We’re now two weeks out from the initial fall festival trifecta, with the New York Film Festival set to unveil its two-week event this evening. That means it’s about as good a time as any to release our first Contender Countdown of the season, a snapshot of the Best Picture race for the 99th Academy Awards. And, yes, there is a frontrunner. And, yes, it’s the same frontrunner as it was before those festivals hit: Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” That being said, two major contenders have a realistic shot at snatching the crown.

Continue reading ‘The Odyssey’ Is Your Best Picture Frontrunner…For Now [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

There is an art to making a film that’s undeniably Canadian without resorting to the obvious, and Jay Baruchel and Michael Dowse have mastered it. The two first put in some ice time together on “Goon,” their improbable hockey-movie success, before Baruchel called the shots as director of the sequel, “Goon: Last of the Enforcers.” Now they’re back at it with “The Stunt Driver,” another tale about a certain type of Canadian underdog who, for some reason, cannot just do things the easy way.

Continue reading Jay Baruchel & Michael Dowse On ‘The Stunt Driver,’ Ken Carter’s Impossible Jump, ‘Goon 3’ & ‘Reacher’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

It’s rare these days that filmmakers are allowed to follow their own muse, even those who’ve paid their dues in the business several times over. Occasionally, however, a true passion project manages to sneak through the system, and when that passion project comes courtesy of a filmmaker like Brad Bird, it feels even more special. That’s precisely the case with “Ray Gunn,” Bird’s seventh film as a director and his fifth animated feature, following his triumphant return to the medium with 2018’s “Incredibles 2.”

That alone would be enough to get excited about, but the origins of “Ray Gunn” stretch back a whopping 37 years, with Bird originally conceiving the film and co-writing the first draft of the screenplay with his “Batteries Not Included” collaborator Matthew Robbins around 1989.

Continue reading ‘Ray Gunn’: Brad Bird & His Crew On Building A Retro-Futurist Sci-Fi Noir “For People That Like Movies” at The Playlist.

No matter your opinion of her politics or her recent claims that she’s been blacklisted in Hollywood, few would argue that Susan Sarandon’s opportunities have languished on the big screen over the past decade. It’s with absolute pleasure that we can report that Andrea Pallaoro‘s “The Echo Chamber,” a drama that was birthed from Bernardo Bertolucci’s final screenplay (that we know of), is the Oscar winner’s best role in years.

Continue reading ‘The Echo Chamber’ Review: Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Screenplay Gives Susan Sarandon Her Best Role In Years at The Playlist.

Few things are more delightful in cinema than seeing new pairings of actors who play characters in opposition, and in “A Talent for Murder,” director Anton Corbijn (“Control,” “The American”) has gifted viewers a devilish duo in Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich. The glee is often commensurate with just how different the characters are, and thankfully, Mirren and Ehrenreich make beautifully discordant music out of their characters’ foibles.

Continue reading ‘A Talent For Murder’ Review: Helen Mirren & Alden Ehrenreich Play a Dangerous Literary Game in Anton Corbijn’s Patricia Highsmith Thriller [TIFF] at The Playlist.

The New York Film Festival has never needed Toronto’s sheer volume or Venice’s red-carpet pageantry to make its mark. Its comparatively compact lineup remains one of the fall’s most carefully curated, bringing major discoveries from Cannes, Venice, Telluride, and TIFF to New York alongside an especially enticing collection of world premieres. The festival’s 64th edition, running September 25 through October 12, continues that tradition with new films from Luca Guadagnino, Tony Gilroy, Ava DuVernay, Takashi Yamazaki, Paul Thomas Anderson, James Gray, Pedro Almodóvar, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Mike Leigh, and many more.

Continue reading 2026 New York Film Festival Preview: 21 Must-See Movies To Watch at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Somewhat surprisingly, “Diary of a Mad Old Man” is director Wayne Wang‘s first movie since 2019. As with much of the celebrated filmmaker’s work over the past 20 years, it harkens to an artistic, auteur perspective he essentially abandoned to work in the Hollywood studio system for a good decade around the turn of the century. And, in theory, that’s a tantalizing prospect. An adaptation of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s classic 1961 novel of the same title, first-time screenwriter Kevin Wyles has done an admirable job of updating the story for contemporary audiences.

Continue reading ‘Diary of A Mad Old Man’ Review: Wayne Wang Attempts To Bring New Life To A Japanese Literary Classic [TIFF] at The Playlist.

There are easier ways to fulfill a lifelong action-movie fantasy than lugging bags of fake gold through freezing water, bad weather, and tick-infested forests. Ethan Hawke apparently wasn’t interested in any of them.

His latest, “The Weight,” is a Depression-era crime thriller built around exactly that sort of physical misery, sending Hawke and company deep into the wilderness for a brutal journey where virtually everybody gets pushed to their breaking point.

Continue reading Ethan Hawke Talks ‘The Weight,’ Surviving The Shoot, ‘The Lowdown’ Season 2 & Directing Again [Interview] at The Playlist.

