If and when they choose to speak out about it, survivors of sexual assault each find their own ways of describing their harrowing memories of the incident that victimized them. Going into survival mode, however, is perhaps one experience several would agree on. That survival mode can mean different things to different people— there is no right or wrong. Fighting back is one method. Fearfully submitting, with mind and spirit floating out of the body, wishing it would end as quickly as possible, is another.

Continue reading ‘She Said’ Review: Carey Mulligan & Zoe Kazan Expose The Weinstein #MeToo Story In A ‘Spotlight’-Esque Procedural [NYFF] at The Playlist.

If you’re an American who went through the public school system, odds are you read John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” in high school. Or at the very least, you probably watched the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean. Either way, you’re familiar with the story. Well, now we have another adaptation coming and it has some serious star power behind it.

READ MORE: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Trailer: Florence Pugh & Harry Styles Star In Olivia Wilde’s Deadly New Thriller Coming In September

According to Deadline, Netflix has signed on to produce and distribute a new limited series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, “East of Eden.” And in an interesting circle-of-life moment, it appears that Zoe Kazan is set to write the series.

Continue reading Florence Pugh To Star In Netflix’s ‘East Of Eden’ Series Written By Zoe Kazan at The Playlist.

Escapist mysteries have become a robust subgenre on Netflix with salacious hits like “Behind Her Eyes” and “You” landing in the streaming platform’s top ten every time new episodes are available. Twisting and turning narratives that sacrifice character for mounting revelations, these shows work because of their breakneck plotting, never allowing viewers to question if anything adds up because they’re too excited about the next shock. Into these choppy waters plunges “Clickbait,” created by Tony Ayres and Christian White.

Continue reading ‘Clickbait’: Zoe Kazan & Betty Gabriel Star In A Silly, Escapist Mystery Series That You Should Just Scroll Past [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s hard not to get excited for a new series when it stars two actresses as talented as Zoe Kazan and Betty Gabriel. And that’s exactly what makes the upcoming Netflix series, “Clickbait,” so promising. Now, let’s hope the mystery at the center of the series is worthy of their abilities.

READ MORE: ‘Who You Think I Am’ Trailer: Juliette Binoche Catfishes A Much Younger Man In Safy Nebbou’s Drama

As seen in the trailer for “Clickbait,” the new series tells the story of a man who is kidnapped seemingly without any sort of motivation.

Continue reading ‘Clickbait’ Trailer: Zoe Kazan, Betty Gabriel & Adrian Grenier Star In Netflix’s New Mystery Series at The Playlist.

How well do you actually know someone? Even if the person is your spouse, sibling, or best friend, do you really know all the dirty secrets that person has? Probably not. That’s the issue at the center of the new Netflix series, “Clickbait.”

READ MORE: ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ Trailer: Rosa Salazar & Catherine Keener Star In Netflix’s Wild Horror Series

As seen in the teaser trailer for “Clickbait,” the new drama series follows the story of a seemingly happy man, Nick, who suddenly disappears, to the shock and dismay of his friends, his wife, and his sister.

Continue reading ‘Clickbait’ Teaser: Zoe Kazan & Betty Gabriel Investigate A Disappearance That Has Gone Viral at The Playlist.

Earlier this year, comic book writer/artist and filmmaker Dash Shaw presented his latest animated film, “Cryptozoo” at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival to much acclaim. Shaw was primarily known for his inventive comic book work but then quickly moved into animated filmmaking with “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea,” which was critically acclaimed and had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Cryptozoo’ Trailer: Dash Shaw’s Fantastical Sundance Animated Film Features Lake Bell, Zoe Kazan, Michael Cera & More at The Playlist.

Coming off her Oscar-winning film “Promising Young Woman,” for which she was nominated for Best Actress, Carey Mulligan has landed another fascinating follow-up project in the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal drama “She Said” for Universal Pictures. Brad Pitt‘s Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures, who optioned the novel, will produce. The news comes from Deadline, and they also mention that drama will co-star will “The Big Sick” star Zoe Kazan. 

Continue reading ‘She Said’: Carey Mulligan & Zoe Kazan To Play The Reporters That Broke The Harvey Weinstein’s Sex Scandal Story at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

Some weeks, there’s not much to talk about on the new release front – and some weeks, it feels like the video distributors and streaming platforms got together and just decided to clobber everybody.

Continue reading The 12 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘The Invisible Man,’ ‘The Lovebirds’ & More at The Playlist.

