Anytime we can get a new voice from the boisterous, hyper-creative New Zealand comedy scene, consider it a great day for the genre.

“The Breaker Uppers” is the debut effort from comedic actresses Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek (who also star), a rom-com that looks to be as lucid and dry as the best work of Taika Waititi, who’s lent his name to the film as a presenter.

Continue reading ‘The Breaker Upperers’ Trailer: Taika Waititi Produces This Hilarious Anti-Rom-Com at The Playlist.

We are robots. We cover film and our best of year-end lists cover every single possible angle of film and TV. And yes, we’re oh so tired and we hope this doesn’t feel too perfunctory. Look, we’ve covered, as suggested, every stripe of 2018 movie and TV coverage performances, new directors, breakout actors and actresses, documentaries, all kinds of new exciting talents and each year we say to ourselves, “eh, let’s dial this back, it’s too much, no one cares that much do they?” And each year we find ourselves going, “Oooh, ooh, oooh!

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2019 We’ve Already Seen at The Playlist.

It’s easy to think of Taika Waititi as an overnight success. It’s barely three years since the one-two punch of “What We Do In The Shadows” and “Hunt For The Wilderpeople” made him one of the hottest directors around, landed him a Marvel movie that helped him to reinvent one of the more difficult characters around in “Thor: Ragnarok,” and led to jobs involving “Star Wars,” Hitler and Michael Jackson’s monkey.

Continue reading Taika Waititi-Produced ‘The Breaker Upperers’ Is Your New Favorite Comedy [LFF Review] at The Playlist.