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.

Since the very beginning of her career, the daughter of renowned filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola paved her own way and forged her own style in the world of cinema. The filmmaker has a vision that is the arguably the antithesis of her fathers. Sofia Coppola directs her films with an eye for intimacy and often times we learn about the characters in her films not by what they say but what they are doing.

Continue reading Breaking Down The Trademark Elements Of A Sofia Coppola Film at The Playlist.

If you took a shot every time you read “Hollywood has a misogyny problem” in 2017, you would be long dead. That doesn’t mean it’s not a point worth belaboring — on the contrary, if the past year of entertainment news has taught us anything, it’s that silence around systemic misogyny only breeds more of the same. You may have heard them before, but the facts are these: men disproportionately dominate the filmmaking industry. Women rarely direct films, and are hardly ever recognized or lauded when they do.

Continue reading 52 Movies Directed By Women In 2017 That You Should Know at The Playlist.

Given the amount of work that was required to get “Blade Runner 2049” over the finish line, not to mention the extensive press rounds, it’s hard to believe Denis Villeneuve had time to watch anything. However, he got enough under his belt to put together a top 8 list for Indiewire.

Xavier Dolan’s Top 8 Films Of 2017

As anyone who has followed his career so far knows, Villeneuve keeps an equal footing in both the mainstream and arthouse.

Continue reading Denis Villeneuve’s Top 8 Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

Aliens, robots, holograms, fruit, gods, demons, aquatic mystery creatures and shambling doppelgangers potentially occupied by the spirit of long-disappeared FBI agents trapped between dimensions — yes, it can only be our roundup of the year’s best sex scenes! To be fair, we’ve included a couple that have human participants, but only for form’s sake. Maybe it’s because it’s a global trend, maybe because The Playlist is a hotbed of perverts, but it seems to us the movie and TV year in sex was more than usually characterized by interspecies, mystical, plant-based and/or supernatural sex, and quite a few of the more ostensibly “traditional” sex scenes that impressed us did so for very unsexy reasons (we’re not naming names, but Yorgos Lanthimos).

Continue reading The Best Sex Scenes Of 2017 at The Playlist.

As much as we evidently love you, our glorious readers (why else would we toil so hard over such a breathtaking array of year-end features, for one thing), there is perhaps a group of people we love even more. And that is our contributors, who throughout the year give The Playlist its inimitable, sometimes cacophonous but always lively voice, and who help us to deliver the goods to you every day in the manner of a vigilant cat laying the eviscerated mouse of the day’s hot movie topics at your feet.

Continue reading The Most Underrated & Overrated Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

When I spoke to Sofia Coppola almost six weeks ago it felt like Hollywood was on fire. Every day more women were coming forward with their stories of sexual harassment (or worse) and notable male figures in the industry were no longer being protected for their transgressions. In fact, I’m sure just a few minutes before we began recording another story had broke. During our podcast interview Coppola referred to it as an “earthquake.” And even then she knew this was going to have major ramifications for the entertainment industry overall (the political dominoes hadn’t begun to fall yet in Washington).

Continue reading ‘The Beguiled’s’ Sofia Coppola On The ‘Earthquake’ That Hit Hollywood And The ‘Wonder Woman’ Effect [Podcast] at The Playlist.

Each year, David Erlich, senior film critic at Indiewire gets out his computer and spends hours cutting together a video tribute to his favorite films of previous twelve months. You might not agree with the pics, but the celebration of the year in cinema is always a lot of fun, and once again, he delivers the goods.

“The 25 Best Films Of 2017: A Video Countdown” is powered by the tunes of Fleetwood Mac, The Psychedelic Furs, Sufjan Stevens, and more (jams you will have heard in “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.

Continue reading Celebrating The Films Of 2017: A Video Countdown at The Playlist.

The 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations were unveiled today, and as it always goes, there were some surprises and snubs. However, before I get too far along, here’s quick reminder about one of the official eligibility requirements for the competing movies. It will be useful information for one of the biggest snubs that people are talking about:

…we are only considering films that are made with lower budgets, ranging from microbudgets up to $20 million.

