Life is hard for most 16-year-olds. But things get even more difficult when you’re secretly a Kraken, as seen in the new animated film, “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.”

READ MORE: Summer 2023 Movie Preview: 52 Must-See Films To Watch

The trailer for ‘Ruby Gillman’ sets up the basic premise of the film. Ruby is a 16-year-old girl just trying to fit in and be a normal kid.

Continue reading ‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ Trailer: Lana Condor & Toni Collette Star In New Animated Adventure at The Playlist.

DreamWorks Animation had a big hit to close out 2022 with “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.” Will the studio’s next feature fare as well with critics? Audiences find out this summer when “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” surfs into theaters everywhere in June.

The upcoming film follows a teenage girl desperate to fit into her high school who discovers, against her mom’s wishes, that she’s the heir to the throne of the warrior Kraken queens who rule the seven seas.

Continue reading ‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ Trailer: An Ordinary High School Girl Discovers She’s A Warrior Kraken In New DreamWorks Film at The Playlist.

Toni Collette is one of the best actors working today. She is someone who can go from utter terror in “Hereditary” to the crime drama series, “Unbelievable,” and the true-crime series “The Staircase.” And now, she’s tackling a silly mob comedy in “Mafia Mamma.” 

READ MORE: ‘The Power’ Trailer: Auli’i Cravalho & Toni Collette Star In A Sci-Fi-ish Thriller Series About Teenage Girls With Electrical Powers

As seen in the trailer for “Mafia Mamma,” the film follows the story of an American woman who finds herself unknowingly taking over a crime family in Italy after the death of her grandfather.

Continue reading ‘Mafia Mamma’ Trailer: Toni Collette Is An American Mom Taking Over An Italian Mob Family In This New Comedy at The Playlist.

Way back in 2019, it was announced that filmmaker Reed Morano, a cinematographer turned director (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Rhythm Section”), would adapt, along with Jane Featherstone, the book “The Power” from novelist Naomi Alderman. The book centered on a central premise of women developing the ability to release electrical jolts from their fingers, thus leading them to become the dominant sex.

Continue reading ‘The Power’ Trailer: Auli’i Cravalho & Toni Collette Star In A Sci-Fi-ish Thriller Series About Teenage Girls With Electrical Powers at The Playlist.

Toni Collette has had quite a busy 2022, starring in two limited series, Netflix‘s “Pieces Of Her” and HBO Max‘s “The Staircase.” Filmwise, she also stars in “The Estate,” which hit limited theaters last month. Now, Collette kicks off 2023 with “Mafia Mamma,” an action comedy from “Miss Bala” director Catherine Hardwicke.

Continue reading ‘Mafia Mamma’ Red Band Teaser: Toni Collette Inherits A Mafia Empire In Upcoming Action Comedy at The Playlist.

“Aunt Hilda is dying of cancer and I don’t really care.” That’s the opening quote from the trailer for “The Estate,” a dark comedy slated for Nov. 4 about two down-on-their-luck sisters (Toni Collette and Anna Faris) who try scheming their way into the will of their terminal aunt, the ultra-loaded — and not-exactly-beloved — Hilda, played by Kathleen Turner.

And they aren’t the only ones.

Continue reading ‘The Estate’ Trailer: Toni Collette And Anna Faris Scheme To Win Kathleen Turner’s Affections In Vicious Dark Comedy at The Playlist.

Ever since “Parasite” took the cinematic world by storm in 2019, people have wondered how Bong Joon Ho would follow it up. And while “Mickey7,” Bong’s next film, has yet to head into production, it already sounds incredible.  Robert Pattinson will star as a disposable employee with six life spans on a human expedition to colonize an ice planet. And the film will also star the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Ackie, and Toni Collette.  

READ MORE: Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo & Naomi Ackie Join Robert Pattinson For Bong Joon-Ho’s Next Sci-Fi Film

As if those names aren’t exciting enough.

Continue reading ‘Mickey7’: Steven Yeun Reunites With Bong Joon Ho For Director’s First Film Since ‘Parasite’ at The Playlist.

Ever since “Parasite” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2019 and then swept that season’s Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and more, Hollywood has wondered what Bong Joon-Ho‘s next project would be. Well, things are beginning to take shape as Warner Bros. announced that more actors have joined Robert Pattinson for the as-yet-untitled new film’s ensemble.

READ MORE: Robert Pattinson To Star In Bong Joon-Ho’s New Sci-Fi Film

Deadline reports that Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Naomi Ackie will join Pattinson as part of the cast of Bong’s follow-up to his 2019 smash hit.

Continue reading Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo & Naomi Ackie Join Robert Pattinson For Bong Joon-Ho’s Next Sci-Fi Film at The Playlist.

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our revitalized TV and streaming podcast, co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Rodrigo Perez dive into HBO Max’s new true-life murder series, “The Staircase.” Based on the much-buzzed-about documentary of the same name, the show follows the true story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home, and the 16-year judicial battle that followed.