“I stick my neck out for nobody. The problems of this world are not in my department,” Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine famously says – having made a mantra and a reputation out of the statement – in the World War II classic, “Casablanca.” The patriarchal figure at the center of David Simon and Ed Burns’ scorching adaptation of Philip Roth’s alternate history novel, “The Plot Against America,” a man of principle named Herman Levin (Morgan Spector), has the exact opposite problem, sometimes sticking his neck out for his ethnic community even when the anti-Semitism threatens the safety of his family.

Continue reading ‘The Plot Against America’ Powerfully Illustrates Why It’s Essential Humanity Sticks Its Neck Out For One Another In The Face of Fascism [Review] at The Playlist.

When you’re young, your parents always tell you to be wary of strangers. Of course, they meant the ones that drive unmarked vans and offer candy. But in the new film, “The Kindness of Strangers,” it’s the people that you don’t know that might be the ones that can help you the most.

With the release of ‘Kindness’ just around the corner, we’re thrilled to offer our readers an exclusive clip from the film, which highlights the situation that one woman finds herself in that leads her to depend on strangers for assistance.

Continue reading ‘The Kindness Of Strangers’ Exclusive Clip: Zoe Kazan Escapes An Abusive Relationship In This Touching Drama at The Playlist.

Cry porn. Emotional manipulation. Tragedy porn. Whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about. Film or television shows that do their darndest to pull emotion out of you, whether it’s warranted or not. Think “This Is Us.” With the new trailer from Lone Scherfig‘s “The Kindness of Strangers,” we may have a new addition to this genre.

“The Kindness of Strangers” tells the story of a group of, uh, strangers living in New York City.

Continue reading ‘The Kindness Of Strangers’ Trailer: Zoe Kazan & Jay Baruchel Are Hoping To Make You Cry at The Playlist.

Here’s a lesson we can all take from 2018 – social media is a double-edged sword. Taking the obvious “stupid tweets = canceled” trend out of the equation, on the one hand, fans and creators get the rare chance to interact with each other, giving unprecedented access. However, on the other hand, that access can lead to some…awkward encounters for all involved.

Take the recent Twitter conversation between Zoe Kazan and a fan (who we’ll keep anonymous).

Continue reading Zoe Kazan Confronts Fan On Twitter After ‘Buster Scruggs’ Criticism, Calling It “Salty” & “Basic” at The Playlist.

2018 will probably be a very memorable year for Zoe Kazan.  The 35-year-old actress is best known for her roles in films such as “The Big Sick,” “Ruby Sparks” and the HBO mini-series “Oliver Kitteridge,” but she’s also an accomplished screenwriter.  Kazan wrote the screenplay for “Sparks” and co-wrote the acclaimed indie “Wildlife” with husband Paul Dano that debuted at Sundance last January.  

Continue reading Zoe Kazan Sets Record Straight On ‘Buster Scruggs’ Always Being A Movie [Interview] at The Playlist.

These are confusing, topsy-turvy times to be a film critic. Exhibit A: “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” This is a film by Oscar-winning, laurel-laden critical darlings (and personal favorites) the Coen Brothers that everyone somehow kept forgetting about within the context of this Venice Film Festival lineup. It is a title co-produced by current industry savior Annapurna Pictures and current industry bête noire Netflix.

Continue reading ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ Presents The Best & Worst Of The Coens In A Perplexing Package [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

Sometimes actors can really direct. Case in point, Paul Dano. Having worked with masters of the form in his short but impressive career, Dano seems to have learned a lot from the likes of Steve McQueen, Denis Villeneuve, Paul Thomas Anderson and Rian Johnson. One would easily think that the 35-year-old actor, now turned filmmaker, looked closely and attentively at these filmmakers at work to prepare for his eventual debut, “Wildlife.” The result is a precise, controlled, but perhaps emotionally distant adaptation of Richard Ford’s short novel.

Continue reading Carey Mulligan Shines In Emotionally Distant ‘Wildlife’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Summer is almost over and HBO decided to give subscribers a treat today: an early sneak peek at the highly anticipated “The Deuce.” Yep, if you have HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and HBO on any other affiliate program, you can watch “The Deuce” now.

READ MORE: The 50 Most Exciting TV Auteurs Working Today

All you need to know is that the show is from David Simon, the creator behind HBO’s acclaimed show “The Wire,” and George Pelecanos, an acclaimed author and screenwriter who worked on drug trade drama as well as “Treme.” If you need more, the show also explores prostitution, porn and the sex industry in New York in the 1970s, perhaps brushing against the same era that Martin Scorsese tried to examine through the lens of rock and punk in the short lived “Vinyl.” Here’s the synopsis for “The Deuce”:

Created by George Pelecanos and David Simon and starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, THE DEUCE follows the story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world at the pioneering moments of what would become the billion-dollar American sex industry.

