope with his unfortunate predicament. The relationship between a musician and their art can be seen as beautiful and uniquely complex.

Continue reading ‘The Tuba Thieves’ Review: Alison O’Daniel’s Experimental Doc About Deaf Musicians & Theft Doesn’t Ever Harmonize [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Not yet thirty years old, Mia Goth has already collaborated with several world-renowned filmmakers for her willingness to follow their most demented muses. Her girlish appearance strikes a shocking contrast with the atrocity exhibitions that she gravitates toward: eagerly taking to sexual grooming in Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac;” undergoing forcible insemination and grisly spaghettification with Claire Denis in “High Life;” becoming an insane asylum’s incestuous princess for Gore Verbinski in “A Cure for Wellness;” witnessing her own disembowelment as part of the orgiastic blood ritual Luca Guadagnino that’s the grand finale to “Suspiria;” manifesting a century of madness for Ti West’s in-progress trio of period pieces of “X,” “Pearl,” and the upcoming “Maxxxine.” And so it’s no surprise that Goth’s latest outing is another twisted affair: Brandon Cronenberg‘s “Infinity Pool,” which takes place at a Mediterranean beach resort that hides a violent and depraved sub-culture.

Continue reading ‘Infinity Pool’: Mia Goth & Brandon Cronenberg Talk About Their “Unhinged” New Film, The Material Magic Of Practical Effects & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

PARK CITY – After almost 40 years, there are actually few subjects in the LGBTQ community the Sundance Film Festival hasn’t put a spotlight on. The fact that Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s “Mutt,” a rare non-coming-out story about a trans man, is part of the annual independent event is therefore noteworthy in and of itself. More noteworthy is the fact the talented Lungulov-Klotz clearly hasn’t taken their directorial debut for granted.

READ MORE: “Cassandro” Sundance Review: Gael Garcia Bernal gives the gay Lucha libre icon his due

A selection in this year’s U.S.

Continue reading ‘Mutt’ Review: 24 Stressful Hours In The Day Of A Trans Man [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Caught somewhere between a movie and a series, “Willie Nelson & Family” doubles down on the history and mythology of its namesake to stretch the latter into what would have been better served as the former.  Honest, introspective, yet rarely revelatory, the anthology often mistakes the comprehensive for the essential, and while it succeeds in explaining Willie Nelson to its audience, that’s about all it does. For fans of the Red Headed Stranger, that might be enough, but anyone looking to explore Willie’s place in the intersection of country music, pop culture, and the sociopolitical fabric of 20th America might be disappointed.

Continue reading ‘Willie Nelson & Family’ Review: Docuseries Mistakes The Comprehensive For the Essential In Well-Meaning Slog [Sundance] at The Playlist.

In writer/director A.V. Rockwell’s feature directorial debut, “A Thousand and One,” Inez (a deeply felt Teyana Talyor) has returned to Harlem after spending a year in Rikers Prison. The year is 1994, and Harlem is still bustling with its own unique flavor and culture, awash in hip-hop music, blue jeans, gold chains, and oversized coats. Inez, however, doesn’t have a place to stay. And more importantly, she doesn’t have her six-year-old son, Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola).

Continue reading ‘A Thousand And One’ Review: Black Motherhood And Harlem Take Centerstage In A.V. Rockwell’s Handsome Debut [Sundance] at The Playlist.

This is “a place of mountains and myths,” we’re told as a montage of Central Appalachian imagery fills the frame. The mists, buffalo, ferns, and flowing waters intercut with the coal-filled mountains and mining towns that grew up around them. Coal is intrinsic to the people of this region. Coal is made from many dead things crushed over a long period of time. This thought underscores the stark contrast between life and death that pulses throughout Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s impassioned documentary “King Coal,” artfully told through atmospheric narration and evocative editing. 

READ MORE: 25 Most Anticipated Films At The Sundance Film Festival

“This is what it’s like to live under King Coal,” she tells us.

Continue reading ‘King Coal’ Review: Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s Documentary Is An Atmospheric, Evocative Elegy For Central Appalachia [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Will Forte is entering a new era of his acting career. After becoming a dad for the first time a couple of years ago, he’s not just excited about comedies such as “MacGruber” and “The Last Man on Earth.” He’s also ready to portray sweet dad characters in projects such as “Sweet Tooth” and his new film, “Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out,” which we discussed on this episode of The Playlist Podcast and is celebrating its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Continue reading Will Forte Talks ‘Aliens Abducted My Parents’ & Hoping For More ‘MacGruber’ [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.