Colman Domingo may just be one of the seminal actors of our time. The actor has key roles in films such as “Selma,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Zola,” just to name a few. An impressive Tony-nominated resume on Broadway, and yes, a pivotal performance on HBO’s sensation, “Euphoria.” And, currently, he’s portraying the role of Mister in Blitz the Ambassador’s big-screen adaptation of the musical version of “The Color Purple.” And based on Domingo’s enthusiasm over Blitz’s vision, the film sounds like something truly special.

Continue reading Colman Domingo: ‘The Color Purple’ Is Going To “Knock Your Socks Off” [Interview] at The Playlist.

Oscar season rolled on as the 37th Independent Spirit Awards took place tonight on IFC and AMC+. Hosted by comedy’s power couple, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, this year’s ceremony served as a bit of a departure from recent years. Typically held the night before the Oscars, the show was moved ahead a few weeks offering viewers (and stars) a nice break from the all encompassing shadow of the big show.

Continue reading The 2022 Spirit Awards Winners: Maggie Gyllenhaal and ‘The Lost Daughter’ Win Big at The Playlist.

The Costume Designer Guild announced their nominees for the 2022 CDG Awards and there were actually some major surprises. Sure, Jenny Beaven’s work in “Cruella” and Janty Yates’ frocks in “House of Gucci” earned respective category nominations, but few would have expected Derica Cole Washington‘s work in “Zola” or Ruth E. Carter’s designs in “Coming 2 America” to be remembered.

Continue reading ‘House of Gucci,’ ‘Zola’ & ‘Book of Boba Fett’ Among 2022 Costume Designer Guild Awards Nominees at The Playlist.

“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.

After a pandemic hiatus, the Film Independent Spirt Awards will be back on the beach this year. They may not be the day before the Oscars or an afternoon affair, as has been the tradition, but judging on this year’s nominations they will be more irreverent than ever. Just look at the Best Feature nominees which include “Zola,” “C’Mon, C’Mon,” “The Lost Daughter” and two unexpected selections, “A Chiara” and “The Novice.”

READ MORE: “West Side Story” and “Belfast” lead 2022 Critics Choice Awards nominations

Janicza Bravo’s “Zola,” which originally debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, landed seven nominations including Best Director, Best Female Lead (Taylour Paige), and Best Supporting Male (Colman Domingo).

Continue reading ‘Zola’ Rules The 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations 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.

Do you hear that? Can you feel it underneath your seat? 2021 finally gave us the chance to return to cinemas, that rare gift where a handful of carefully curated trailers whets our appetites for the year ahead—without having to desperately refresh browser windows with a looming sense of dread with no end in sight. 

READ MORE: The Best Film Posters Of 2021

That’s not to say we’re completely out of the woods, but it’s certainly offered a new sense of gratitude for the very best trailers of the year as we’ve been able to appreciate them the way they should be: big, loud, full of hope and optimism for the wondrous selection of movies this year and the next will have to offer us—wherever we watch them. 

“Licorice Pizza”
The first glimpse of Paul Thomas Anderson’s blissful valentine to the San Fernando Valley was teased in a small handful of cinemas around the world, building anticipation and then crashing into focus all at once—as the revered filmmaker has always done with his work.

Continue reading The Best Movie Trailers Of 2021 at The Playlist.

In our annual aggregation of some of the most respected Best Films of the Year lists, we like to highlight folks that offer unique opinions regarding cinema. We’ve already seen John Waters offer up a pretty offbeat Top 10 this year. And now, The New Yorker offers its Top 35 Best Films of 2021, with a healthy number of picks that will likely surprise people.

READ MORE: The Best Film Posters Of 2021

Sure, The New Yorker lists plenty of high-profile films in the Top 35.

Continue reading The New Yorker’s Best Films Of 2021 Include ‘Zola,’ ‘Passing’ & Quite A Few Docs at The Playlist.

