As everyone knows, the otherwise untouchable Marvel Studios had a particularly rough 2023. The disappointment of “Ant-Man: Quantumania,” the box office flop of “The Marvels,” and the critically reviled Disney+ series, “Secret Invasion,” severely put the studio on the ropes for the first time ever. But the studio is seemingly getting its house back in order. After a strong late 2023/early 2024 with the animated series, “What If…?,” the live-action series, “Echo” and the adored animated revival, “X-Men: 97,” and the promise of a reduced output, leaving fans wanting more, Marvel only has one film for 2024, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and they seem to be totally ok with that.

Continue reading Marvel Execs Acknowledge “Rough” 2023, But Say Studio Has “Learned Their Lesson” With Rethink Approach at The Playlist.

“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.

Adopting the iconography of DC comics, Vera Drew’s subversive and kitschy “The People’s Joker” often feels like a revelation. Transfiguring a genre that, recently, has been oversaturated with rote storytelling and narratives, Drew’s film is something remarkable in the age of constant IP. It’s personal and more than a bit bewildering. It’s also incredibly rough, fusing together various aesthetics (live-action and animation, notably) to create a collage-like approach to a trans-coming-of-age story.

Continue reading ‘The People’s Joker’ Is A Kitschy, Subversive & Queer Coming Of Age Story [Review] 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.

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.

It’s often unfair to compare a director’s child with their parent’s work. Outsized expectations and a tendency to reduce every narrative and aesthetic choice to a type of juxtaposition often flattens the discourse surrounding a particular voice. Sofia Coppola’s work is so radically different from her father’s, for example, that comparison would be meaningless. But it’s also hard to review a film that so obviously bears the hallmarks of a parent’s work in a bubble.

Continue reading ‘Humane’ Review: Caitlin Cronenberg Smashes Two Genres Together In Underbaked Eco-Horror 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.

Let’s put it out there quickly, “Sonic The Hedgehog” films—about the young anthropomorphic creatures that run at lightning speeds and become heroes of Earth—are no cinematic marvels or blockbuster essentials, and they’re arguably not super memorable either. But for what they are—light, charming escapes for kids that aren’t a chore to sit through for adults thanks to their breezy pace and charismatic actors — they’re fine little diversions (Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz being effective in their roles as quippy villains and heroes).

Continue reading ‘Knuckles’ Review: ‘Sonic’ Spin-Off Sidelines The Main Character Revealing Limitations Of Franchise TV 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.

Based on the marketing, you might think “Challengers” is at its core, a tennis movie and, well, it sort of is. The film is certainly set in the world of tennis, you can’t deny that, and at one point, Zendaya’s character Tashi Duncan remarks, “We’re always talking about tennis.” The sport is at the center of her life. But despite everyone involved’s best efforts, the serves and volleys in this movie are nowhere near as important as the decade-long love triangle between Tashi and one-time BFFs, Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson, played by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, respectively.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya Rules This Love Triangle at The Playlist.

It’s just so sad. A somber tone hangs over Hulu’s very good “Under the Bridge” like a weighted blanket, dragging everyone down into the Canadian ground. It’s a show about characters who carry trauma and are forced into a situation in which they have to watch people work through their own life-changing situations, too. It’s about those rash decisions that young people sometimes make that they can never get back. There have been attempts at true crime stories about the systemic problems in youth culture that often discards children that society deems unwanted, and there have been dozens of stories of bullying, but this one feels more empathetic than almost all the others.

Continue reading ‘Under The Bridge’ Review: Riley Keough, Lily Gladstone Ground Heartbreaking True Crime Mini-Series at The Playlist.

Coming on the heels of Baz Luhrman’s decision to re-edit “Australia” into a mini-series for Hulu, taking an already long film and stretching it well beyond its breaking point in “Faraway Downs,” Veena Sud has chosen to do the opposite for the streaming service. Taking her forgotten Quibi show “The Stranger” — a short-form web series about a rideshare driver (Maika Monroe) who picks up a deranged stalker (Dane DeHaan), leading to the worst night of life — and reformatting it as a lean 90-minute film, Sud recontextualizes Quibi’s ten-minute episodes into a highly episodic, and occasionally bumpy, thriller. 

Continue reading ‘The Stranger’ Review: Veena Sud Re-Edits Her Quibi Series Into an Entertainingly Implausible Thriller at The Playlist.