The road to “Resident Evil” has been a strangely contentious one for Zach Cregger. For months, fans have worried his adaptation wouldn’t adhere closely enough to the franchise’s mythology, generating a kind of preemptive backlash before anyone had actually seen the movie. Even the 30-minute preview shown to critics and select fans probably didn’t ease those concerns, because what Cregger unveiled was stripped-down, minimalist, spare, and much closer to the claustrophobic spine of “Barbarian” than anything resembling the kind of elaborate “Resident Evil” spectacle audiences might have expected.

Continue reading ‘Resident Evil’ Review: Zach Cregger’s Minimalist Terrors Are Far More Effective Than Franchise Maximalism at The Playlist.

TORONTO – “Onwards and Sideways,” a world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, is a movie that is admittedly a tough sell. The premise is fairly straightforward: Tony (Ryan Ifans) and Emma (Laura Linney) meet each other in the lobby of a medical building. Coincidentally, they have both been diagnosed with Parkinson’s just minutes earlier. Their physician (well, Tony’s at least), Professor Ridge (Rory Kinnear), informs him they have “five good years left.” Over the next 115 minutes, and with an increasingly dramatic series of title cards, Tony and Emma’s lives intertwine as Paul Mayhew-Archer‘s screenplay checks on them every 12 months.

Continue reading ‘Onwards And Sideways’ Review: Laura Linney And Rhys Ifans Have Five Good Years In John Madden’s Parkinson’s Dramedy [TIFF] at The Playlist.

“The Last Photograph” is, in many ways, an extraordinary departure for Zack Snyder. He’s never made a film set entirely in the real world; his films have always included supernatural, sci-fi, or zombie elements. He’s also always had the fortune of having a studio behind him. Not this time. “The Last Photograph,” a straight action drama, is making its world premiere at TIFF as an independent production and acquisition title, looking for a buyer to release or stream it.

Continue reading ‘The Last Photograph’ Review: Zack Snyder’s Striking Images Can’t Save A Hollow, Calamitous Misfire [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Walt Whitman’s famous declaration, “I contain multitudes,” has been quoted so often that it has almost lost its poetry, much less its more unsettling implications. But that idea—contradiction, even paradox, as something elemental to being human—hangs heavily over Tim Blake Nelson’s dark, dangerous, and deeply haunting “The Life And Deaths Of Wilson Shedd.” Can someone possess a profound capacity for tenderness and connection while harboring an equal capacity for cruelty and horrific violence?

Continue reading ‘The Life And Deaths Of Wilson Shedd’ Review: Amanda Seyfried & Scoot McNairy Are Extraordinary In Tim Blake Nelson’s Unflinching Prison Drama [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Perhaps the best compliment you can give a play adapted into a film is that, on the big screen, it didn’t seem like it originated on the stage. Before watching “Prima Facie,” adapted by playwright Suzie Miller from her own source material and directed by Susanna White, we had completely forgotten this new movie was based on the acclaimed one-woman play that saw Jodie Comer win both Olivier and Tony Awards for her performance.

Continue reading ‘Prima Facie’ Review: Cynthia Erivo Captivates But Something Is Lost In This Stage-To-Screen Adaptation [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – In a massive year for LGBTQ+ movies from around the globe , “Ancestors” is sadly one of the few misses. And yet as the first 10 to 20 minutes unspool, you may think you’re witnessing a queer classic. That is the awkward juxtaposition of a movie with a great lead performance and a filmmaker, David Turpin, with a distinct vision that just can’t coalesce. But for a moment?

Continue reading ‘Ancestors’ Review: Éanna Hardwicke Mesmerizes But David Turpin’s Queer Drama Fades Fast [TIFF] at The Playlist.

At the outset of “Woman Unknown,” the titular character in question is not just a mystery to others and herself. In many ways, Mathilde Arcel’s Marie makes for an unknowable cipher for the audience watching her navigate Denmark’s emergence from World War II. Even as her country begins to open up in rapturous celebration, she remains a tightly coiled ball of nerves – so reserved that she becomes borderline inscrutable.

Continue reading ‘Woman Unknown’ Review: 2026’s Golden Lion Winner Is A Tense Post-WWII Thriller About Complicity & Complexity [Venice] at The Playlist.

Making-of movies are a curious subgenre, with notable examples including “Saving Mr. Banks,” about the making of “Mary Poppins”; “Mank,” about “Citizen Kane”; “Hitchcock,” about “Psycho”; and “Nouvelle Vague,” about “Breathless.” These movies mine beloved classics for audience affection, generating pathos and appreciation through recognition and association.

Continue reading ‘I Play Rocky’ Review: Expertly Weaponized Nostalgia Makes For Rousing, Light-Hearted Entertainment [TIFF] at The Playlist.

