The Playlist

Lord knows, we Playlisters love a cinematic polymath: a director whose interests seem unconstrained by the strictures of any one particular genre and who instead leaps nimbly, if not always successfully, from sci-fi to epic to thriller to comedy -- think Steven Soderbergh, Michael Winterbottom or Ang Lee. Peter Weir is almost one of these -- his feature film resume boasts everything from mystery to horror to romcom to historical epic, but he falls just short of true all-rounder status because a glimpse at his back catalogue really suggests that while he has dallied with various genres, he’s more comfortable staying within shouting distance of 'human drama.' In fact, you get the impression that Weir only crosses genres because he is following his particular thematic preoccupations (fish-out-of-water scenarios, man vs. nature struggles, etc.) where they lead, rather than because of some kind of intellectual compulsion to kick against his limitations through experimentation.

New Shorts From Kirsten Dunst, Sam Taylor-Wood & MoreAs any cinephile will note, women have been sitting in the director's chair since the inception of filmmaking itself, but it seems only recently that their voices have become more numerous-- and more, dare we say, bankable. High profile names such as Kathryn Bigelow and Sofia Coppola are garnering more attention in Hollywood, with Bigelow even becoming the first female to ever win the Oscar for Best Director at the ceremony last year. But the truth is, women filmmakers have as many voices to bring to the table as their male counterparts, the philosophy it would appear, behind the American Cinemateque's "Focus on Female Filmmakers" program, an annual event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The night was an eclectic collection of short films by women directors, ranging from documentary, to dance, to animation to biblical re-tellings.

The Answer Is Probably Not, But Hey, What The Hell...Our exhausting coverage of the films coming out in 2011 continues and yes, we're tired, hungry and a bit cranky. We used to call this our Least Anticipated Films feature, but this year our New Year's resolution was to be a tiny bit more positive. Frankly, the sentiment applies, but this is also the leftover films of 2011 we just don't know what to do with. Many of them look abysmal, some of us glass-half-full Playlist types (yes, there are a few among us) think, "hey, that picture might not be so bad," while other members of the group stare in shock that such an idea could be possibly floated. So yes, basically these are the films that we don't hold out too much hope, the ones we think look downright cheap and dreadful, made only to turn a buck and the occasional few that look half-decent (and may just not have fit in the character count of our Escapist Features, sue us) --- though before you bombard our comments section, please actually read what we have to say about these films before assuming we're completely writing them off. Also, while it wasn't intentional, some of us do find it amusing that most of the cast of "Twilight" fill these halls. Another trend we just realized? Leighton Meester pretty much means box-office poison (poor cute, "Gossip Girl"). Also, Hollywood seems to be banking on the mostly unknown Alex Pettyfer, but he truly looks like a charisma-free zone of blandness. Onwards to 2011, though, not necessarily upwards in this case....

Nothing quite like baring your cinematic soul to readers with a top 10 list. And it's not made any easier either by the fine writing that has already been seen on The Playlist in the 2010 analysis by our team of writers including that of Kevin, RP, Oli, Gabe, Drew and Chris (and those are just the ones who submitted a top 10).