“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” On this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we spoke with writer, director (and actor) Janicza Bravo, who directed and co-wrote A24‘s Sundance-acclaimed indie “Zola.” Delayed by a year because of the pandemic (which the filmmaker addresses in heartbreaking detail), “Zola” finally came out earlier this summer, and now, the film arrives on DVD and Blu-ray (plus Digital) today, August 14.

Continue reading Janicza Bravo Talks ‘Zola,’ Charming Villains, The “PR Of Whiteness” & More [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

Riley Keough has been appearing in films for a decade, and her resume is already incredibly accomplished for someone barely over the age of 30. In fact, with “The Runaways,” “Magic Mike,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “American Honey,” “The Lodge,” “Under the Silver Lake” and “The House That Jack Built” it reads like a cinephile’s wet dream. Now, after a lengthy pandemic delay, you can add another title near the top of that impressive list, Janicza Bravo‘s “Zola.”

READ MORE: “Zola” is the ultimate internet-age tale of messy bitches being extra [Sundance Review]

Based on Ariza “Zola” King’s 148-tweet thread that rocked the internet in 2015, it follows Zola (Taylour Page), a Midwest waitress and pole dancer who semi-reluctantly joins a charismatic sex worker, Stefani (Keough), and her not-so trustworthy pimp X (Colman Domingo) on a cross country trip for a night of work at some Florida strip clubs with promises of massive tips.

Continue reading Riley Keough & Audiences Have Waited Long Enough For ‘Zola’ To Hit Theaters [Interview] at The Playlist.

Look, thanks to that godforsaken pandemic, which messed up the Oscars and the entire calendar year, it’s kind of hard to make the Best Films Of The Year, So Far feature because so many films were kind of released in 2020 — to qualify early for the Oscars — and or many were just released in a quiet limited release in December 2020. So, there is a tiny bit of crossover on our Best Films of 2020 list, but some films, “Nomadland” and “Minari” — which were essentially seen early last year at festivals — are not on this list and some films on the edge, like “Pieces of A Woman,” are okay?

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2021, So Far at The Playlist.

After a year that changed our relationship with movie-going, it would seem that things are trying to inch back into a semblance of “normalcy.” Theaters are reopening, and as people continue to receive their vaccinations, more and more will be looking to enjoy films on the big screen – especially those like the musical “In The Heights” or broad comedies and terrifying horror films which thrive on audiences feeding off of each other’s energy.

Continue reading 11 Movies to Watch in June: ‘Zola,’ ‘Sparks Brothers,’ ‘Luca’ & More at The Playlist.

So… I guess we’re back? If you’re an American, chances are you’ve been vaxxed to the max already and or are probably awaiting your second dose, which should come quickly.  As we already noted, folks like Marvel are already flexing, welcoming audiences back to theaters, and well, that means nature is healing, right? Cinema is healing too, and with New York vowing to reopen fully on June 1, that probably means the rest of the country isn’t far behind.

Continue reading Summer 2021 Preview: Over 50 Movies To Watch at The Playlist.

Did we ever envision a day when a whole-ass Twitter thread would become a movie? Well, it happened alright; an epic story by A’Ziah King, aka ZOLA, told on Twitter (since deleted) became “Zola.” The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 to major acclaim. Directed by Janicza Bravo (“Atlanta,” “Lemon“) and starring Taylour Paige and Riley Keough, “Zola” is about Aa stripper named Zola who embarks on a wild road trip to Florida.

Continue reading ‘Zola’ Trailer: Riley Keough & Taylour Paige Are The Messy B*tches From An Epic Twitter Thread 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.

The deck for 2021 film releases was shuffled yet again late last year, adding yet another wrinkle to what has undoubtedly been one of, if not the most tumultuous yearlong period for domestic film distribution in history. Obviously, some of 2021’s bigger blockbusters still have (tentative) release dates (see our massive 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 feature): we’re thinking of Denis Villeneuve’s hotly-anticipated “Dune” adaptation, which was supposed to be in theaters last December, and also Adam Wingard’s long-delayed “Godzilla Vs.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 We’ve Already Seen 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.

