The Playlist

12 Of Our Favorite London-Set Movies To Get You Through The Olympics

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 27, 2012 2:59 PM
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6 Comments

Blogs

Tonight, the 2012 Summer Olympics will kick off in London, and while our tolerance for sporting events is relatively low, we're a bit excited. In part, it's because it's taking place in the city where this writer was born, raised and still lives, and in part it's because the opening ceremony was masterminded by British filmmaker Danny Boyle, the man behind films like "Trainspotting" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

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On The Rise '12: 5 Cinematographers Lighting Up Screens In Recent Years

By Oliver Lyttelton
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June 26, 2012 1:10 PM
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21 Comments

Features

Following our looks at actors, actresses, screenwriters and directors to watch in recent months, when the time came to put together a list of cinematographers (as we did two years ago), we went in with an open mind. But what was interesting is realizing, after the fact, that in an era where 35mm film is allegedly being phased out, that all five have done perhaps their most distinctive work on old-fashioned celluloid, rather than digital.

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Listen: Kid Cudi Samples 'Attack The Block' For Latest Track "Dennis, Hook Me Up With Some Of That Whiskey"

By Simon Dang
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May 1, 2012 12:40 PM
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0 Comments

News

Rapper Kid Cudi moonlights as an actor every now and then, most recently popping up in a regular role on the (sadly) now-defunct HBO series "How To Make It In America" but it looks like he's also a keen cinephile, sampling Joe Cornish's "Attack The Block" on his latest track, a collaboration with producer Dot da Genius.

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Drew Taylor's Favorite Films Of 2011

By Drew Taylor
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December 24, 2011 9:25 AM
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21 Comments

News

2011 was undoubtedly the year of Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life." It just wasn't for me. After winning the Palme d'Or on the same day that I saw the movie, I was left feeling baffled. Like I had missed something.

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'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' & 'Drive' Lead London Film Critics Nominations

By Drew Taylor
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December 20, 2011 3:02 PM
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1 Comment

News

The London Film Critics' Circle has released their nominees this morning, with some surprising frontrunners. Tomas Alfredson's Cold War thriller "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and Nicolas Winding Refn's pulpy blast "Drive" were the top nominees, with six nominations apiece, while Lynne Ramsay's chilling "We Need to Talk About Kevin" and Asghar Farhadi's emotionally devastating "A Separation" each picked up five nominations. Steve McQueen's sex addiction drama "Shame" and indie black-and-white silent thingee "The Artist" each secured four nominations. Sadly "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star," was, again, overlooked.

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Hope You Like Synths: The Best Scores & Soundtracks Of 2011

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 14, 2011 2:29 PM
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30 Comments

Features

Way back in the day, The Playlist started as a site focused principally on the places where movies and music met, and in particular, on scores and soundtracks. We've widened our net in the intervening years simply because that sole focus felt too small and we're movie lovers just as much as music lovers, but that interest has never gone away. And how could it? In many ways, we've reached the most interesting time in film scoring in years, with 2011 in particular seeing a number of electronic artists bringing the synth back into fashion in a big way. Between these and last year's Daft Punk-abled "Tron: Legacy" score, has there ever been a time when movie music has been so, well, danceable?

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From Bloody Murders To Bridesmaid Speeches: The 25 Best Movie Moments Of 2011

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 13, 2011 1:59 PM
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49 Comments

Features

The great Howard Hawks once famously said that what makes a good film is "three great scenes, and no bad ones." While we'd argue that that's not an absolute hard-and-fast rule, he wasn't far off. With 2011 providing a number of above-average films, there've been plenty of memorable moments to go around, even if we couldn't attest to them all following Hawks Law.

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The Amazing Race: 'Shame' & 'Tinker Tailor' Lead Noms At British Independent Film Awards

By Oliver Lyttelton
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October 31, 2011 5:30 AM
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4 Comments

Paddy Considine's 'Tyrannosaur' Also Wins Seven Nods, 'Kevin' & 'Kill List' Close BehindWhen "Chariots of Fire" writer Colin Weiland announced on stage at the 1982 Oscars that "The British are coming!," it went on to live in infamy; the British failed to come, and the U.K. film industry continued on much as it had before. But if David Seidler or Tom Hooper had exclaimed the same at the Academy Awards this February, there might have been less egg on their face -- the victory, and huge box office success of "The King's Speech" has been a precursor to the best year for British film that we can remember.

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'Attack the Block' Director Joe Cornish Says Basement Jaxx "Nailed" The Mood He Was Going For

By Drew Taylor
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October 25, 2011 8:29 AM
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2 Comments

And More From The Director On The Alien Invasion Film From the moment the lights dimmed in the Alamo Drafthouse where we first saw Joe Cornish's comedic sci-fi thriller "Attack the Block" at this year's SXSW film festival, we were hooked. Since then, we've watched as the film has gone through wild ups-and-downs: first the rapturous response in Austin (where it ended up taking home an Audience Award), to its acquisition by Sony's Screen Gems division, to the somewhat limited theatrical release it got this summer. It felt very much like those that saw "Attack the Block" absolutely adored it… it's just that not many people saw it.

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Who Were The Winners And Losers Of The Summer Of 2011?

By Oliver Lyttelton
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August 30, 2011 4:08 AM
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24 Comments

As the summer winds die down with a flat and uninspired whimper, the realization sets in: the summer of 2011 was for the birds. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was the last major tent-pole to open, followed by sleeper hits like "The Help" and the not-so-successful R-rated action comedy, "30 Minutes or Less." Many had forecast that the overstuffed summer would prove disastrous, with Jon Favreau predicting that, "There’s not a weekend where there won’t be teeth on the floor," but ironically it's Favreau's film that proved to be one of the biggest box-office disappointments. Financially, films did very well with three billion-dollar blockbusters – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”-- helping the industry set a summer box-office record and nearly rebound from a horrible start to 2011 (Currently, 2011 revenue is running only 4 percent behind 2010, but in March, things were looking grim – 19% lower than the year previous).