Continue reading ‘The Staircase’: Antonio Campos On His Michael Peterson Obsession & Adding More Story Details [Bingeworthy Podcast] at The Playlist.

On December 9, 2001, Michael Peterson called 911 in a state of absolute panic. He reported that he had just found his wife Kathleen at the bottom of their stairs in their North Carolina home, and the scene was ghastly. Kathleen Peterson was pronounced dead at the scene and authorities immediately became skeptical of Michael’s story that his wife must have fallen after mixing Valium and alcohol. As the investigation progressed, the secret life of Michael Peterson became exposed to public scrutiny as did an amazing coincidence regarding another woman’s death and some truly unusual case details.

Continue reading ‘The Staircase’ Review: Antonio Campos Crafts A Compelling True-Crime Drama With Colin Firth, Toni Collette & More at The Playlist.

Before the popularity of true crime exploded, the 2004 French docuseries “The Staircase” was one of the genre’s crown jewels. Jean-Xavier de Lastrade’s non-fiction chronicle of the mystery surrounding the 2001 death of Kathleen Peterson won a Peabody Award in 2005, anticipating the success of podcasts like “Serial” and docuseries like “The Jinx.” Now, the infamous story is coming to HBO Max in a new scripted adaptation from writer/director Antonio Campos (“The Devil All the Time”).

Continue reading ‘The Staircase’ Trailer: Colin Firth & Toni Collette Star In A True Crime Mini-Series From Director Antonio Campos at The Playlist.

A “must-see” is a term that gets thrown around quite a bit nowadays, with streaming services throwing out major TV series and films all the time. But with HBO’s “The Staircase,” the term couldn’t be more appropriate. 

READ MORE: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2022

As seen in the trailer for “The Staircase,” the series adapts the unbelievable true crime story about Michael Peterson and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen.

Continue reading ‘The Staircase’ Trailer: Colin Firth & Toni Collette Star In Antonio Campos’ True Crime Drama at The Playlist.

The true-crime phenomenon—documentaries, movies, documentaries, series, and everything in between—has obviously hit an absolute zenith in recent years. This inexorable truth would explain why HBO Max would bother rehashing the mysterious circumstances of the death of Kathleen Peterson with their new scripted series “The Staircase” from showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohen (“American Crime Story”)—there’s still so much meat on the bone.

Continue reading ‘The Staircase’: First Look At HBO Max True-Crime Series Starring Colin Firth & Toni Collette at The Playlist.

Toni Collette’s back-catalog of memorable mothers continues to grow. She’s played maternal figures who are tender (“The Sixth Sense”), terrifying (“Hereditary”), and complicated (“The United States of Tara”). Now, in Netflix’s new series “Pieces of Her,” Collette is a deeply enigmatic mom whose checkered past makes up the brunt of the twisty thriller’s action.

“Pieces of Her” opens strong.

Continue reading ‘Pieces Of Her’ Review: Toni Collette & Bella Heathcote Star In A Twisty Thriller About Family History at The Playlist.

“A woman pieces together her mother’s dark past after a violent attack in their small town brings hidden threats and deadly secrets to light,” that’s the Netflix logline of “Pieces Of Her,” a new upcoming streaming series with a terrific cast, featuring leads, Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote.

READ MORE: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2022

Based on Karin Slaughter’s New York Times bestselling novel, Charlotte Stoudt (“Fosse/Verdon”) wrote the series adaptation and serves as showrunner, while Minkie Spiro (“The Plot Against America”) will direct all eight episodes.

Continue reading ‘Pieces Of Her’ First Look: New Toni Collette, Bella Heathcote-Starring Series Debuts In March at The Playlist.

Since his 1993 debut “Cronos,” it’s always been explicit that Guillermo del Toro is a genre filmmaker at heart. Over the years, the director has tackled several different kinds of horror films. He’s done vampires in “Cronos” and 2002’s “Blade II” and gothic horror in 2001’s “Devil’s Backbone” and 2015’s “Crimson Peak.” He’s also done variations on the creature feature in 1997’s “Mimic,” 2013’s kaiju film “Pacific Rim,” and finally in his 2017 romance, “The Shape Of Water, which won the director a Golden Lion at Venice and Best Director and Best Picture at the Oscars.

Continue reading ‘Nightmare Alley’ Clip: Bradley Cooper & Cate Blanchett Face-Off In Guillermo Del Toro’s New Noir at The Playlist.

“If you displease the right people, the world closes in on you very, very fast,” Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) cautions her new partner in crime, mentalist Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper). In true film noir fashion, it’s a lesson Stan fails to take to heart in Guillermo del Toro’s latest film “Nightmare Alley.” It’s also one of the few moments in del Toro’s film, co-written with Kim Morgan and adapted from William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, that’s as sharp as those found in the classics from the genre.

Continue reading ‘Nightmare Alley’ Review: Cate Blanchett Femme Fatale Adds Verve, But Guillermo del Toro’s Noir Misses Otherwise at The Playlist.