Continue reading ‘The Deuce’ Trailer: Sex Gets The 1970s ‘Vinyl’ Treatment at The Playlist.

With filming slated to begin soon, the casting details for the Coen Brothers‘ upcoming, six-part omnibus western “The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs” are finally being revealed. And while there has been some confusion about whether it’s a feature or television project, the fact that Annapurna Television are housing ‘Scruggs’ should say it all.

Tim Blake Nelson gets called up by the Coens for the first time since “O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Continue reading James Franco, Zoe Kazan & Tim Blake Nelson To Star In The Coen Bros’ ‘The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs’ at The Playlist.

[Updated Feb. 4]

Winner prediction:
1. Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
2. Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
3. Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”
4. Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”
5. Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”

Current predictions:

Best Picture
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Director
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Editing
Cinematography
Production Design
Original Score
Best Song
Costumes
Sound Mixing
Sound Editing
Documentary
Foreign Language Film
Animated Feature Film
Makeup and Hairstyling
Visual Effects

Continue reading 2018 Best Supporting Actress Oscars Predictions at The Playlist.

Zoe Kazan can transform even the most stock role into something indelible. In the broadest sense, her character Emily in the romantic dramedy “The Big Sick” is about as basic as they come. She’s “the girlfriend” — the woman whose humor, kindness, and vivacity gives the hero the catalyst he needs for change. But Kazan’s so hilarious and three-dimensional, able to turn on a dime from goofy to guarded to outright angry.

Continue reading Zoe Kazan Shines In Kumail Nanjiani’s Hilarious & Heartfelt New Comedy ‘The Big Sick’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

In Bryan Bertino’s new film, a monster movie monikered simply as “The Monster,” the real monster is childhood in neglect. No, wait: It’s single motherhood. No, wait! It’s alcoholism! All three of these things are true for a short while until Bertino introduces the monster of the title, which happens to be an actual monster with teeth, claws, and a pretty gnarly appetite for things of a fleshy persuasion.

Continue reading Bryan Bertino’s ‘The Monster’ Starring Zoe Kazan Is Terrifying & Textured [Review] at The Playlist.

There is something to be said for simplicity. The upcoming film from “The Strangers” director Bryan Bertino had been promoted with the title “There Are Monsters” for a while, but now it has been condensed to “The Monster.” And without any doubt that the finished product will contain some kind of menace, a new trailer for the horror flick has arrived.

Continue reading Zoe Kazan Faces Horror In First Trailer For ‘The Monster’ at The Playlist.

“My Blind Brother” is a romantic comedy that spins around one central thesis: what if a blind person was a selfish prick? That’s the joke in the middle of the threadbare, laughless plot that brings together a quartet of immensely talented people — Nick Kroll, Adam Scott, Jenny Slate, Zoe Kazan — and sees them all (with the exception of the latter) playing variations of pathetic and pitiable. And it’s hard to tell if it makes the film better or worse that they all share such great chemistry and charisma together; “My Blind Brother” is certainly the best version of this script you’ll get thanks to the cast, but it’s also a painful viewing experience to see such potential so thoroughly wasted, and such magnetism dulled off.

Continue reading Adam Scott, Nick Kroll, Jenny Slate & Zoe Kazan Deserve Better Than ‘My Blind Brother’ [Review] at The Playlist.

Somehow between the heat, BBQ and wealth of choices at SXSW, we didn’t manage to catch “My Blind Brother,” even though it stars three of our favorite funny people, namely Nick Kroll, Adam Scott, and Jenny Slate (along with the always terrific Zoe Kazan in a supporting role). The film is opening next month and we’ll have a chance to catch up, but coming first is the new trailer.

Continue reading Nick Kroll, Adam Scott & Jenny Slate Are Romantically Challenged In Trailer For ‘My Blind Brother’ at The Playlist.

It has been nearly a decade since Bryan Bertino brought audiences his magnificent home-invasion debut, “The Strangers.” Since then he only helmed 2014’s found footage thriller “Mockingbird,” but last year’s Cannes Film Festival delivered the promising news that A24 picked up distribution rights to his original creature horror “There Are Monsters” and would be eyeing a 2016 release date.

Continue reading First Look: Bryan Bertino’s A24 Horror ‘There Are Monsters’ Starring Zoe Kazan at The Playlist.

Review: David Gordon Green's Threadbare 'Our Brand Is Crisis' Starring Sandra Bullock

Continue reading Review: David Gordon Green’s Threadbare ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’ Starring Sandra Bullock at The Playlist.