Paul Schrader is under no illusions about “Master Gardener,” the sure-to-be-divisive final chapter in an informal trilogy that kicked off with 2017’s “First Reformed” and continued with last year’s “The Card Counter.” For starters: the film centers on a former white supremacist (played by Joel Edgerton) and his attempts at redemption.

“This one is going to piss people off,” Schrader told IndieWire of the film, which premiered out of competition this weekend at the Venice Film Festival, where the auteur is also being given a lifetime achievement award.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Predicts Controversy For His Hot-Button ‘Master Gardener’: ‘This One Is Going To Piss People Off’ at The Playlist.

Yes, we should be entirely way done with 2021, but permit us to close the books on this difficult year with one last belated feature whose title is not meant to be a backhanded compliment to the films, nor scolding and yes, generally relative as many people did see them, but not most (and yes, there will be some overlap with our Best of 2021 coverage, though it’s minor)

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2021

While most of us remain inside with far too many streaming options dangled in front of our eyes,  it doesn’t appear general audiences will be returning to theaters for movies that contain anything less than three Peter Parkers uniting on screen anytime soon.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 You Didn’t See at The Playlist.

It’s been a tradition for years now and it continues in 2021—former President of the United States, Barack Obama, has released his top films of the year. And as with previous years, it’s a healthy mix of high-profile gems and things that may have fallen under the radar that he clearly wants to put some extra shine on. 

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2021

One thing you have to understand is that Obama never ranks the movies, he just presents a list of his “favorite” films.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Films Of 2021 List Includes ‘Drive My Car,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Card Counter’ & More at The Playlist.

“The movies are back, baby!” went the refrain this summer, up to, during, and continuously after the heavenly 10-day stretch around June where everything looked like it might really go back to normal, actual normal and not “new” normal; “new” normal is in no way preferable to “normal” normal, just like “new recipe” Butterfingers are trash compared to the genuine article. Be that as it may, enough folks insisted on the pandemic’s subsiding that the movies did indeed come back, and they brought with them another detail missing and longed-for in the sacred big-screen experience: Soundtracks.

Continue reading The Best Scores & Soundtracks of 2021 at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

It’s the last month of the year, and the last couple of weeks before Christmas, so the new release shelves are loaded up this week with fall prestige pictures, family favorites on 4K, and catalog favorites from the recent and distant past. 

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Power Of The Dog,’ ‘The Last Duel,’ ‘The Card Counter’ & More at The Playlist.

We certainly have not resumed full normalcy as we continue to battle this pandemic, but at least we have movies—even more than last year. With certain reservations about how they were premiered, released, and distributed, this year in film brought back more festival favorites like Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” more massive franchise golden geese like Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “No Time to Die,” more awards-friendly fare that had been held over, like Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

It’s early autumn in Yerevan and Paul Schrader is reminiscing. Four short years since the incredible success of “First Reformed,” the director returned to Venice this year with “The Card Counter,” another of his signature “man in a room” character studies and, yes, another triumph. All that talk of a renaissance has not been lost on him: “Do you know who Pierre Rissient was?” the director growls, in that gravelly way, “He died about a year ago, big French critic, big guy at Cannes.

Continue reading Paul Schrader On ‘The Card Counter,’ Almost Casting Oscar Isaac 25 Years Ago & More [GAIFF Interview] at The Playlist.

Actor Oscar Isaac has been known to make character studies alongside large studio movies throughout his career; before “Star Wars,” he was making things like Zack Snyder‘s “Sucker Punch,” “X-Men: Apocalypse,” and Ridley Scott‘s “Robin Hood.”

READ MORE: Oscar Isaac On Returning To Superheroes In ‘Moon Knight’ After ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘: “We’re Making Something That’s Quite Different”

However, while speaking to the press in Venice via Deadline, Isaac noted that he needed a break from green screen/blockbuster work to focus on something more character-focused, which led to making Paul Schrader‘s dramatic gambling pic “The Card Counter” that will be playing at the festival (our review here).

Continue reading Oscar Isaac Made ‘The Card Counter’ Because He Was “Desperate To Do A Character Study” After “Being In Green Screen Space Land” at The Playlist.

