“Baby Reindeer” mania has already swept the U.K., and the word-of-mouth export continues to make waves across the U.S., hence our belated review about an incredibly devastating and twisting series that is so much more than you initially expected.

There’s a natural tendency in most savvy viewers to predict how events might unfold in any film or televised event. For years, Netflix established itself as a contender in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction sweepstakes with the murder-for-hire animal park drama (“Tiger King”) or plunges into the darkest realms of internet video (“Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer”).

Continue reading ‘Baby Reindeer’ Review: A Conventional Stalking Thriller Transforms Into A Devastating & Complex Confessional About Abuse & Trauma at The Playlist.

It’s always important to separate the filmmaker from the film and ignore all the related nonsense around releasing a new movie. So, when someone like comedian Jerry Seinfeld makes a broad and flippant statement about the film industry being “over” and chastising those who work in it for being earnest, diligent in their craft, and clueless about their impending demise, you have to just dash it to the rocks and move on. But Seinfeld’s new movie, ”Unfrosted”— his feature-length narrative debut about cereal titans’ Post and Kellogg’s space-race-esque competition to create the Pop Tart— is so egregiously trifling, it’s tempting to suggest something wild like he knows it and is either trying to beat critics to the punch or just acting out in self-sabotage.

Continue reading ‘Unfrosted’ Review: Jerry Seinfeld’s Silly Pop-Tarts Movie Is A Banal Excuse To Do ‘Mad Men’ For Cereal at The Playlist.

While it’s a big month for new films, television is seeing a slightly slower release schedule. Despite this, there are some major returns and debuts to anticipate, with the much-delayed return of “Hacks” kicking things off. As is the case these days, it’s a big month for streaming series, with new science-fiction shows coming to Apple TV+ while Disney+ gets to host two major franchises. 

READ MORE: 13 Films To See In May: ‘Furiosa,’ ‘Fall Guy,’ ‘Apes’ ‘Hit Man’ & More

Cult favorites such as “Interview with a Vampire” and “We Are Lady Parts” both make their return.

Continue reading 10 TV Shows To Watch In May: ‘Hacks,’ ‘Eric,’ ‘Dark Matter,’ ‘Outer Range,’ & More at The Playlist.

Multiverse narratives are all the rage these days, especially within the comic book movie genre, where there’s always a convenient excuse for nostalgia grabs and time-folding mash-ups where three different actors who have played the superhero can turn up in the same universe together side by side for the first time. But what about a consideration of the multiverse for adults and a deeper, darker contemplation about regrets, choices made that irrevocably shaped our lives, and the haunting aspects of the roads not taken?

Continue reading ‘Dark Matter’ Review: Joel Edgerton & Jennifer Connelly Traverse The Multiverse For Adults & Consider Existential Regrets at The Playlist.

As May arrives, that means summer is here, at least for movies. And it means the theatrical rollout of tentpoles and blockbuster event films, which start out strong this year with the romantic-comedy actioner “The Fall Guy.” It’s a big month for major releases both for the bigger budgeted features but also for indie films that have gained strong word of mouth through festival selections. “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Furiosa” are both worthy of major attention, the former having garnered raves out of its Sundance premieres. 

READ MORE: Summer Movie Preview: 50 Must-See Films To Watch

Elsewhere, as always, there’s a bit of something for everyone.

Continue reading 13 Films To See In May: ‘Furiosa,’ ‘Fall Guy,’ ‘Apes’ ‘Hit Man’ & More at The Playlist.

After the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the film industry is still trying to find its sea legs in 2024. While the box office has been lagging, and there’s been no “Super Mario Bros,” “Barbie,” or “Oppenheimer” so far this year, to be fair, most of those hits didn’t arrive until the summer (minus the Nintendo adaptation). While it’s been a relatively slow year at the domestic box office, there have been hits in “Dune: Part Two” and “Godzilla x Kong,”

And, while the movie industry seemingly slowed down production last year because of said strikes, there’s absolutely no lack of content this year.

Continue reading Summer Movie Preview: 50 Must-See Films To Watch at The Playlist.

In this week’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo goes undercover to discuss “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” with star Cary Elwes (“The Princess Bride,” “Stranger Things,” “Saw”). The movie is based on real events and dives into the origin of the Special Operations Executive, a small group of highly skilled men recruited by the British military to strike German forces behind enemy lines.

Continue reading ‘The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’: Cary Elwes Talks Special Connection To Guy Ritchie’s Film, ‘Knuckles,’ ‘The Princess Bride’ & More [The Discourse Podcast] at The Playlist.

There’s an intriguing show somewhere buried within the mysterious shrouds of “The Veil,” the new FX international spy drama from creator/writer Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”), that’s just a little too slippery for its own good. Truthfully, it’s there front and center from the start, a series about shapeshifting spies that lose their sense of identity and self because of all the surreptitious double lives they are leading, a strong concept.

Continue reading ‘The Veil’ Review: Obsessive Elisabeth Moss Spy Drama Gets Buried Under Melodrama at The Playlist.

