There’s an old saying at the Playlist Mansion: you do not truly know a person until you’ve asked them to chose the one film they feel was most overrated and the one they feel was most underrated in any given year. It’s not very catchy. But it is a credo with a surprising amount of wisdom in it, as well as the welcome potential for our beloved, esteemed and generally faultless contributors to make complete public fools of themselves.

Continue reading The Most Overrated & Underrated Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

The summer movie season is winding down, and as always, there are some movies which didn’t get the attention they deserved, and one of them is the “The Phenom,” a truly original psychological baseball drama. And today we want to give some lucky readers a chance to catch up with their own DVD copies.

READ MORE: ‘The Phenom’ With Johnny Simmons, Paul Giamatti & Ethan Hawke Is An Intriguingly Unconventional Baseball Movie [Review]

Directed by Noah Buschel (“Glass Chin“), and starring Ethan Hawke, Paul Giamatti, and Johnny Simmons, the movie revolves around a hard throwing pitcher, Hopper, who ever since he was a child has dreamed of becoming a major-league pitcher.

Continue reading Contest: Win Baseball Drama ‘The Phenom’ With Ethan Hawke, Paul Giamatti & Johnny Simmons On DVD at The Playlist.

The promising rookie, the come from behind victory, the underdog beating the odds, the veteran making one last stand — baseball movies usually follow a familiar pattern, and generally speaking, the genre has largely drawn from this well. They are also pictures that usually have an extra coating of nostalgia for the country’s national pastime, a reverence for the sport that has passed afternoons and evenings for decades. However, “The Phenom” is not that movie.

Continue reading ‘The Phenom’ With Johnny Simmons, Paul Giamatti & Ethan Hawke Is An Intriguingly Unconventional Baseball Movie [Review] at The Playlist.

Generally speaking, baseball movies (and sports flicks in general) tend to follow a down-on-your-luck team or player as they wise up, overcome obstacles, and win the Big Game. Rarely does a film probe the psychological underpinnings of a rising star, but the upcoming “The Phenom” does just that, in what looks like “Whiplash” for baseball.

Ethan Hawke stars in what would be the J.K.

Continue reading Watch: Trailer For ‘The Phenom’ Starring Ethan Hawke Is Like ‘Whiplash’ For Baseball at The Playlist.