The Playlist

Watch: Trailer For Cop Thriller 'Blood' With Paul Bettany & Mark Strong & Sci-Fi 'Europa Report' With Sharlto Copley

By Charlie Schmidlin
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May 21, 2013 6:00 PM
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News

As Cannes passes its halfway mark, already a number of deals and release dates have been set, with Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past” being just the latest. But away from the Croisette, a number of smaller pictures are nearing release, and a diverse slate at that: a UK cop thriller with a stellar ensemble, a coming of age drama starring Claire Danes, and a space horror with Sharlto Copley in the lead.

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Recap: Benedict Cumberbatch & Rebecca Hall Shine In First 2 Parts Of Period Miniseries 'Parade's End'

By The Playlist Staff
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February 27, 2013 10:00 AM
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Reviews

The specter of "Downton Abbey" has been present in the run up to the broadcast of BBC and HBO's new period drama "Parade's End." Both are lavish period tales set before, during and after World War I. But in fact, the comparisons are a little overblown. 'Downton' and "Parade's End" (an adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's cycle of novels, often labelled as among the finest literary achievements of the 20th century, written for the screen by the great Sir Tom Stoppard, and directed by Susanna White, who was also behind "Bleak House" and "Generation Kill") might share a loose genre, but on the strength of the first episode, they couldn't be more different. 'Downton' is a soap, for better or worse, while "Parade's End" is a fearsomely intelligent, deceptively funny epic that, if it can keep up this level of quality, will likely be one of the best things on television all year.

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LFF Review: Stephen Graham & Mark Strong Impress In Generic But Powerful Cop Thriller 'Blood'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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October 18, 2012 3:03 PM
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Reviews

The history of the British police movie is not a glorious one. Perhaps it's because (for the most part) UK coppers aren't allowed to carry firearms, which somewhat reduces the capacity for squib-happy action sequences. Or maybe it's the lack of glamorous locations for said shootouts, which can hardly compete with Manhattan or L.A. But after Edgar Wright imported the cop movie to rural Britain with "Hot Fuzz," we've seen a string of more straight-faced takes on the genre from the UK, including the Jason Statham vehicle "Blitz," '70s remake "The Sweeney," and the upcoming "Welcome To The Punch."

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Recap: 'Boardwalk Empire' Continues To Spin Its Wheels With 'Blue Bell Boy'

By Rodrigo Perez
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October 8, 2012 10:03 AM
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4 Comments

Television

In retrospect, perhaps we’ve been too generous about the slow pace of “Boardwalk Empire” season three. After all, even one of our comrades at IndieWIRE, Anne Thompson, said she was dismayed at HBO’s decision to renew the show for a fourth season considering the molasses like rhythm of season three so far. It’s a wee bit hyperbolic a statement in the scheme of things, but it’s also a valid point: “Boardwalk Empire” has been moving painfully slow and the absence of the conflicted, but charming and handsome Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) is still being felt like an ache. While the season could be seen as a mourning of such, everyone, and every plot line, is taking far too long to develop. As patient as we’ve been, we’d like the fog to lift, the metaphorical grieving to stop, and for everyone to move on and move forward.

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Recap: The Women Come To The Fore As War Looms In Episode 2 Of 'Parade's End'

By Jessica Kiang
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September 1, 2012 11:52 AM
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3 Comments

Television

“Parade’s End” has already proven divisive. It’s been widely praised by the punditry, but many viewers have expressed frustration with its wilfully muddled structure (apparently a hangover from the even more chronologically confusing books), in which events separated by years and sometimes countries crash together as though occupying contiguous spaces. It doesn’t help, say these critics, that these events then unfold with a minimum of helpful backstory, and little contextualisation, so we drop in mid-conversation or catch mere glimpses of relevant newspaper headlines or have to tell simply by the fact that this minor character is talking to this other minor character, that Something Is Up. It’s challenging for the viewer, and within the genre of the costume drama, which is frequently reduced to who-is-shagging-whom-oh-look-at-that-pretty-hat throughlines, that can be offputting.