What if you’ve paid your debt to society, but the spiritual weight of what you truly owe for your past actions can never be repaid in full? Following the terrific comeback reception to “First Reformed” and the spartan, Bresson-ian transcendental style employed within, feeling good about his chances, filmmaker Paul Schrader doubles down on austere slow cinema again in “The Card Counter,” a movie about the moral balance a man can accrue.

Continue reading ‘The Card Counter:’ Oscar Isaac Scorches In Paul Schrader’s Hypnotic, Slow-Burn Moral Thriller [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

Maybe it comes from having a decades-long career being considered a film legend, but Paul Schrader is unafraid to speak his mind. However, as he is quick to point out, the filmmaker is keenly aware that speaking your mind in today’s political climate can result in some serious losses in your career due to “cancel culture.”

Speaking to Deadline, while promoting his new film “The Card Counter,” Paul Schrader opened up about what he perceives are the ills of cancel culture.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Talks “Infectious” Cancel Culture As Three New Clips From ‘The Card Counter’ Debut at The Playlist.

With summer ending far too soon, the only consolation is that it would seem like the film industry is finally readying itself for a return to “normalcy” both for better or worse. Festival season is upon us with Venice, Toronto, Telluride, and the New York Film Festival all gearing up as tired and frantic critics try to make viewing schedules. We also have our extensive fall preview with everything from blockbusters to the likely Oscar contenders.

Continue reading 12 Movies To Watch In September: ‘Card Counter,’ ‘Eyes Of Tammy Faye’ & More at The Playlist.

Trust us when we say we hope there’s a day when the words pandemic and COVID-19 are never written on the pages of this website again, specifically in any intros to any features. However, the reality is that the collective disruption of 2020 was difficult, and it made 2021’s release schedule something of a log-jammed shitshow. That Delta variant could play havoc with things too, but we’re all starting to learn to live with a world that’s in flux. 

READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2021, So Far

All that said, the delays of 2021 have had their pluses.

Continue reading Fall 2021 Movie Preview: 60+ Must-See Films at The Playlist.

It’s late August, and while the leaves aren’t falling just quite yet, the Fall Film Festival season is upon us. As usual, the Venice Film Festival always starts with the Telluride Film Festival following on its heels just a day or two later. Venice’s line-up has been stellar the last few years—in part due to Netflix’s ongoing battle with Cannes and their French theatrical rules—and this year is mostly no different.

Continue reading Venice Film Festival 2021 Preview: 12 Must-See Films To Watch at The Playlist.

The latest film from Paul Schrader, the new thriller, “The Card Counter,” finds itself in a similar position as many features from the last year. The film was greenlit and began production prior to the massive worldwide outbreak of COVID. And like many other features, “The Card Counter” found its production shut down due to the entire film industry taking a step back to deal with the pandemic.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Talks Getting Martin Scorsese To Sign Up For ‘The Card Counter’ & How He Helped With The Finished Film at The Playlist.

Shortly after being announced as part of the lineup at the 78th Venice Film Festival, the latest feature from Paul Schrader (“First Reformed”), “The Card Counter,” finally has its first trailer, and it looks like audiences don’t even have to wait until the festival is done to see it. Starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe, the film is about, well, a card counter who gives guidance to a young man who is out for revenge against a mutual enemy. 

Continue reading ‘The Card Counter’ Trailer: Oscar Isaac Seeks Redemption In Paul Schrader’s Latest Drama at The Playlist.

With the lack of a Cannes (and a regular film festival circuit) in 2020 due to the pandemic, there were multiple reports that a lot of filmmakers were going to hold their work back until there could be a semi-normal event to premiere. Well, judging by early reports about which films might show up, it appears that Cannes 2021 could become a truly star-studded affair with some huge projects debuting at the event.