Continue reading 2018 Independent Spirit Awards Nominations: Snubs & Surprises at The Playlist.

We’re right on top of things calendar-wise, right?…

A little late to the party, but, it’s become a recurrent trend every summer for journalists to look back at the movies that were released and, well, complain. The gist of some articles would be “don’t you remember the days when they used to release great movies in the summer”? 1982 and/or 1984 are usually mentioned and, in all honesty, those were pretty great years.

Continue reading The Best Movies Of Summer 2017 at The Playlist.

If you’ve taken a stroll through Film Twitter during the last few weeks, you’ve likely seen the backlash that has been generated against Sofia Coppola. The director has been taken to task for “The Beguiled,” her steamy drama/comedy set during the Civil War that doesn’t feature any African-American characters. In fact, Coppola excised the slave character Mattie, who is featured in Thomas Cullinan’s book and Don Siegel‘s 1971 movie.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola Defends ‘The Beguiled’ Against Backlash at The Playlist.

The rest of Hollywood steered clear of “Transformers: The Last Knight” this weekend, with no other major studio planning a big release as Paramount trotted out the latest entry in their blockbuster toy franchise, but they needn’t worried. In a summer where franchise fatigue is riding high, ‘Transformers’ suffered a considerable blow, at least domestically.

$45.3 million was more than enough for “Transformers: The Last Knight” to win the weekend, but the numbers are quite troubling. 

Continue reading ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Disappoints At Home, But Soars Internationally [Box Office] at The Playlist.

It’s been a bit of a rough week for Sofia Coppola, at least in the micro world of Film Twitter media. Her new film, “The Beguiled,” starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kristen Dunst and Elle Fanning has received excellent reviews and it heads into the arthouse box-office this weekend with strong chances for success (here’s our review). But online, the film—a Civil War-set movie based on the book by Thomas Cullinan and something of a very loose remake of the 1971 movie by Don Siegel — and Sofia’s art has been put under the microscope.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola: Listen To 4 Hours Of Podcast Talks at The Playlist.

Fresh off becoming only the second woman ever to capture the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Sofia Coppola’s artistry lands in theaters everywhere for the first time in four years (“The Bling Ring”) with her Civil War-era revenge thriller “The Beguiled.”

Coppola’s Palme d’Or contending adaptation of the novel by Thomas Cullinan features a plethora of talent including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell.

Continue reading 22 Of The Best Revenge Films at The Playlist.

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I discuss two new films from exciting auteurs and find plenty of overlapping elements between them, beyond the fact that, yes, Sofia Coppola and Ana Lily Amirpour are women working behind the camera. The latter’s sophomore feature, “The Bad Batch,” is a film that’s gotten mixed responses since premiering at Venice last year (read our review here), but we find much to love about it.

Continue reading Adjust Your Tracking Split On ‘The Beguiled,’ Gush Over ‘The Bad Batch’ [Podcast] at The Playlist.

Last week, The New York Times dove into the rankings game, and unveiled their list of the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century So Far, which was accompanied by six filmmakers making their own lists. Among them was Sofia Coppola, who made the most-talked about selection of Sean Anders‘ “Daddy’s Home” starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. In her brief comments for the Times, Coppola noted that the comedy was one of the few her family could all agree on, and explaining further to Vulture, she realizes that it’s not an auteur pick.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola Talks Putting ‘Daddy’s Home’ On Best Of 2000s List, Going To Cannes & Bringing Glamor To Peak TV at The Playlist.

We’re firmly into June now, and fast bearing down on the midpoint of 2017, a year that’s shaping up to be the longest goddamn year in history (fun fact: at the start of 2017, Barack Obama was President of the United States!). Fortunately, in between the insanity of the news, it’s been a pretty strong film year on the whole.

Sure, not all of the blockbusters have been great (*side eye to “The Mummy”*), but some have been terrific, and we’ve also seen several great and unexpected movies get their due at the box office.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2017 So Far at The Playlist.

Just yesterday, our team at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival put the finishing touches on their coverage. As per usual, it looked like an amazing time to be at the world’s biggest annual celebration of cinema as an art form. (Of course, don’t forget, the business is always lurking nearby.) We eagerly await those titles to make their way to cinemas so the rest of us boring old regular moviegoers can get in on the fun.

