Already a big enough hit in the U.K. to earn a second season, anyone who has watched even a few minutes of the NBA Playoffs on TNT has seen the ubiquitous ads for “The Lazarus Project,” premiering June 4th, and probably wondered what the heck is going on. Flipping cars, frightened looks, intense warnings; is this another time loop story like “Palm Springs” or “Happy Death Day”?

Continue reading ‘The Lazarus Project’ TV Review: Joe Barton’s Clever Sci-Fi Import Puts A New Spin On An Old Concept at The Playlist.

Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio has achieved a lot of great things in the last few years, ever since his career took off with the 2013 film “Gloria.” For one, A24 asked him to remake that film as “Gloria Bell” in 2018, starring Julianne Moore. Then the year before that, he released two movies in one year, 2017’s “Disobedience” and “A Fantastic Woman,” the latter winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, making it the first Chilean film to win that honor.

Continue reading ‘The Wonder’ Trailer: Florence Pugh Stars In A Period Psychological Drama For Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Sebastián Lelio at The Playlist.

We’ve seen it before; girl meets boy, boy asks girl out, boy and girl fall in love, and they live happily ever after. From watching the trailer, you may think that the aforementioned familiar story is what we will see from “True Things,” but the opposite is the case. “True Things” is anything but true love, and director Harry Wootliff described the film as a “cautionary tale of a destructive sexual relationship that is both complex and ordinary; a relationship that is in fact so familiar to us that it’s almost a rite of passage.”

READ MORE: ‘True Things’: A Sexy Romantic Drama Starring Ruth Wilson And Tom Burke [Venice Review]

“True Things” centers on a toxic and predatory relationship played by Ruth Wilson (“The Affair,” “His Dark Materials”) and Tom Burke (“Mank”).

Continue reading ‘True Things’ Clip: Tom Burke Gaslights Ruth Wilson In Harry Wootliff’s New Toxic Relationship Drama at The Playlist.

Originally premiering at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, “True Things” starring Ruth Wilson (“Luther,” “The Affair”) and Tom Burke (“The Souvenir,” “Mank”) is finally coming out in the U.S. this fall. Written and directed by Harry Wootliff, “True Things” tells the story of Kate played by Wilson, a girl who sleepwalks through life when an encounter with a stranger awakens her.

Continue reading ‘True Things’ Trailer: Ruth Wilson And Tom Burke Star In A Waking Nightmare Of Lust & Bad Decisions at The Playlist.

Attempting to remake a classic film is never an easy assignment. Especially when said classic is as revered as Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 drama “Ikiru.” Director Oliver Hermanus and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro could have placed the story in contemporary times, making a new version more palatable for some critics, but instead, set it in the exact same era only interchanging London for Tokyo. Their bold arrow aimed at the heart of the movie gods pays off wonderfully as their moving collaboration, “Living,” distinguishes itself as one of the best films to debut at the 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Living’ Review: Bill Nighy Is Stellar In This Moving Remake [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Following his celebrated turns in “Watchmen,” “Candyman,” and “The Trial of the Chicago, “Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is arguably one of the most in-demand actors of the moment. Next month, he turns up “The Matrix Resurrections” as the new Morpheus; after that, it’s starring next to Jake Gyllenhaal in Michael Bay’s “Ambulance,” and he’s currently shooting “Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom.” But one highly anticipated film he won’t be appearing in now is the new “Mad Max: Furiosa” film.

Continue reading ‘Furiosa’: Tom Burke From ‘Mank’ Replaces Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Due To Scheduling Issues at The Playlist.

“True Things” is a “romantic” drama that is not romantic in the slightest. In the tradition of films like Catherine Breillat’s “Romance” and Adrian Lyne’s “9 ½ weeks,” the focus is on what is revealed about a female protagonist by how much she is willing to sacrifice to briefly experience passion with an unreliable yet sexy man. This premise is fatally undermined by the decision to keep Kate (Ruth Wilson) a vague figure as sophomore director, Harry Wootliff, invites audiences to project their own pasts onto this broadly sketched dynamic of impossible desire based on a book by Deborah Kay Davies, ‘True Things About Me.’ Instead of conjuring resonance, the result is a bland heroine whose lack of distinguishing features makes it hard to give a damn as she goes through the motions of setting fire to her life. 

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival 2021 Preview: 12 Must-See Films To Watch

Kate is in her mid-to-late 30s and works as a benefits advisor in the picturesque British seaside town of Ramsgate.

Continue reading ‘True Things’: A Sexy Romantic Drama With No Sparks Due To Its Bland Characters [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

David Fincher‘s “Mank,” is a black and white prestige drama starring Gary Oldman about the writing and making of legendary filmmaker Orson Welles‘ “Citizen Kane” — often considered one of the greatest movies of all time and it looks unlike anything the filmmaker has made before, much more in a “serious-drama” rather than than the genre films he usually makes.