How much would you pay for a chance to speak one more word to those you’ve lost? A cursory viewing of “Baghead,” another addition to the cinematic world of ghosts, might suggest such a premise to be the central focus of this unremarkable horror outing. Yes, that notion is undoubtedly part of the narrative, but just as much attention is placed on those who’ve been lost as those who are desperate to see those faces one more time. Either way, any focus the film places doesn’t go anywhere special.

Continue reading ‘Baghead’ Review: Horror About The Dearly Departed Misses The Truly Spooky Mark at The Playlist.

In Benjamin Brewer’s compelling solo directorial debut, “Arcadian,” humanity’s last remnants grapple with the harrowing aftermath of a mysterious apocalypse, where our species survival hangs by a thread amidst the looming threat of monstrous adversaries that come in the night. This atmospheric tale manages to blend family domesticity and raw emotion with gripping horror and excellent creature effects, weaving a fresh and engaging narrative. Despite this being a tale we’ve definitely seen before, the film should manage to make horror audiences clutch their pillows or popcorn with its sharply crafted scares and potentially even tug at the heartstrings of those with children.

Continue reading ‘Arcadian’ Review: Nic Cage-Led Monster Movie Manages Heart & Horror in Equal Measure 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.

Two years ago, following a vast array of attempts at a hit small screen vehicle for uber-talented “SNL” veteran Maya Rudolph, Apple TV+’s “Loot” hit the sitcom world, entering on new divorcée Molly Wells (Rudolph) trying to navigate and decide what to do with an enormous $87 billion settlement. Eventually, she settles on re-engaging with her charitable foundation, reconnecting with the real world, and trying to find out who she is along the way.

Continue reading ‘Loot’ Season 2 Review: Maya Rudolph’s Self-Absorbed Billionaire Comedy Is More Of The Same, But Still (Mostly) Enjoyable at The Playlist.

In many ways, “Scoop” is not the movie you think it is. Sure, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the BBC television program, er, “programme” “Newsnight” landed a hotly sought-after interview with Prince Andrew in 2019. At the time, the Duke of York was embroiled in longstanding controversy over his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. A convicted sex offender who had just been arrested again on new charges by the FBI.

Continue reading ‘Scoop’ Review: Billie Piper Is Stellar In This Often Riviting Takedown Of The Royal Family’s Prince Andrew at The Playlist.

Any creature feature worth its salt will, predictably, generally follow a well-worn path and set of rules plucked from classics like “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park,” or any number of sequels to “Alien.” A similar structure exists within any memorable creature thriller and the challenge a filmmaker must face in trying to elevate what is essentially a well-known edifice into something more than ordinary. At a minimum, those same-ish results habitually wind up on the safe side of a fun, mindless viewing experience, with the unwritten rule that the slightest mark of an acceptable monster outing shouldn’t be anything one needs to process for longer than a millisecond.

Continue reading ‘Sting’ Review: A Familiar Monster Thriller Isn’t Without Its Arachnophobic Charms 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.

It’s easy to appreciate the investment of time and effort that go into constructing any period piece, a balancing act between capturing the atmosphere of a bygone age and finding a middle ground equally satisfying to both the casual viewer and the history buff. And so, brimming with more than a handful of nods to spiritual siblings “The Tudors” and “The Favourite” both in tone and ambiance, the new STARZ limited series “Mary & George” finds the right mix and a seat at the table with relative ease.

Continue reading ‘Mary & George’ Review: Julianne Moore & Nicholas Galitzine Duel With Barbs & Quips In Starz’s Wicked Period Series 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.

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.

“He’s the most idolized comedian ever,” Jerry Seinfeld says glowingly in “STEVE! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces,” an oddly shaped documentary that takes until its second half to elucidate what it’s really about and make the audience care. Featuring an epic (and overlong) three-hour runtime broken into two halves and told from two perspectives, ‘Then’ and ‘Now,’ they’re almost seemingly made by two different filmmakers, and only part two is genuinely captivating.

Continue reading ‘Steve! (Martin)’ Review: ‘A Documentary In 2 Pieces’ Eventually Reveals A Private Life at The Playlist.

As a champion freediver, Jessea Lu describes in the early minutes of her own documentary, “7 Beats Per Minute,” the film’s title reflects the heart rate a freediver should target to ensure success during a competitive diving event. There’s no question such a sport sits as one of the world’s most dangerous, the act of holding one’s breath for a protracted length of time while engaging in any number of underwater activities.

Continue reading ‘7 Beats Per Minute’ Review: A Freediver’s Near Tragedy Gets The Drawn-Out Documentary Treatment [SXSW] at The Playlist.