Did movie culture need another movie about whistleblower Reality Winner after last year’s “Reality“?  Apparently, yes: Tina Satter‘s film, adapting her play “Is This A Room,” did well at the 2023 Berlinale and when it premiered on HBO last May.  But formally speaking, it’s a tricky film, sticking verbatim to the released interrogation transcripts taken from the day of Winner’s June 3, 2017 arrest.

Continue reading ‘Winner’ Trailer: Emilia Jones Stars In Susanna Fogel’s Reality Winner Sundance Satire at The Playlist.

Why would someone lie about having cats to get a date? When you think about it, that sort of lie really does start to become a bit… sinister. And that’s the question at the heart of the film, “Cat Person.”

Look, let’s get this out of the way first — “Cat Person” isn’t a “new” film in the strictest sense of the word. The film debuted at Sundance a year ago, got rave reviews, and then was in theaters for about one minute (give or take).

Continue reading ‘Cat Person’ Trailer: Susanna Fogel’s Acclaimed Film Finally Gets Wide Release On Hulu In February at The Playlist.

The first line of “Winner” says it all: “My name is Reality Winner.” This uninspired introduction to the character, an NSA employee who leaked classified documents surrounding Russian election interference to the media, sets the tone for what’s to follow. Susanna Fogel’s film is not actively bad, just aggressively bland.

READ MORE: Sundance 2024: The 23 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch

This ripped-from-the-headlines tale has no shortage of compelling material from which to pull, even beyond just the subject’s wild name.

Continue reading ‘Winner’ Review: Emilia Jones Can’t Really Rescue An All-Too-Safe Biopic Treatment [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Well, it’s arrived: after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Susanna Fogel‘s “Cat Person” arrives in theaters in October. Not sure what all the fuss over “Cat Person” is about? Here’s the short version: Kristen Roupenian‘s short story of the same name was published in The New Yorker in 2017, causing an immediate sensation.  

READ MORE: ‘Cat Person’ Review: Emilia Jones And Nicholas Braun Shine In Gripping, Uneven Adaptation Of Viral Sensation [Sundance]

With a story so viral it needs to be into a film, right?

Continue reading ‘Cat Person’ Trailer: Susanna Fogel’s Genre-Bending Movie About Modern Relationships Hits Theaters On October 6. at The Playlist.

Margaret Atwood said it best: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” This age-old discrepancy in the way the two genders experience the world is written both at the initial frame and very heart of Susanna Fogel’s mercurial “Cat Person,” a fiendishly playful relationship-gone-bad quasi-thriller with a sense of humor about its own unknowability. The two parties (who are barely in a relationship) are a beautiful, inquisitive 20-year-old college student testing the limits of her own sexual powers and a painfully average thirtysomething guy dying to impress her via clueless means.

Continue reading ‘Cat Person’ Review: Emilia Jones And Nicholas Braun Shine In Gripping, Uneven Adaptation Of Viral Sensation [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Emilia Jones, known for playing the lead in “CODA,” is taking the lead in “Winner,” a darkly comedic biopic based on whistleblower Reality Winner. Directed by Susanna Fogel, the writer of “Booksmart,” and the writer/director of “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (2018), Connie Britton has been cast to play Reality’s mother, and Zach Galifianakis as Reality’s father.

Continue reading Emilia Jones To Lead Whistleblower Reality Winner Biopic Co-Starring Zach Galifinakis & Connie Britton at The Playlist.

Guiding a show as unconventional as “The Flight Attendant” would be a tough task for any director. Adapted from Chris Bohjalian’s 2018 novel, the series was one part thriller, one part comedy, and one part mystery with a wee bit of grounded drama thrown into the mix. The result was HBO Max’s first breakout hit, a show so popular it’s already been extended from a one-off limited series to an ongoing episodic.

Continue reading Susanna Fogel Revisits ‘The Flight Attendant’ As She Preps ‘Cat Person’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

It was a wonderful night for female filmmakers as five women took prizes at the 2021 DGA Awards. From film to television to commercials, these directors proved that the Director’s Guild of America may be the most progressive guild of them all (already expecting pushback from the WGA members in my life). Leading the way in the top category was Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland.”

READ MORE: “Mank,” “Tenet,” “Black is King” and “The Queen’s Gambit” among 2021 Art Directors Guild Award winners

This is “Nomadland’s” second major guild win after taking the PGA Award last month.

Continue reading Chloe Zhao Wins For ‘Nomadland’ As Women Rule The 2021 DGA Awards at The Playlist.

No summer is complete without a great comedy movie and “The Spy Who Dumped Me” looks like a perfect fit. The title, of course, is a riff on the classic Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.” The early word on this film has been overwhelmingly positive, with several people praising the chemistry between stars Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. No surprise there. McKinnon has consistently proved herself as the funniest “Saturday Night Live” cast member and Kunis has been crushing it in studio comedies like “Bad Moms” and “Ted.”

READ MORE: Summer Movie Preview: 36 Films Worth The Watch

So what brings the two together in “The Spy Who Dumped Me?” Check out the synopsis below

Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon) are two thirty-year-old best friends in Los Angeles, who are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend, who was actually a spy, shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.

Continue reading ‘Spy Who Dumped Me’ Trailer: There’s Nothing Basic About These Badass B*tches at The Playlist.

The early buzz for “The Spy Who Dumped Me” is surprisingly strong – according to Deadline, the action-comedy even had its release date shifted after a “phenomenal test screening.” Could this finally be Kate McKinnon’s breakthrough film? Even if you’re a fan of the “Ghostbusters” reboot, it’s hard to argue that the “Saturday Night Live” MVP has yet to have her own “48 Hrs.

Continue reading ‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’ Trailer: Kate McKinnon & Mila Kunis Are Strangers On A Mission at The Playlist.