Getting framed for a murder you didn’t commit isn’t exactly the right way to spice up your relationship when you’re in a bit of a dry patch with your significant other. But “Lovebirds” may just you the hilarious results of trying to solve the whodunnit of the night, all while trying to fix your relationship.

READ MORE: ‘LoveBirds’ & 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2020

Directed by Michael Showalter, director of the breakout comedy “The Big Sick,” the new “high-concept” comedy “Lovebirds” will show a couple trying to clear their names after they are framed for a murder. 

Continue reading ‘Lovebirds’ Trailer: Kumail Nanjiani & Issa Rae Gets Embroiled In A Murder Mystery In Michael Showalter’s ‘The Big Sick’ Follow-Up at The Playlist.

Writer/director Lulu Wang has simply pulled off a miracle of moviemaking with “The Farewell.” Capturing a completely honest portrait of Asian American immigrant family life through a caring battle of cultural discourse, her film weighs Eastern hospitality and tradition against Western self-sufficiency. Her film is at once joyously celebratory and authentically melancholy, painting a specific and respectfully elegant, yet sometimes deliberately unflattering and nuanced, observance of race, family, and communication.

Continue reading Dismantling The Myth Of The Model Minority: 10 Asian American Films To See Before ‘The Farewell’ at The Playlist.

As you watch an Academy Award-nominated film, you can clearly notice the acting, editing, set design, and a variety of other categories that end up getting nominated. However, as you watch the film, there’s one thing you can’t judge – the screenplay. Sure, you can listen to dialogue, and understand the story’s structure, but for the most part, the screenplay is a mystery.

For those hoping to dive headfirst into the screenplays of many of the 2018 Oscar nominated films, No Film School has you covered.

Continue reading Here’s Your Chance To Read This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Screenplays at The Playlist.

A friendly reminder: The awards season doesn’t need to be awful and it’s really only as unbearable as you chose to make it. Yes, it can certainly be annoying, but, if you look at it as awards given out by a group of 6,000-plus people (Academy Award members) who do not represent the entire world therefore not the objective be-all-end-all arbiters of taste, maybe you can realize the Oscars are not the definitive judges of what makes great art.

Continue reading 2018 Oscar Nominations: Snubs & Surprises at The Playlist.

The Oscar nominations won’t even be revealed until Tuesday, but this is a big weekend if you believe major guild honors are key indicators of what movie will win Best Picture. The PGA Awards are handed out in a private ceremony on Saturday night, while the SAG Awards take place 24 hours later Sunday evening in a broadcast on TNT and TBS (the DGA Awards are not until February).   Last year “Moonlight” made history as the only film this century to win the Best Picture Oscar without taking a key guild honor.

Continue reading Predicting The 2018 SAG Awards & PGA Awards Winners at The Playlist.

I’m right on top of things calendar-wise, right?… I could have easily posted a best top ten list in November, as I had seen most of what I wanted to see, but being a little late to the party meant that I could re-watch, ponder, decipher, what really merited inclusion and what didn’t. It’s become a recurrent trend every year for journalists to look back at the movies that were released and, well, complain. How many articles have you read where the writer said something to the effect of “don’t you remember the days when they used to release great movies”?

Continue reading Jordan Ruimy’s 10 Best Movies Of 2017 at The Playlist.

While it’s been a rough 2017 overall, It’s been a phenomenal year in film. With that being said, below is a list ranking what I believe are the top 20 films of 2017. It was painstakingly difficult cutting my list of 100 to 50, but even harder from 50 to 20. Some notable films that barely missed the cut include: “Wakefield,” “The Lovers,” “Wonder Woman,” “Baby Driver,” “Super Dark Times,” “It,” “Split,” “Personal Shopper,” “Columbus,” “Menashe” “and yes, I left out the fan favorite, “Dunkirk.” I also want to mention that there are films that I have excluded because I have yet to see them, such as: “Phantom Thread,” “The Darkest Hour,” “BPM,” and  “Molly’s Game” just to name a few.

Continue reading Kyle Kohner’s Top 20 Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

Santa Claus may have come and gone, but in the film world, everyone is still making their list and checking it twice. There’s just a few days left on the calendar for 2017, and everyone is sharing their rundown of the best the year had to offer at the movies.

Over at IMDB and Rotten Tomates, they’ve crunched the numbers to determine the “best” films of the year. IMDB obviously leans very blockbuster, and seems more subject to films that underwhelmed at the box office and received mixed to thoroughly awful reviews, but were pushed by fanboys (here’s looking at you “Alien: Covenant” and “Justice League“).

Continue reading IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes Top Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

Conventional wisdom says that you don’t win Best Picture after the nominations are announced, but during the nominations voting round itself.  That likely means between now and January 12, when Oscar nomination ballots are due, a majority of members will not only decide their first choice, but likely their second, third and fourth as well.  Maybe those secondary choices will change slightly during the final phase of voting, but not dramatically.  So, we’ve got a frontrunner right? 

Continue reading There’s A Best Picture Oscar Frontrunner We Just Don’t Know It Yet [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

The long road to the Oscars is drawing closer to its destination, and it moves a few miles up the map today with the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations.

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” led the way, with the film earning four nods, including Best Female Actor (Frances McDormand), Best Supporting Male Actor (Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell) and Outstanding Performance By A Cast.

