Look, making a Best of Decade list is an impossibility. As the 2010s come to a close, we’ve been agonizing over this (long-delayed) list for half a year now and even had to take a break and put it away this summer when things got too contentious and overwhelming. And then there’s the notion of resonance and what really lasts and is released too late (Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” is phenomenal, for example, but it’s not even released yet, and it’s just going to have to sit this one out).

Continue reading The 100 Best Films Of The Decade [2010s] at The Playlist.

After countless screenings, Q&A’s, red carpets, screeners, hand holding, for your consideration ads, talk show appearances and cocktail parties, between 160 and 190 contenders are going to be rewarded with Oscar nominations bright and oh, so unnecessarily early on Tuesday morning.  And almost just as many who didn’t hear their name called will try to get back to sleep knowing they no longer have to starve themselves for the February telecast.  Granted, this season hasn’t had the distraction of a historic presidential election or an industry-changing #MeToo movement, but have been controversies late in the game.

Continue reading Final 2018 Oscar Nominations Predictions: ‘Roma,’ ‘Burning,’ ‘A Star Is Born’ at The Playlist.

The Playlist has never met a year we couldn’t exhaust with the endless examination, analysis, and decoding; it’s not that we love lists, it’s just in many banner years of cinema, there’s so much to pour over. 2018 was a stellar year for film and there were amazing movies to shout out, performances, new directors, breakout actors and actresses, documentaries, all kinds of new exciting talents and we genuinely can’t stop talking about them, honestly.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2018 You Didn’t See at The Playlist.

Though I don’t rival Chidi (reminder to all reading, you should watch “The Good Place” on NBC) in my indecision, the biggest stress for me recently – other than “Black Mirror“‘s panic-inducing interactive “Bandersnatch” episode – was attempting to narrow down 2018’s best films into just 10 favorites. I was tempted to go the route of The New Yorker, making a list of 40 of the year’s top movies, but that seems like cheating – and far too much writing.

Continue reading Kimber Myers’ Top 10 Films of 2018 at The Playlist.

Former President Barack Obama has been known to share his favorite books, films, and songs throughout the years. And in 2018, Obama has done it again, and with his film list, in particular, he’s put together one of the most solid Best of 2018 groups we’ve seen so far.

LISTEN: The 20 Breakthrough Directors of 2018 [Podcast]

While he doesn’t rank the films in any specific order (other than alphabetical), the films that Obama has listed for his favorites of 2018 is full of some of the year’s most high-profile (“Black Panther” and “BlacKkKlansman”) as well as some indie favorites that have shamefully been left out of much of the awards season discussion (“Leave No Trace,” “The Rider,” and “Support the Girls”).

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Of 2018 Proves He’s Got A Finger On The Pulse Of Film Twitter at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist for the 2019 Foreign Language Film Oscar today and, as expected, Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” easily made the list. The Netflix and Amazon Studios releases join seven other films that will be screened next month and pared down to the five nominees announced along with all the Oscar nods on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

READ MORE: Yalitza Aparcio Overcame Her Fear Of Water To Triumph In ‘Roma’ [Interview]

Six of the nine films were determined by voters in Los Angeles and overseas who were required to watch at least eleven of this year’s submissions.

Continue reading ‘Roma’ & ‘Cold War’ Lead Foreign Language Film Oscar Shortlist at The Playlist.

Karma, they say, is a bitch. Yet it must be down to some cosmic law of balance that as terrible as things have been on a daily basis in other spheres of life, 2018 has been among the most remarkable years for cinema in recent memory. Maybe it’s that the instability and uncertainty of the zeitgeist has ignited channels of creative expression that might have remained dormant in more complacent times; maybe it’s that 2-hour breaks from the constant blithering nonsense that is being alive in 2018 are precious even if you’re watching the “Overboard” remake.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2018 at The Playlist.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their year-end awards today and the big winner was “Roma” which took the Best Picture prize.  This is the second major win for “Roma” after taking the New York Film Critics Circle honor less than two weeks ago. Debra Granik earned some much-deserved kudos with a Best Director win for “Leave No Trace” while the expected winner, Alfonso Cuarón, took second.  

Continue reading ‘Roma’ Wins Best Picture From The Los Angeles Film Critics Association at The Playlist.

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I open things up with a brief look at the top movies in last weekend’s box office, most of which we have no interest in even seeing, so we use it as a launching point to implore you, dear listener, to see our two films of interest this week, “The Favourite” and “Shoplifters,” both of which open in limited release this week and open wider (we hope) in the coming weeks.

Continue reading ‘The Favourite’ & ‘Shoplifters’ Are Two Of The Best Films Of The Year [Adjust Your Tracking] at The Playlist.

Recently, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president John Bailey and Carol Littleton, a member of the Board of Governors, appeared at the EnergaCamerimage Film Festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. While the discussion varied greatly, you better believe that the members of the Academy were asked about the recently shelved idea for a “Popular Film” category. And despite what seems to be unanimous outrage from film fans and Hollywood-types alike, Bailey says that the idea is still on the table.

Continue reading Academy President Says 2019 Oscars Could Lead To A Resurrection Of Infamous “Popular Film” Category at The Playlist.

Until the end of the year, it would seem that the trend of simply not having enough time in the day/week to see what we both want to watch and what we feel obliged to see will continue. Add to that the stress of watching as many films on our FilmStruck watch lists before the site is shut down at the end of the month. Frankly, the amount of buzz-worthy films being released in November is almost unfair.

Continue reading 16 Must-See Movies For November: ‘Favourite,’ ‘Widows,’ ‘Beale Street’ & More at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced the nations who have submitted entries for the Foreign Language Film Oscar this morning. This year there are 87 entrants for 2018 which is down from last year’s record 92, but still higher than the 85 contenders in 2016. African nations Malawi and Niger are participating for the first time.