Continue reading Cannes 2021: New Films From Paul Thomas Anderson, Paul Schrader, Jane Campion, Sean Penn & More Could Premiere at The Playlist.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Aside from the election result, Trashfire 2020™ was a shitty year. And a weird and disorienting year thanks to COVID-19 and having to shelter-in-place, quarantine, and social distance from one another blah, blah, blah coronavirus f*cked us hard. Movies certainly took it in the teeth this year, and especially the theatrical industrial complex, which feels like it’s on its last legs. But regardless of what happens next for theaters, people are going to continue making and releasing movies.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

One of our most anticipated films of the year, Paul Schrader’s forthcoming drama, “The Card Counter,” was a victim of the COVID-19 film industry shutdown back in March. The frustrating part, particularly for the filmmaker, is the fact that he only had five days left of shooting before he would have been done. However, in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Schrader explained that the delay was ultimately a good thing and it made the recent restart of production much easier.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Says He Could Finish ‘The Card Counter’ In A Month But The Studio Doesn’t Want Him To at The Playlist.

Oscar Isaac has one of the more eclectic acting careers amongst A-listers today. Over the years, he’s worked for filmmakers such as Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive”), Zack Snyder (“Sucker Punch”), the Coen Brothers (“Inside Llewyn Davis”), Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”), and Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”), just to name several.

Continue reading Oscar Isaac Says His ‘Star Wars’ Days Are Likely Over & Calls ‘Card Counter’ A Career “Turning Point” at The Playlist.

Paul Schrader is a legend. The man is one of the best filmmakers of all time, responsible for some of the best films of the last 50 years. And he’s not stopping anytime soon, even during a global pandemic. We already know that he’s frustrated by the idea of having to shut down production on his upcoming drama, “The Card Counter,” but as detailed in a new interview, Schrader has a lot of other things on his mind while he continues to work on the film during lockdown.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Explains The Story Of ‘The Card Counter’ & How Cinemas Are Doomed After The Pandemic at The Playlist.

Films and TV series all over the world have seen their production halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. No film and series is safe, as we’ve seen Warner Bros. stop work on “The Batman” and Disney pretty much suspend the studio’s entire slate. But in the case of Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter,” the film was so close to ending production, it wasn’t stopped immediately.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Upset That “Pussified Producers” Stopped ‘The Card Counter’ Production Amid Positive Coronavirus Test at The Playlist.

If you’ve been following our Paul Schrader updates over the last several months, you know we’ve been keeping an eye on the upcoming film “The Card Counter.” While nothing has officially been announced, the legendary filmmaker has been dropping hints and teases on his Facebook for a while now about his follow-up film to 2018’s “First Reformed.” And now, with the official announcement, we now have all the details about what we can expect from Schrader’s next project.

Continue reading Martin Scorsese To Executive Produce The New Paul Schrader Film Starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish & Willem Dafoe at The Playlist.

Like many filmmakers from the ’70s/’80s heyday of American cinema, Paul Schrader has had a bit of a rough go of it in the new millennium. While he’s definitely one of the most respected writers and directors to grace a film set in the last 50 years, there was a stretch from roughly 2000 to 2017 where Schrader was adjusting to the new era of Hollywood and his films didn’t create the buzz they once did.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Confirms Oscar Isaac, Willem Dafoe & Tiffany Haddish For New Poker Drama at The Playlist.

Even before he wrote and directed one of 2018’s best films with “First Reformed,” filmmaker Paul Schrader had already established himself as a legend in Hollywood. Sure, he may not be the person most likely to play by the studio game and say all the most appropriate things (which makes his Facebook a must-follow), but this is the man responsible for writing some of the best films ever. Period.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Chooses His Own ‘First Reformed’ As The Best Film Of The Past Decade at The Playlist.

Last year’s “First Reformed” puts film fans in a tough position. When a new film from Paul Schrader is announced, should we be super excited or a bit hesitant? Of course, Schrader is the writer behind films such as “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” and “The Last Temptation of Christ.” However, he’s also the man who directed “The Canyons.” So, when “First Reformed” was released and quickly became one of the best films of last year, Schrader’s career seems like it marks the return to glory for Schrader.

Continue reading Oscar Isaac To Star in Paul Schrader’s Upcoming Film ‘The Card Counter’ at The Playlist.