COVID-19 is over! Movies are back! And everything is… safe? Hardly. It’s been a weird 2020.5 (an adjunct year that started in March) and it’s been going on for about 2.5 years so far. Sundance and Berlin in the 1st half of 2020 were definitely a few years ago and the new normal is so normal… it’s ok to go back to theaters? We’re as dubious, nervous and hesitant as you. In fact, we’d given up on doing most kinds of film festival previews this year—we threw any ideas of a summer film preview out the window given that the summer schedule kept constantly changing and any predictions about reopening theaters turned out to be as premature and overly optimistic as we all thought.

Continue reading 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch at The Playlist.

One of the most anticipated films of 2020 is definitely A24’s upcoming feature, “Zola.” Even before one frame of film (or megabyte of footage) was produced, “Zola” had everyone talking thanks to the production deal that was made off of a Twitter thread. And now, we have our first teaser for the film that gets us pretty hyped for the feature but also offers up a clue that the drama might not get a traditional release.

Continue reading ‘Zola’ Teaser: A24 Offers First Look At Janicza Bravo’s New Film & An Unclear Release Strategy at The Playlist.

In a cast full of unsung heroes there might not be one more important to the tone of HBO’s “Succession” than Nicholas Braun. His character, Greg Hirsch (aka Cousin Greg), is the outsider trying to fit in among his ravenous billionaire relatives, the Roys. And without Braun delivering to the audience someone charmingly naive and, dare we say it, well-intentioned, the formula for Jesse Armstrong‘s Peabody-winning hit might fall like a house of cards.

Continue reading ‘Succession’s’ Nicholas Braun Reminds Us Of The Quiet Genius Of Cousin Greg [Podcast] at The Playlist.

Every generation gets a defining literary opening line – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” or “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams…” And for the generation alive and online in 2015, that honor inarguably goes to “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out????????”. The first tweet in A’Ziah King aka A’Ziah Wells aka Zola’s infamous 150-odd tweet thread has it all: high drama and the promise of more to come  (“It’s kind of long,” she continues, “but full of suspense”); an implicit trash-talking challenge couched in streetwise slanguage; and a completely irresistible eight (8) question marks.

Continue reading ‘Zola’ Is The Ultimate Internet-Age Tale Of Messy Bitches Being Extra [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

The Sundance Film Festival is enterting a new decade, in fact, it’s the first major festival to usher in the new era, but color us slightly concerned about its upcoming slate. While the documentary features are as intriguing as ever (outside of the eyebrow raising inclusion of a Netflix Taylor Swift doc) many of the narrative selections seem eerily familiar. Such is the state of the global independent film scene it seems.

Continue reading Sundance 2020: The 25 Most Anticipated Films At The Festival 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.

Names like Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Alexandre Desplat, and Danny Elfman are constantly brought up when film fans name some of the best composers working in the medium. But in recent years, Mica Levi has not only made a name for herself as an accomplished composer but an argument exists for her being the best around. And thankfully, in 2020, we’re guaranteed at least one new Levi-scored film, with A24’s “Zola.”

READ MORE: The Best Soundtracks & Scores Of The Decade [2010s]

According to Pitchfork, Levi is responsible for the score for the upcoming drama “Zola,” which is set to premiere in January as part of the Sundance Film Festival.

Continue reading Oscar-Nominated Composer Mica Levi To Score A24’s Sundance Film ‘Zola’ at The Playlist.

The 2019 Sundance Film Festival is upon us and we’re feeling good about most of our Most Anticipated 2020 Film feature predictions; many of the films with early February release dates are indeed making Sundance premieres (“Wendy,” “Downhill,” etc.). This year feels rich already, with new films by Dee Rees, Josephine Decker, Miranda July and many, many more.

READ MORE: Sundance 2020 Lineup Revealed: Films By Josephine Decker, Miranda July, Viggo Mortensen & More

But let’s get to some quick first looks, shall we?

Continue reading Sundance First Look: Anne Hathaway in Dee Rees’ Latest, Miranda July’s ‘Kajillionaire,’ Riley Keough In ‘Zola’ & More at The Playlist.