Continue reading ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ Leads SAG Award Nominees at The Playlist.

As we drag ourselves, bloodied and limping across the finish line of 2017, there’s little to celebrate at year’s end in the world outside the movie theater, except for Fyre Festival which is still the greatest and funniest thing ever. But inside the popcorny passageways of our local multiplexes and the hallowed halls of our local arthouses, it’s been a different story — one that may not have led to the kind of clear consensus winners of previous years (even awards season seems unusually open) but that points to a general breadth of quality that is, we believe, reflected here in our Best Films of the Year poll.

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

As strange as it might be that a hundred or so international journalists have such sway over awards season thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Golden Globes, we have to say that we always enjoy nominations morning: the HFPA very much march to the beat of their own drum, and their picks rarely fail to induce eyebrow raises, adding a touch of unpredictability to an awards season.

Continue reading Snubs & Surprises Of The 2018 Golden Globe Nominations at The Playlist.

It’s that time of year again. That annual rite of passage where movie and TV fans hold their tongue for the 83 or so members of the venerable Hollywood Foreign Press Association (aka HFPA) to shower the global news marketplace with their Golden Globes nominations.  The irony is that in 2017 the HFPA’s little January fete seems like comfort food compared to the constant craziness going on in the world in general  (or at least in the White House).

Continue reading Golden Globes Nomination Predictions: ‘The Post,’ ‘Three Billboards,’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Will & Grace’ at The Playlist.

Though they have no tangible impact on the Oscars, the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Awards do give a nice commercial boost to pictures that get nominated. The group is not without controversy, allowing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to get nominated after voting had closed in 2015. Well, they won’t be doing any such thing this year, as the group have dropped their nominations, knowing full well the first “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” screening won’t happen until this weekend.

Continue reading ‘The Shape Of Water’ Leads Critics Choice Awards Nominations 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.

Continue reading Contender Countdown: Anybody And Everybody Is In It For Best Picture at The Playlist.

 [Updated Feb. 4]

Winner Prediction:
1. Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
2. Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
3. Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor, “The Shape of Water”
5. Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjani, “The Big Sick”

Current predictions:

Best Picture
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Director
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Editing
Cinematography
Production Design
Original Score
Best Song
Costumes
Sound Mixing
Sound Editing
Documentary
Foreign Language Film
Animated Feature Film
Makeup and Hairstyling
Visual Effects

Continue reading 2018 Best Original Screenplay Oscars Predictions at The Playlist.

Venice? Check. Telluride? Check. TIFF? Pretty much, check. The three major film festivals that traditionally mark the start of Oscar season are officially over (TIFF runs until the weekend, but all the major premieres are in the bag). And, for the first time in recent history, there is no real Best Picture frontrunner yet (let alone two when “12 Years A Slave” and “Gravity” split pundits four years ago). There are no Buzzfeed articles out of Toronto proclaiming [insert movie title] is winning Oscar’s top prize or that collective feeling out of Telluride that no matter what happens the industry on hand simply love it too much for it to lose (see “Argo,” “The Artist,” “The King’s Speech”).

Continue reading There Are No Frontrunners Yet, So Here’s Some Unsolicited Oscar Advice For Hollywood 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.

When “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was first announced, there were many who groaned about a reboot coming just three years after Sony scrapped their Spidey plans following “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” However, a canny partnership with Marvel, and a lively take on the character by Tom Holland (first previewed to a winning reception in “Captain America: Civil War“) have added up to a new webslinger that audiences can’t resist.

Continue reading ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Takes A Big Swing Into Cinemas [Box Office] 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.

Many of the world’s most prestigious film festivals happen elsewhere — Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, SXSW —  but BAMCinematek always has your cinephile back every summer with their BAMcinemaFest festival. Carefully curating the highlights of festivals earlier in the year for indie treasures and dumpster-diving for deep cuts that might have been lost along the way, BAMcinemaFest puts a terrific spotlight on worthy films for Brooklyners and New Yorkers.

Filmmaker driven — young auteurs like Alex Ross Perry, David Lowery, Gillian Robespierre and many more are featured — BAMcinemaFest is perfect for the movie lover who’s not quite graduated to world traveler who can fly to every festival abroad.

Continue reading BAMcinemaFest 2017: 8 Must-See Films To Watch 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.

Barely a week after the end of Tribeca, the New York summer festival season is gearing up. Yesterday brought news of a very promising BAMcinemafest line-up, and today brings the Rooftop Films’ 2017 Summer Series slate. As it has for 21 years now, the festival will host a number of outdoor screens at nearly a dozen venues around New York, and they’ve got some ace films lined up.

Among the headliners: Judd Apatow-produced comedy “The Big Sick” with Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan and Holly Hunter, opening film “Band Aid” from Zoe Lister-Jones, Ana Lily Amirpour’s “The Bad Batch” with Jason Momoa, Eliza Hittman’s “Beach Rats,” Kyle Mooney-starring comedy “Brigsby Bear,” “The Incredible Jessica James” with Jessica Williams and Chris O’Dowd, A24’s “Menashe,” Noel Wells’ “Mr.

Continue reading ‘The Bad Batch,’ ‘Rough Night,’ ‘The Big Sick’ Head Up 2017 Rooftop Films Summer Series Line-Up at The Playlist.