“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.

We celebrate the movies at this time of year, and in the wild rush to praise directors and actors for all that nifty directing and acting they did over the last 365 days, we all tend to forget that cinema is about more than just two sets of people. Just read Twitter. Who’s naming anyone other than auteurs and stars? How many times has Steven Spielberg’s name come up? How many times has Janusz Kamiński’s?

Continue reading The Best Cinematography Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Spotting and scrutinizing movie posters this year has felt brand new – like seeing the world with fresh eyes as we rush back into cinemas and can once again place faith in the pictures we see, knowing we will, finally, slowly, be able to bookmark these promises with a trip to the cinemas once more. That’s not to say we’re totally out of the woods yet – rather that there is simply more hope and excitement rather than just longing and loneliness as there was when we made this list this time last year. 

Right now, we celebrate – the colors, the emotion, the unexpected thrills and bold statements filmmakers are once more making with the first images we see of the movies we will so soon fall in love with.

Continue reading The Best Film Posters Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Director Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” is a luminous, layered piece of work about recollection, remembrance, and memory. It’s also an exploratory meta-experience about filmmaking and the act of evoking an experience and a feeling. Obviously, the second part to her first film— “The Souvenir,” a hit at Sundance in 2019— ‘Part II’ continues the story of Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne), the surrogate for Hogg in a semi-autobiographical account of her experiences at film school in London in the 1980s.

Continue reading Joanna Hogg Talks ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ Meta Experiences, Reflective Catharthis & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

Joanna Hogg’s 2019 film “The Souvenir” made a big splash at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival that year. The film went on to win the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the festival that year and was a critic’s favorite, ending up on several Top 10 lists at year’s end. Now, Hogg’s follow-up “The Souvenir Part II” gets its New York premiere with a screening at the New York Film Festival this week, after its world premiere earlier this year in Cannes.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir Part II’ Trailer: Joanna Hogg’s Memory Tribute Is A Meta-Filmmaking Impression at The Playlist.

One of the few positive things the pandemic has done for movie buffs is left us with an onslaught of leftover 2020 titles held for this year’s fall festival circuit. Case in point: the 59th Annual New York Film Festival. 

READ MORE: NYFF 2021 Exclusive Trailer: Take A Peek At The Acclaimed Films Coming To The Upcoming Event

Most all of the major works by revered world cinema directors—many of which have premiered at other fests already— have some kind of presence at NYFF.

Continue reading New York Film Festival 2021: The 17 Most Anticipated Films 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.

Well, that’s a wrap on the 2021 Cannes Film Festival; 56 reviews and counting (there might be one or two more stragglers to come, but we are basically done). It was a pretty great festival and strong year despite the COVID-19 protocol confusion, those changing rules, and Spike Lee spoiling the Palme d’Or prize early (Spike!!).

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival 2021 Preview: 25 Films To Watch

2021 was a strong year, and perhaps that’s not a surprise since films like Wes Anderson‘s “The French Dispatch,” Paul Verhoven‘s “Benedetta,” and other movies basically waited an entire year waiting for the global pandemic to subside so they could premiere under optimal conditions.

Continue reading Best Of Cannes 2021: 15 Must-See Movies From The Festival at The Playlist.

Midway through Joanna Hogg’s seismic “The Souvenir: Part II,” a continuation to her 2019 feature begotten from personal remembrances, her fictional alter ego, Julie (Honor Swinton-Byrne), sits in a van surrounded by the team of student filmmakers helping with her thesis project. The director of photography berates them for the inconsistency of the production attributed to Julie’s scattered-brained process.

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival 2021 Preview: 25 Films To Watch

She remains silent, but anger punctures her.

Continue reading With ‘The Souvenir: Part II’ Joanna Hogg Completes Her Introspective Masterwork [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

It’s that time of year again, though a little delayed. Following the cancellation of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival last year, thanks to the global pandemic, Cannes is triumphantly back this year with a whopper of a line-up, And it’s one that’s perhaps overflowing with things that were due to appear at the festival last year (Wes Anderson‘s “The French Dispatch,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta”) and instead were held for an entire year by the filmmakers and producers.

Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2021 Preview: 25 Films To Watch at The Playlist.

After not having a Cannes Film Festival in 2020, obviously due to the pandemic, it appears the French event is making up for lost time with an absolutely stacked lineup of features in 2021. And thankfully, for film fans that aren’t able to make the trip to France right now, the festival has released a bunch of first-look photos for some of our most anticipated features of the festival.

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival: Gaspar Noe, Bill Murray, Ari Folman, And More Added To Lineup

For those unaware, as mentioned, the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is chock full of incredible filmmakers and intriguing features that should get film fans excited.

Continue reading Cannes First Looks: ‘Red Rocket,’ The Souvenir II,’ ‘After Yang,’ ‘Titane’ & More at The Playlist.

Following the COVID-19-driven cancelation last year, the Cannes’ the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar section returns in full force. Organizer Paolo Moretti and his selection committee have unveiled the official selection for the 53rd edition of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, and it’s full of great picks and several women filmmakers (Cannes only has four films by female filmmakers playing in competition). Notably, the biggest highlight is probably the world premiere of Joanna Hogg‘s “The Souvenir Part II,” the sequel to her British coming-of-age drama starring Tilda Swinton and her daughter Honor Swinton Byrne.

Continue reading Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2021 Lineup Includes ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ The Latest From Clio Barnard, Miguel Gomes & More at The Playlist.

Every year is a good year to stan female directors, but 2021 has cooked us up a real feast. Acting veterans like Rebecca Hall, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, and Halle Berry are finally claiming their director’s chairs on feature films, while arthouse icon Jane Campion is returning to hers after 12 years. Foreign language directors like Lucile Hadžihalilović and Ildikó Enyedi are making their English-language debuts, and French juggernaut Mélanie Laurent is working on two releases back to back.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2021 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.

Academy snubs be damned, 2019 was a spectacular end to a decade of outstanding films directed by women. Joanna Hogg reinvented visual memoir with “The Souvenir,” Lulu Wang challenged American conceptions of family and death in “The Farewell,” and Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” adaptation upended one of the most iconic American novels by and about a woman.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2020 at The Playlist.