OK, we’re already past the halfway mark of 2023, so it’s time for a Best-Of-Year, So Far list, cool? As usual, our mid-year list contains films released right up until, well, yesterday, basically. Our “rules,” insofar as we stick to them, is that films on this should have had a U.S. theatrical release and not just show up at a film festival, but as you might remember from the past, we bend those rules a little here and there.

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2023… So Far at The Playlist.

The Criterion Collection already corners the home-video market for prestige releases of classic and contemporary foreign films. Now the company adds a new line of releases alongside its central line-up. What’s the new brand? Criterion will work with Janus Films on Janus Contemporaries, a home-video line for first-run international releases. The DVD/Blu-Ray editions of these films will also coincide with their premieres on the Criterion Channel, Criterion’s streaming service.

Continue reading The Criterion Announces Janus Contemporaries, A New Home-Video Line For First-Run Theatrical Releases at The Playlist.

“I didn’t expect to find a friend like Bruno in my life. Nor that friendship was a place where you put down roots, that remains waiting for you.” It’s with these words, delivered in wistful voiceover, that Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch open “The Eight Mountains,” their sublime and gently aching adaptation of the Italian bestseller by Paolo Cognetti.

Set against the breathtaking mountain vistas of northwestern Italy, the film — which won the jury prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival — first explores the bond between two young boys, one visiting a village in the scenic Valle d’Aosta region over the summer and the other born there to cow-herder parents.

Continue reading ‘The Eight Mountains’ Directors On Their Acclaimed Cannes Friendship Drama, Filming in The Italian Alps & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

Felix van Groeningen‘s last film, 2018’s “Beautiful Boy” with Steve Carrell and Timothée Chalamet, was his English-language debut. But Groeningen returns to his roots, at least artistically, for his latest. The director teams up with his wife, Charlotte Vandermeersch, for the fourth time to co-direct “The Eight Mountains,” which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

Continue reading ‘The Eight Mountains’ Trailer: Cannes 2022 Jury Prize Winner Hits NYC Theaters On April 28 at The Playlist.

For his most subdued film yet, Belgian director Felix van Groeningen, along with co-directing partner Charlotte Vandermeersch take to the Italian Alps for a decades-spanning story of friendship. Following Groeningen’s solo effort, 2018’s “Beautiful Boy,” “The Eight Mountains” is a quiet return to form with its stunning mountain scenery and strong performances from Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi, but this elegiac personal epic is far too languid for its length.

Continue reading ‘Eight Mountains’ Review: Felix Van Groeningen Returns To Form With A Sentimental Ode To Friendship In The Alps [Cannes] at The Playlist.