The documentary “Edward Said: Between Worlds” tells us exactly who Edward Said was before his death in 2003. He was a scholar, a preeminent intellectual, one of the most influential voices of the 20th century, a longtime professor at Columbia University, a respected author and essayist, a musician, and one of the most eloquent advocates for the Palestinian cause. Charlie Rose once described him as a modern Renaissance man, and various luminaries sing his praises in the opening minutes.

Continue reading ‘Edward Said: Between Worlds’ Review: A Moving Portrait Of Exile, Identity & The Right To Narrate [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Mahershala Ali has never given a bad performance, but rarely has he been as captivating as he is in “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.” The film itself is a mesmerizing mix of big ideas, tense action, and a genuinely moving emotional throughline about family, making it one of his most fascinating works yet. 

The latest from “Mogul Mowgli” director Bassam Tariq, it’s an engrossing, often slippery little film about a hitman and patriarch wrestling with life and death that itself lives and dies in Ali’s hands.

Continue reading ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’ Review: Mahershala Ali Is A Mesmerizing Force Of Nature In Gripping Action-Thriller [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Here’s the thing about Rebel Wilson’s new movie, “Girl Group.” While it’s a world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, it’s important to remember this isn’t a movie striving to stand alongside the works of Jean-Luc Godard or win the Palme d’Or. Granted, that doesn’t mean you should grade it on a curve, but it’s obvious that no one involved has any serious artistic aspirations beyond releasing a solid new original pop song and staging some fun and energetic music performances.

Continue reading ‘Girl Group’ Review: Rebel Wilson Directs A Messy ‘Pitch Perfect’ Knockoff With Fun Musical Numbers [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – You may not recognize Caleb Hearon‘s name at first, but you’ve likely seen him scrolling through your social media feed or in the YouTube algorithm. He’s a popular stand-up comedian and podcast host, with the latter fueling his notoriety over the past two years. And while he’s had supporting roles in several films and television programs (most recently in “The Devil Wears Prada 2”), he’s never been at the center of a story such as “Trash Mountain,” a world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Trash Mountain’ Review: Caleb Hearon’s Screenplay & Zooey Deschanel Shine In A Funny But Familiar Dramedy [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – At first, Alexandra Pechman’s “Magazine” is a bit of a flop. The characters seem slight. The dialogue is too awkward for even inherently awkward characters to speak out loud. There is barely a hint of dramatic tension, let alone humor, if that’s the intention (it was). Then, somewhat unexpectedly, just as you are about to give up on it, this 2026 Toronto International Film Festival premiere finds its bearings. And Pechman’s vision breaks through.

Continue reading ‘Magazine’ Review: An Intern Learns Life Lessons At A New York Literary Magazine [TIFF] at The Playlist.

It’s been more than a decade since Tim Blake Nelson directed a feature, enough time that his other career has almost overshadowed how serious a filmmaker he is. Since 2015’s “Anesthesia,” Nelson has remained ubiquitous as an actor, working with filmmakers including the Coen brothers, Steven Spielberg, Denis Villeneuve, Guillermo del Toro, Brady Corbet, and Mona Fastvold.

Continue reading Tim Blake Nelson On ‘The Life And Deaths Of Wilson Shedd’ & Why Ethan Coen Told Him, “Jesus, You Went There” at The Playlist.

TORONTO: After a few minutes, something might seem slightly off about Hermine Ryan (Naomi Watts). It’s 1964, and the Austrian-born housewife feels like she’s stuck in the prior decade. Her home is as immaculate as fashion magazine photo shoot. She cooks meatloaf for her hardworking husband Russell (Luke Evans), and her cookie recipe is beloved by the ladies in her church group (Debi Mazar leading the pack).

Continue reading ‘The Housewife’ Review: Naomi Watts Unleashes A Fury In An Uneven Hidden Nazi Drama [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Ten years is a long time to disappear between movies. Then again, Na Hong-jin (“The Yellow Sea,” “The Chaser”) apparently spent a decent chunk of that decade figuring out how in the hell to make “Hope.” Given that the finished product is a sprawling, violent, frequently hilarious sci-fi monster movie built on a scale rarely, if ever, attempted in South Korea, you can understand why it took a minute.

Continue reading Na Hong-Jin On ‘Hope,’ Why The Sequel Shifts To The Aliens & His Darker, Bloodier Next Film [Interview] at The Playlist.

“I’m not really sure what to do with this realization,” expresses one of the many anonymous Israeli sources in “NAZA.” But co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor certainly know. They methodically and systematically build a case against how Israel has used some of the most Kafkaesque, dehumanizing, and hypocritical military and surveillance tactics imaginable to commit a genocide against Gazans.

Dropping the G-word, which is now an overwhelming consensus among leading scholars, may still seem controversial in some corners.

Continue reading ‘NAZA’ Review: The ‘No Other Land’ Filmmakers Return With A Chilling, Comprehensive Case Against Israel’s War Machine [Venice] at The Playlist.