Rebecca Ferguson is becoming close to a household name. O.K., maybe “close” is a slight exaggeration, but her profile is bigger than her social media presence, and that’s primarily because her resume over the past decade is filled with one banger after another. “The Greatest Showman,” three acclaimed “Mission: Impossible” flicks, a Best Picture nominee in “Dune” and, likely, a second Oscar nominee in her latest blockbuster, “Dune: Part Two.” And now, she’s up for a potential Emmy nomination as Juliette, a “sheriff” in a post-apocalyptic civilization trying to discover the truth behind the gigantic, multi-level “Silo” humanity is confined to.

Continue reading Rebecca Ferguson Revisits ‘Silo’ & The Talks “Tricky Conversation” For ‘Dune: Messiah’ at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Zack Snyder’s profoundly unfortunate “Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire,” a turgid, ostentatiously vacant space opera, was, to put it politely, a dire film and hollow regurgitation of familiar sci-fi tropes. But it at least had a story with three bare acts, however tedious. “Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver,” the sequel, however— continuing the already unexceptional story of the ragtag group of warrior misfits defending a peaceful farming community on an off-world moon—is somehow even worse and barely justifies its existence on a fundamental level.

Continue reading ‘Rebel Moon: Scargiver’ Review: Zack Snyder’s Excruciatingly Slight Sequel Barely Justifies A ‘Part 2’ at The Playlist.

In this week’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo grows out his handlebar mustache and puts on a southern accent to discuss “Blood for Dust” with star Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones,” “Eternals”). The movie follows a struggling salesman with a troubled criminal past who is pulled back into a string of crimes by a former colleague, leading to a trail of blood…and dust.

Continue reading ‘Blood For Dust’: Kit Harington Talks New Crime Drama, The ‘Jon Snow’ Series, Almost Playing King Arthur & More [The Discourse Podcast] at The Playlist.

Thanks to early official announcements a number of the movies debuting at this year’s 77th edition of the Festival de Cannes are already known. Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act” will open the festival. George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” will premiere out of competition. And Frances Ford Coppola leaked himself that his latest opus, “Megalopolis” will screen in competition.

Continue reading Cannes 2024: New Films From Yorgos Lanthimos, Frances Ford Coppola, Sean Baker & Andrea Arnold at The Playlist.

There is so much going on in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 novel “The Sympathizer” that it would take a team of true craftsmen even to attempt to unpack it in episodic form. HBO is lucky they hired one of the best in Park Chan-Wook, a supremely and undeniably talented director. The South Korean auteur filmmaker behind “Decision to Leave,” “Oldboy,” and many more brings his remarkable tonal confidence to the first three episodes of “The Sympathizer,” which almost plays like a three-hour new film by the award-winning director.

Continue reading ‘The Sympathizer’ Review: Park Chan-Wook, Robert Downey Jr. Are in Inspired Pairing for HBO’s Ambitious Adaptation at The Playlist.

Built on a wearying cheerful optimism/cruel fatalism dichotomy—contrasting chords that aren’t all that engaging or novel to begin with but repeated ad nauseum regardless—it’s astonishing just how quickly the post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, “Fallout,” wears out its welcome. Startlingly glib, one-note, and yet self-assured in its vacant design, the series reveals its shallow hand very early. “Fallout” endlessly reprises the wholesome quaintness vs. the grotesque or freakishly ruthlessness mode of apposition and fails to do anything remotely interesting with it, reinforcing what swiftly becomes a long, tiresome pattern and slog.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’ Review: One Note Clash Of Post-Apocalyptic Hostility & Quaint ‘50s Retro Futurism Is Exhaustingly Dull at The Playlist.

There is a bluntness about Kirsten Dunst that has always been refreshing. You wanna know if she was asked to be in “Spider-Man: No Way Home”? She’s gonna tell you. Wanna know why you only see her in maybe one project a year? She’ll tell you why. And for her latest project, Alex Garland’s celebrated new thriller “Civil War,” she’s not going to minimize its political message.

Continue reading Kirsten Dunst: ‘Civil War’ “Will Leave You With A Lot To Think About” [Interview] at The Playlist.

When is an already well-distinguished artist arguably underrated and still overdue for further and greater recognition? Well, 71-year-old writer/director Steven Zaillian, an Academy Award-winning screenwriter (“Schindler’s List”) and five-time nominee (“Moneyball,” “The Irishman”), is already regarded as one of the most celebrated screenwriters on the planet. Yet, following the release of the fabulous “Ripley,” his striking and haunting new Netflix series— not to mention in addition to his excellent and deeply undervalued 2016 series, “The Night Of” starring Riz Ahmed— Zaillian’s filmmaking career recognition merits an ascension to the level of venerated master.

Continue reading ‘Ripley’ Review: Steven Zaillian’s Gripping Thriller Is A Strikingly Haunting Portrait Of A Fractured & Fraudulent Life at The Playlist.