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Recap: Benedict Cumberbatch & Rebecca Hall Shine In First Part Of Period Miniseries 'Parade's End'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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August 25, 2012 12:59 PM
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19 Comments

Television

The specter of "Downton Abbey" has been present in the run up to the broadcast of BBC and HBO's new period drama "Parade's End," which aired its first episode in the UK last night (it'll come to the US cable network in the near future, though no exact date has been confirmed yet). Both are lavish period tales in the run up to, midst and aftermath of the first world war, and the star of the latter, Benedict Cumberbatch, didn't help matters much when he labelled the second season of 'Downton' "fucking atrocious" in a recent interview.

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'The Fades' Star Johnny Harris Replaces Stephen Graham As One Of 'Snow White & the Huntsman' Dwarves

By Oliver Lyttelton
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October 27, 2011 3:28 AM
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3 Comments

After a long, somewhat troubled casting process, which involved cycling through most of the possible leading men in Hollywood before landing on "Thor" star Chris Hemsworth, filming on Universal's "Snow White and the Huntsman" is finally underway. And a good thing too -- thanks to a race with Relativity's "The Brothers Grimm: Snow White," the film was moved up six months to a release date next June. And despite some early misgivings (and perhaps because the rival film by Tarsem looks so garish), we're beginning to be intrigued by the project, which marks the directorial debut of commercials helmer Rupert Sanders, and stars Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart as the fairest in all the land, Charlize Theron as her wicked stepmother, and Sam Clafin as the prince.

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Is 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' About To Become A Franchise? Announcement Allegedly Imminent

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 26, 2011 12:56 PM
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1 Comment

Gary Oldman Says Sequel Could Be A Composite Of 'The Honourable Schoolboy' And 'Smiley's People'It's hard to say that the spy genre doesn't love a franchise. The longest running franchise in cinema history is, of course, the James Bond series, Jason Bourne is Universal's biggest tentpole, and from Harry Palmer to Jack Ryan, if audiences show even a sniff on interest in a character, executives will happily bring them back for future installments, which is why we've had to suffer through things like "xXx2" and "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London" over the years.

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Paul Bettany, Brian Cox & Stephen Graham Draw 'Blood'

By Sam Price
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September 23, 2011 1:44 AM
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Screen Daily reports that Paul Bettany, Brian Cox and Stephen Graham will lead a big screen adaptation of an acclaimed 2004 BBC mini-series originally called “Conviction,” now simply retitled “Blood,” set to shoot this January. Screenwriter Bill Gallagher will pen an adaptation of his own material, which centered on two policemen in the Criminal Investigation Department or CID being thrown into chaos by the murder of a twelve year-old girl and exploring, rather loftily, "the notion that everyone has the ability to kill and what it is that can trigger that reaction in any of us." By anyone’s standards the announced cast is a very decent line-up -- it's a hopeful sign in the case of Bettany, who’s slid into ludicrous supernatural fare directed by Scott Stewart with alarming ease of late, whilst Graham and Cox always offer reliable support. Bankrolled by BBC Films, the BFI and Neal Street Productions, its producer Pippa Harris only let slip that the project promises to be a “fast-moving, gripping thriller.” One expects it will also involve the red liquid that circulates in the arteries and veins of vertebrate animals spilling in some capacity.

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Watch: Sam Worthington & Chloe Moretz In Moody Italian Trailer For 'Texas Killing Fields'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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August 2, 2011 1:01 AM
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1 Comment

The most surprising pick in the line-up of the Venice Film Festival was undoubtedly "Texas Killing Fields." The latest attempt from "Avatar" star Sam Worthington to return to non-tentpole territory, following the tepidly received "Last Night" and the long-delayed "The Debt," is a based-in-fact thriller revolving around a series of unsolved murders in League City, Texas, where 21 women were killed or disappeared since 1971, and marks the big-screen coming out party of Ami Canaan Mann, daughter of "Heat" director Michael Mann, who makes her directorial debut with the film.

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