Continue reading 11 Movies To See In June at The Playlist.

The 70th Cannes Film Festival has come and gone, but its films will live on as the march toward awards season begins. 2017 has already delivered one true Oscar player in Luca Guadagnino‘s Sundance breakthrough “Call Me By Your Name” and now Cannes has a chance to add to the coffers of potential contenders. (And, yes, there is the question of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” potentially earning a Best Picture nod, but at this point, I’m not sure it’s more than an Original Screenplay contender, although I reserve the right to change that opinion when we get to September.)

Last year’s surprise awards season player from la Croisette turned out to be “Hell or High Water.” What film or films will keep Cannes’ Oscar streak going this time around? 

Continue reading Are Robert Pattinson, Diane Kruger And ‘The Florida Project’ Cannes’ Stealth Oscar Contenders? at The Playlist.

Ten days of cinephile heaven have wrapped for another year as the red carpet was rolled out for one last time at the Cannes Film Festival for the awards ceremony.

READ MORE: The 20 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2017 Cannes Film Festival

Ruben Östlund‘s “The Square” walked away the big winner, the unexpected recipient of the Palme d’Or. Continuing his tremendous run at Cannes, Andrey Zvyagintsev (who previously won Best Screenplay and a Special Jury Prize from Un Certain Regard) took home the Jury Prize for “Loveless.” The hotly buzzed “12o Beats Per Minute” landed the Grand Prix, though many expected it to take the Palme. 

Continue reading Cannes 2017 Awards: Ruben Östlund’s ‘The Square’ Wins Palme d’Or, Joaquin Phoenix Takes Best Actor at The Playlist.

The greatest favor you can do for Sofia Coppola‘s “The Beguiled,” and yourself before you watch it, is to put all thoughts of Don Siegel‘s 1971 Clint Eastwood film of the same name from your mind. As a standalone film, Coppola’s version abounds in pleasures: from the starry cast (at least four of whom almost coincidentally seem to be hitting their career-best strides at exactly the same moment) to Philippe Le Sourd‘s cinematography, all misty woods, dangling creepers and softly sparkling candlelit interiors.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’ With Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell & Kirsten Dunst [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Sofia Coppola is taking a new turn this summer with “The Beguiled,” a steamy, Southern gothic drama starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Colin Farrell, that looks unlike anything the filmmaker has done before. However, it looks like the director might be borrowing a page from “Marie Antoinette,” by bringing some contemporary sonic flavor into the Civil War-era tale.

Continue reading Phoenix Scoring Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’ at The Playlist.

With the exception of her contributions to “A Very Murray Christmas” on Netflix, we’ve only been treated to three Sofia Coppola movies since her Academy Award-nominated “Lost In Translation.” That’s just not enough Coppola in our lives. For comparison’s sake, Joe Swanberg released six movies in 2011 alone; this isn’t a knock on Swanberg so much as it is an acknowledgement that whatever Hollywood executives are doing that prevents Coppola from making six movies a year, they need to fix it yesterday.

Continue reading Sofia Coppola Describes Nicole Kidman As A ‘Virtuoso’ On The Set Of ‘The Beguiled’ at The Playlist.

Sofia Coppola is in that rarified air of filmmakers. Every one of her films has debuted at a major film festival (“Somewhere” won Best Picture in Venice back in 2013) she’s had three of her films (including her debut “The Virgin Suicides”) premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Now with her latest, “The Beguiled,” she’s racking up her fourth time on the Croisette.

Continue reading Nicole Kidman Seeks Vengeance In The New Trailer For Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’ at The Playlist.

This past week the main lineup for the 70th Festival de Cannes was announced and it features some highly anticipated new films from Todd Haynes (“Wonderstruck”), Lynne Ramsey (“You Were Never Really Here”), Bong Jong-Ho (“Okja”) and, in something of a surprise, Noah Baumbach (“The Meyerowitz Stories”), among others.

Continue reading Let’s Talk About A Cannes Line-Up: Hollywood’s Studios Are Sitting Out [Podcast] at The Playlist.