April is a big month for new releases, with some major titles hitting streaming platforms as spring arrives. Andrew Scott helms a new, highly-anticipated drama for Netflix, while Colin Farrel makes one of two 2024 TV appearances with “Sugar” on Apple TV+ (the other being “The Penguin” coming in the fall). There’s the latest video game adaptation that, like “The Last of Us,” attempts to nail the original tone while delivering why the adaptation is worthwhile.

Continue reading 12 TV Series To Watch In April: ‘Ripley,’ ‘Sugar,’ ‘The Sympathizer’ & More at The Playlist.

The utterly convoluted lengths filmmakers will go to contrive some excuse to make monsters fight has become exasperating. Moreover, the unique paradox at the heart of Legendary’s Monsterverse series continues. Much like “Godzilla Vs. Kong,” also directed by Adam Wingard, the sequel, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” faces many of the same fundamental problems, and these franchise filmmakers haven’t all addressed the issues, nor even seem to see them as such.  

Continue reading ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Review: A Thundering Bore Of Convoluted Excuses To Make Titans Clash at The Playlist.

Adam Wingard has always had a flair for the most ultra-vibrant and loud segments of the color spectrum. Growing up in the ’80s, the golden age of movie tie-in merchandise, the director vividly remembers the neon palette, the yellows, blues, and reds of seemingly every toy from “Transformers” to “Thundercats” to even just “the mellow yellow NASCAR” from “Days of Thunder.” Bold visuals and bright colors were a staple of “Godzilla vs.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla X Kong’: Adam Wingard Talks ‘New Empire,’ Toys, Toho, & Godzilla’s Atomic Half-Life [Interview] at The Playlist.

A stylishly engaging and crisp neo-noir steeped in the hardboiled detective tradition, Apple TV+’s “Sugar,” starring Colin Farrell, is rather terrific—that is, until it’s not. Created by Mark Protosevich (“I Am Legend”) and fabulously directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (“City Of God”) and Adam Arkin (“The Offer”), “Sugar” is initially sleek and captivatingly crafted in its depiction of L.A.

Continue reading ‘Sugar’ Review: Colin Farrell’s Detective Noir Is Stylishly Terrific Until Its Terrible WTF? Twist at The Playlist.

Oddly shaped, leisurely paced, and perhaps resembling an episode of the non-existent “Ghostbusters” TV show had there been one, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is a curious film, out of time with modern editing rhythms. It’s atypical and unusual by today’s standards until you realize, ‘Oh, right, it’s a ‘Ghostbusters’ movie,’ already fitting into the oddball and unlikely genre of paranormal comedy. And, instead of trying to supercharge it in the way J.J.

Continue reading Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Review: Gil Kenan Crafts An Easygoing, Idiosyncratic Throwback Sequel at The Playlist.

Marvel Studios feels like it’s at a crossroads moment. Between the Sony Pictures yesteryear greatest hits franchise elements of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and the 20th Century Fox-era cameo expectations of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Marvel is really steeped in the full throws of nostalgia right now as it regroups in the post-“Avengers: Endgame” landscape, rediscovering who they are and where they want to go.

Continue reading ‘X-Men ‘97’ Review: Marvel’s Engaging Animated Series Embraces The Past & Forges A New Future at The Playlist.

Given some of the star-studded titles that have closed out SXSW in previous years, a romantic comedy that could best be described as Harry Styles Wish Fulfillment might seem like an odd choice to round out the festival. But “The Idea of You,” a Michael Showalter adaptation of Robinne Lee’s book of the same name, proves that romantic comedies, when done well, are every bit as deserving of the red carpet rollout.

Continue reading ‘The Idea Of You’ Review: Anne Hathaway Shines In This Romantic Comedy Done Right [SXSW] at The Playlist.

Look, let’s be honest. From the opening seconds of its debut trailer, we all knew that Alex Garland’s “Civil War” would not be a pill that went down easily. Garland may have built his career around challenging visions of the future, but a film about a second American Civil War—in an election year, no less—is the kind of thing that gives even professional discourse writers a headache. 

So, if it helps, I have both good news and bad news.

Continue reading ‘Civil War’ Review: Alex Garland’s Latest Is Both Unforgettable & Challenging As Hell [SXSW] at The Playlist.

Sometimes, it feels like Hollywood took the wrong lessons from the “John Wick” franchise. While many producers have tried to recreate lighting in a bottle by focusing on the aesthetics of the trade—suits and neon lighting everywhere on screen—the real lesson is the celebration of the practical and a renewed reverence for the stunt professionals who make those sequences happen on screen. That will no doubt be the legacy of David Leitch, whose evolution as a filmmaker post-”John Wick” has led him to “The Fall Guy,” a bright and energetic action movie about the joy of making action movies.

Continue reading ‘The Fall Guy’ Review: An Exuberant & Kinetic, But Sometimes Underwritten Love Letter To The Stunt Industry [SXSW] at The Playlist.