It’s been four years since Guillermo del Toro‘s Academy Award-dominating “The Shape of Water,” and following that win, the Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker is back with his new film, “Nightmare Alley,” a reimagining of a 1940a noir about seduction, treachery, deception, gaslighting, manipulation and more, starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett.

READ MORE: Fall 2021 Movie Preview: 60+ Must-See Films

The film features an ensemble cast that includes Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, and David Strathairn, arguably the biggest all-star cast of 2021.

Continue reading ‘Nightmare Alley’ Trailer: Guillermo del Toro Takes Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett & An All-Star Cast Into A Seductive Noir World at The Playlist.

What happens when you win the Best Picture for your surreal but enchanting and romantic woman-falls-for-a-Merman movie? Well, if you’re Guillermo del Toro and your movie is “The Shape Of Water,” you get a kind of blank check for your next project and a whole hell of a lot of actors that probably already wanted to work with you, lining up to work with you. Case in point, after “Shape Of Water,” del Toro was able to make “Nightmare Alley,” and the cast?

Continue reading First Look: Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’ With Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara & More at The Playlist.

“Dream Horse” is exactly what you expect from a movie called “Dream Horse.” It’s light, sweetly frisky, and warmly inspiring, with a lead performance from Toni Colette keeping things on track.

Colette plays Jan Vokes, who works in a supermarket by day and a pub by night. While her husband (Owen Teale) dozes off 24/7—he was laid off when the mines closed—he is invested enough in their marriage to go along with whatever Jan says.

Continue reading ‘Dream Horse’ Is A Light, Sweet Film With Yet Another Solid Toni Collette Performance [Review] at The Playlist.

The idea of Antonio Campos making a limited series based on the famous true crime story that was detailed in “The Staircase” is enough to get anyone excited. The recent addition of Colin Firth as the star sent me over the moon. But folks, I’m not sure I can handle the fact that Toni Collette is now on board as well.

READ MORE: ‘The Staircase’: Colin Firth To Star In Antonio Campos’ HBO True-Crime Adaptation

According to Variety, Toni Collette has joined the cast of “The Staircase” series that is coming to HBO from director Antonio Campos.

Continue reading Toni Collette To Star Opposite Colin Firth In Antonio Campos’ ‘The Staircase’ HBO Series at The Playlist.

Space has always served as a vast, grand, and mysterious canvas for directors to paint and project their metaphorical journeys on. Much like the desert in Westerns, the journey through space is a deeply intimate and human one, often an exploration of the soul and the human condition when at its best. The Netflix drama “Stowaway” grapples with some of these ideas and questions of morality when a group of astronauts travel from Earth to Mars on a two-year voyage.

Continue reading ‘Stowaway’ Is A Surprisingly Tense Moral Thriller In Space [Review] at The Playlist.

Youtube musician-turned-director Joe Penna took the Cannes Film Festival by storm back in 2018 with his feature-length debut, “Arctic.” In that film, Mads Mikkelsen plays a pilot stranded in the arctic circle who embarks on a perilous rescue mission after a helicopter crash leaves an injured woman in his care. It’s a white-knuckle film despite its modest budget and barebones cast. And despite the expansive polar landscape, it’s also tense and claustrophobic and taps into the primal themes of survival at the brink of death.  

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2021

Penna looks up to something similar in his next film, “Stowaway.” Instead of the far north’s barren chill, this time, Penna plunges his small cast into another vast and desolate landscape: outer space.

Continue reading ‘Stowaway’ Trailer: Anna Kendrick & Toni Collette Experience A Space Mission Gone Wrong In New Thriller at The Playlist.

Let’s be real, after seeing Toni Collette conquer acting over the past couple of decades, is there any doubt that she’d also be an incredible filmmaker? Well, for those that are unsure, Collette is going to put the theory to the test with a new feature film, “Writers and Lovers.”

READ MORE: ‘Dream Horse’ Trailer: Toni Collette Bets On A Winner In Feel-Good Sundance Flick

According to Deadline, Collette is teaming up with Topic for her directorial debut, a feature film based on the book, “Writers and Lovers,” by author Lily King.

Continue reading Toni Collette To Make Directorial Debut In ‘Writers And Lovers’ at The Playlist.

Charlie Kaufman’s peculiarly inviting psychodrama “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” feels so enclosed that you could almost swear it was set inside a snow globe. With one gentle shake, gaudy conversations on vast existential notions shower its cozy, wintery mood one minute, only to somehow thin out and ephemerally disappear the next before you could luxuriate in their gloomy mystery. Sites trapped inside the film’s (redundant) boxed ratio look equally snug yet restricted —a blizzard-stricken, nighttime road-trip in the North East (during which a sizable portion of the movie takes place) feels curiously immobile here.

Continue reading ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’: Charlie Kaufman’s Latest Is A Weird, Confounding & Brilliant Reflection Of Life’s Despairs [Review] at The Playlist.