There were few surprises on the list as most of the major competitors had already been announced by their respective countries.

Continue reading 87 Countries Officially Vying For Foreign Language Film Oscar at The Playlist.

Winner of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or prize (the Best Picture, essentially) and Japan’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2019 Academy Awards, the first official U.S. trailer for “Shoplifters” is here. And it’s looking like it’s going to be director Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s year. A master empath, a delicate, quiet, humanistic filmmaker of massive emotional depth and inner life, Kore-eda is one of our best filmmaker’s, period.

Continue reading ‘Shoplifters’: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme D’Or Cannes Winner Gets Its First Official Trailer at The Playlist.

The 56th Annual New York Film Festival is upon us once again, gifting the cinematic landscape with thrilling and compelling films carefully curated from all over the world.  Last year’s favorites included “Call Me By Your Name” and “Lady Bird,” the latter of which went onto become A24’s highest grossing film and earn not one but five Academy Award nominations.  This year is no different, the festival will unleash future classics like “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” directed by the Coen Brothers, the sweeping Mexican epic “ROMA,” the latest effort by Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuaron.

Continue reading New York Film Festival: 15 Must-See Films To Watch at The Playlist.

The Telluride Film Festival announced it’s official line up for 2018 and, if you’ve been paying attention or doing your due diligence there were few surprises.

The big narrative premieres are Joel Edgerton’s “Boy Erased,” Jason Reitman’s “The Front Runner,” David Lowery’s “The Old Man & The Gun,” Karyn Kusama’s “Destroyer,” Marielle Heller’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and Yann Demange’s “White Boy Rick.”  Ralph Fiennes also returns to the director’s chair with “The White Crow” while Ed Zwick’s “Trial By Fire” will make its only festival appearance in Colorado.

Continue reading ‘Front Runner,’ ‘The Favourite’ & ‘First Man’ Among Official 2018 Telluride Selections at The Playlist.

September is right around the corner which means a two-fold attack of movies. 1) the wealth of riches that arrives in the more-adult-themed awards season and 2) the overlapping films that appear first during the fall film festival circuit. So, our fall preview essentially doubles for both, a few films here and there missing due to lack of release dates yet. But yes, the Venice Film Festival starts this week, the Telluride Film Festival this weekend and following that a brief reprieve before the Toronto International Film Festival and then the genre-focused Fantastic Fest in Austin and artsy and prestigious New York Film Festival in late September and early October.

Continue reading 56 Must-See Films: The 2018 Fall Movie Preview at The Playlist.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the main selections for the 2018 New York Film Festival, and it won’t disappoint the city’s cinephile community.  It also confirms that barring a last minute addition or secret screening there are no world premieres at this year’s NYFF.  Then again, the fest is programming a significant number of Foreign Language Film contenders even if the homegrown selections are slight.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” Alfonso Cuarón‘s “Roma“ and Julian Schabel‘s “At Eternity’s Gate“ were previously announced as the opening, centerpiece and closing night films for this year’s fest.

Continue reading ‘If Beale Street,’ ‘Cold War’ & ‘Ballad Of Buster Scruggs’ Among Main NYFF 2018 Selections at The Playlist.

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” may win Best Picture or it may not, but it should certainly take the Foreign Language Film category. If not, Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” has support in numerous guilds and could surprise. The chances “Roma” loses here are quite slim though. [Updated Feb. 12]

Predictions
1. “Roma” (Mexico), Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
2. “Cold War” (Poland) Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
3.

Continue reading 2019 Foreign Language Film Oscars Predictions at The Playlist.

It’s been almost a week since the 71st Festival de Cannes came to a close and the festival bubble is starting to dissipate. That means the realization of what we assumed before it all began comes into clearer focus: the 2019 Oscar season really isn’t starting until the Venice, Telluride and Toronto trifecta. Foreign Language Film category notwithstanding, of course.

Outside of “Black Panther” not one legit Best Picture contender that has screened publicly up to this point.

Continue reading Oscar Still On Hold After Foreign Language Focused Cannes at The Playlist.

What constitutes a family? It’s a theme, like an instinctual migratory destination, that the compassionate Japanese helmer Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Like Father, Like Son“) returns to time and time again. Following the mixed response from his previous effort, the uncharacteristic whodunnit  “The Third Murderer,” his latest film, “Shoplifters,” finds the 55-year-old filmmaker revisiting the Ozu-like of family and the plight of marginalized people on the fringes of Japanese society.

Continue reading ‘Shoplifters’: Hirokazu Kore-eda Finds Empathy & Grace In Family Again [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

That’s a wrap on Cannes. The closing night ceremony of the 71st Cannes Film Festival took place this afternoon with President Cate Blanchett presiding over her group of jurors including Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Ava DuVernay, Denis Villeneuve and more. Despite a groundswell of late-days support for Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” (watch the trailer) and Bi Gan’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night“— both films wowing critics and audience in the dwindling days of the festival— both went home emptyhanded.

Continue reading Cannes: ‘Shoplifters’ Wins The Palme d’Or; Spike Lee’s ‘BlackKklansman’ Takes Grand Prize at The Playlist.

Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda is set to make his return to the Cannes Film Festival this year with his new film “Shoplifters.” After being nominated for the Palme d’Or prize in 2013 for his film “Like Father, Like Son,” Kore-eda appeared at the festival two more times, in 2015 for “Our Little Sister” and in 2016 for “After the Storm.” Now, “Shoplifters” is scheduled to compete next month at the prestigious event, and we have a new trailer for the film.

Continue reading ‘Shoplifters’ Trailer: Filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda Is Back With His Latest Film To Premiere At Cannes at The Playlist.