Shane Carruth remains a rare figure in the cinematic landscape. His major achievements: “Primer” and “Upstream Color”—are idiosyncratic and unique in their execution and deconstruction of the sci-fi genre. He has been hailed and admired by filmmakers like Rian Johnson, and Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher were so enamored with his prodigious talents they once tried to help produce his legendary “A Topiary” screenplay before Carruth eventually abandoned the project.

Continue reading Shane Carruth Talks Ambitions Beyond Film, ‘Ad Astra,’ Frustrations With Hollywood, Tribalism & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

You’ve likely already heard the rumors: 47-year-old filmmaker Shane Carruth has suggested he’s going to retire. The creator of the surreal and mind-bendingly ambitious sci-fi films, “Primer”(2004) and “Upstream Color” (2013), Carruth hasn’t been able to get many of his films off the ground and there was already a long, almost-ten-year gap between the two features he’s been able to bring to the screen.

READ MORE: ‘The Wanting Mare’ Trailer: Experience The Mind-Bending New Fable Produced By Shane Carruth

This week, Playlist contributor Robert Daniels spoke to Carruth about “The Wanting Mare,” an ambitious, dreamy sci-fi debut he executive produced and is directed by his friend and colleague Nicholas Ashe Bateman.

Continue reading Shane Carruth Says Retirement Is Coming In 3 Years; Suggests ‘Modern Ocean’ Is Dead at The Playlist.

If you haven’t noticed from the decorations, shop displays, email reminders, and worried reminder texts from your partner, it’s Valentine’s Day, the annual celebration of love, sex, romance, coupledom and having arguments in the Uber on the way to the second-choice restaurant. As always, we’re looking through the holiday through the cinematic lens, and whether you’re planning on snuggling up together on the sofa, or putting something on for company while you listlessly swipe through Tinder, we figured you could probably use some movie recommendations.

Continue reading The 50 Best Romantic Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

It’s impossible for us to choose a single favorite genre from the wealth that cinema offers. But if some sort of “Sophie’s Choice” situation were to occur, we probably would be able to point to one that occupies a more central place in our hearts: science fiction. The term encompasses multitudes: sci-fi runs the gamut from stark, philosophical inquiry to space western to brainless robot-go-bang-bang; it hybridizes beautifully with other genres like comedy, horror and romance and as such is maybe the most expansive and elastic genre of them all.

Continue reading The 50 Best Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

Last year we took a crack at the 25 best sci-fi films of the century so far. The list was populated by a handful of obvious — though necessary — choices, like “Looper,” “Interstellar,” and “Inception.” But the bulk of the picks came from the relatively new tradition of low budget sci-fi. Certainly sci-fi flicks of all shapes and sizes have been around since the dawn of cinema, but advances in digital cameras and post-production effects have made it a far more accessible genre for filmmakers, both budding and established, to tackle with a minimal budget (see the watermark: Shane Carruth‘s “Primer,” which he made for just $7,000).

Continue reading Incept Yourself Into The Best Sci-Fi Films Of The Century So Far at The Playlist.

As kids, we looked ahead to the imminent 21st century and thought of a big bold, sci-fi future. The robot butler and trips to the drug store in hovercars version hasn’t yet arrived, but the first 15 years of this century have been extremely fruitful for big-screen science fiction.

Sci-fi is almost as old as cinema itself —1902’s Georges Méliès’ “A Trip To The Moon” is generally seen as the first example— but it became hugely popular in late 20th century filmmaking in the aftermath of “Star Wars,” if also somewhat watered down.

Continue reading The 25 Best Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

As the dust cleared from our Best of 2014 features, 2015 previews and awards season coverage, we realized something terrifying: we’re now halfway through the current decade. Five years have passed since the 2010s began, we’re all sixty months (or sixty two?) older, and literally thousands of movies have hit theaters in that time.

So what better time to take stock of the decade thus far? Box-office returns might have been dominated by superheroes, ice princesses and dystopian teen-on-teen murder, but once you look outside the multiplex (or even, very occasionally, within it), it’s clear that cinema is as healthy as it’s ever been, with everyone from A-list auteurs to foreign-language first-timers delivering stunning, boundary-pushing work.

Continue reading The 50 Best Films Of The Decade So Far at The Playlist.

Frame By Frame: The Best Shots Of 2013

Continue reading Frame By Frame: The Best Shots Of 2013 at The Playlist.