The Playlist

The Amazing Race: Why 'Transformers 3' & 'W.E.' Deserve Their Oscar Nominations

By Oliver Lyttelton
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February 10, 2012 3:02 PM
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2 Comments

Awards

This week, we want to deal with something that's been bugging us a little, not just this year, but for the last few years. Every January, a familiar, but slightly different mantra is repeated around the internet: "I can't believe [insert critically-reviled blockbuster] has got an Oscar nomination, and [insert cinephile favorite] doesn't have any!" And it's understandable. It's hard to feel good about the process when, like this year, "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon ," "W.E," "Real Steel" and "Anonymous" can all count themselves as Oscar-nominated films, and "Shame," "Rampart," "We Need To Talk About Kevin," "Melancholia," "Young Adult" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene" missed out entirely.

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In Theaters: 'The Rum Diary' Hopes To Drink 'In Time' & 'Puss In Boots' Under The Table

By Katie Walsh
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October 28, 2011 8:34 AM
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0 Comments

Um, WHAT? There is no horror movie opening this weekend. WHO WILL FILL THE SAW VOID??? I know we got “Paranormal Activity 3” last weekend, but it is decidedly abnormal for no big budget horror to be opening on October goddamn 28th. Are we on the decline of a cycle? Is everyone getting their yayas out at those horrible haunted house places? Think piece coming soon! In the meantime, check out our foreign horror feature for all your cinematic creepy crawlies. And, if you’re not in the Halloween spirit, here are some other films for you to enjoy: the long awaited “The Rum Diary”! “Puss in Boots,” for the children. And time as money movie “In Time” with lots of pretty humans.

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Review: Roland Emmerich's 'Anonymous' Still Manages To Destroy Something -- Its Own Authenticity

By Todd Gilchrist
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October 24, 2011 2:00 AM
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11 Comments

Combining the life-meets-art origin stories of “Ray” with the history-as-high melodrama of “Braveheart,” “Anonymous” marks a departure from director Roland Emmerich’s previous work as a purveyor of blockbuster destruction, but he still manages to destroy any credible sense of history with his speculative portrait of the man who might have been responsible for the works of William Shakespeare. Emmerich, casting his vote for the “Oxfordian” view of the playwright’s actual identity, turns what could have been an intelligent and provocative examination of fact and fiction into an overwrought and cretinous historical thriller that’s too busy disappearing into flashbacks and other frivolous digressions to bother discovering any actual truth.

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Kathryn Bigelow's 'Kill Bin Laden' Pushed Back; 'Anonymous' Goes Limited Instead Of Wide Next Week

By Simon Dang
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October 20, 2011 1:19 AM
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1 Comment

Sony's Fall 2012 Oscar Date Now Goes To A Kevin James ComedyPerhaps in reaction to a New York Times piece plotting that the Obama administration was unlawfully providing Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal access to details of Osama Bin Laden's assassination to boost the president's own political agenda, Sony Pictures has now pushed back the duo's black-ops thriller from its planned October 12th unveiling to a date later in 2012, possibly even 2013, placing its release after the next election.

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The Amazing Race: Which Awards Contenders Came Out Of The Venice/Telluride/Toronto Derby On Top?

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 16, 2011 5:44 AM
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11 Comments

After two bonkers weeks, the September festival season is just about dragging to a close (at least in terms of major awards-season debuts; Fantastic Fest is pretty much imminent, but it's not an awards player and the NYFF follows hot on its heels, but most of those films have screened already). And as ever, the films that we're likely to see strutting their stuff at the Kodak Theater -- and the ones that we won't -- have started to come into focus.

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'The Descendants,' 'Shame,' 'The Artist' Head Full Line Up For 55th BFI London Film Festival

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 7, 2011 1:01 AM
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0 Comments

'The Ides Of March,' 'We Need To Talk About Kevin,' 'Carnage,' 'Wuthering Heights' & More Also IncludedWe're really getting into the thick of festival season by now. Telluride is long departed, things are winding down in Venice (we're here for another 24 hours, but it's starting to look like a ghost town), and The Playlist team head off to Toronto this afternoon. But there's plenty more on the way in the months to come. Only this morning, AFI Fest revealed that it would open with the premiere of Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar," and shortly afterwards, the full line-up for the 55th BFI London Film Festival has been announced.

Empire Big Screen '11: Sony Reveals Footage From 'The Amazing Spider-Man,' 'Anonymous' & More

By Oliver Lyttelton
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August 13, 2011 9:23 AM
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2 Comments

Footage Reports On 'Kill List,' 'The Pirates,' 'Arthur Christmas' & 'Total Recall'After our report from the Warner Bros. and eOne panels earlier this morning at Empire Big Screen, things moved swiftly along with Optimum bringing along some homegrown hits and Sony a few hopeful blockbusters, including the weekend's lone glimpse of a superhero...

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Watch: New Trailer For Roland Emmerich's 'Anonymous' Says "We've All Been Played"

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 5, 2011 3:36 AM
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5 Comments

That's True In More Ways Than OneSo Roland Emmerich has made a movie that isn't about something getting destroyed hundreds of different ways? But while "Anonymous" is about Shakespeare, don't worry, Emmerich has still found a way to make sure the story includes cannons.

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Anyone Got A Time Machine? Rian Johnson's 'Looper' Gets A September 28, 2012 Release Date

By Oliver Lyttelton
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June 9, 2011 1:05 AM
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1 Comment

Roland Emmerich's 'Anonymous,' Gerald Butler Vehicle 'Playing The Field,' Space Actioner 'Lockout' All Shuffle DatesOf all the films to have gone before the cameras this year, Rian Johnson's "Looper" is one of our most anticipated. It's a mindbending, violent time travel thriller, with the best script to date from the man behind "Brick" and "The Brothers Bloom", and features a top-notch cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels and more. After a fierce bidding war, the project, now in post-production, was snapped up by FilmDistrict, who'll release the film through their deal with TriStar.

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New Posters For Julia Leigh's 'Sleeping Beauty' & Roland Emmerich's 'Anonymous'

By Simon Dang
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May 4, 2011 3:45 AM
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3 Comments

Two new posters have been unveiled for features on opposites ends of our anticipation scale in Julia Leigh's erotic thriller "Sleeping Beauty" and Roland Emmerich's period conspiracy drama "Anonymous."

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