Continue reading ‘Mank’ Trailer: David Fincher Looks At The Magic Of The Movies Through The Making Of ‘Citizen Kane’ at The Playlist.

“It’s breathtaking, even by David Fincher standards,” said “The Social Network” screenwriter Aaron Sorkin yesterday on the just-released Happy Sad Confused podcast, about Fincher’s new movie “Mank.” And that’s a hell of an endorsement to lead the way for today’s trailer unveiling of “Mank,” a black and white prestige drama starring Gary Oldman about the writing and making of legendary filmmaker Orson Welles‘ “Citizen Kane” — often considered one of the greatest movies of all time.

Continue reading ‘Mank’ Trailer: David Fincher Brings The Story Of Making ‘Citizen Kane’ To Life at The Playlist.

If you’re a fan of comic books, especially those from the past four decades, you likely owe quite a bit to writer Alan Moore. With his landmark series such as “Watchmen,” “Batman: The Killing Joke,” “V for Vendetta,” “From Hell,” and “Swamp Thing,” the writer revolutionized an industry, introducing a more adult, literary take on the kid-friendly medium.

Continue reading ‘The Show’ Teaser: ‘Watchmen’ Writer Alan Moore Returns With A Strange, Dreamy Feature at The Playlist.

It’s been a long time coming, but fans of David Fincher, or Orson Welles‘ classic “Citizen Kane” finally have their first official look at the upcoming drama “Mank.” Though we still don’t have a specific release date other than Fall 2020, we at least get a look at how Fincher’s latest film will look.

READ MORE: 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch

As seen in the new first-look images from the upcoming Netflix film, “Mank” follows the production troubles that occurred during the making of “Citizen Kane” — more specifically, those between Hollywood screenwriter Herman J.

Continue reading ‘Mank’ First Look: Netflix And Fincher Re-Examine The Making Of ‘Citizen Kane’ With New Images That Reveal The Cast at The Playlist.

Christmas 2019 came a little early this year. July, in fact. You see, that’s when it was announced that David Fincher was prepping to direct the upcoming film “Mank.” Then, just recently, it was announced that Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and others joined the cast, making our excitement for the film go up that much higher. But now that we know the roles each actor is playing, we can finally begin to imagine just how Fincher’s upcoming film is going to look.

Continue reading ‘Mank’: Here’s Who Amanda Seyfried, Tom Burke & Lily Collins Play In David Fincher’s Film About ‘Citizen Kane’ at The Playlist.

Joanna Hogg has long been a critical favorite, but with her fourth film, “The Souvenir,” which was picked up by A24 after impressing audiences at Sundance, she seems poised to pick up legions of new fans (our Sundance review). “The Souvenir” stars Honor Swinton Byrne (daughter of Tilda Swinton, who plays her mother in this film) as Julie, a young film student in the 1980s who falls into a tempestuous romance with Anthony (Tom Burke), a darkly charismatic young man whose quick wit and aristocratic bearing hide a serious drug addiction.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir’ Director Joanna Hogg Discusses On-Camera Discoveries And Exploring Memory [Interview] at The Playlist.

One imagines it would be incredibly intimidating for any woman to perform opposite Tilda Swinton in their first major role, imagine if the Academy Award-winning acting idol was also your mother. Honor Swinton Byrne will likely not be accused of having a career owed to nepotism, going off earlier reactions to “The Souvenir” – winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Award at this past Sundance.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir’ Trailer: Honor Swinton Byrne Acts Alongside Her Mother In The Acclaimed Sundance Romance at The Playlist.

Survived pain arises as both a vehicle for growth and catalyst for the revaluation of one’s impetus in Joanna Hogg’s introspectively awe-inspiring stroke of virtuosity “The Souvenir,” an artifact of semi-autobiographical memory through which the director thoughtfully analyzes a toxic bond with an enigmatic lover.

READ MORE: Sundance 2019 Film Festival Preview: 25 Must-See Films

Hogg, an auteur orchestrating the reconstruction of a harrowing episode partially from her past, correlates such romantic tragedy with the gestation of her artistic sensibilities.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir’: Suffering Yields Reinvention For a Young Artist in Joanna Hogg’s Exquisitely Personal Drama [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

First, the summer saw the debut of “Harry Potter And The Cursed Child,” a stage play by Jack Thorne, based on a story written with Rowling, that tracks Harry’s son on a new adventure.

Continue reading J.K. Rowling’s ‘Cormoran Strike’ Novels Becoming TV Series, Tom Burke To Star at The Playlist.