The Playlist

The Playlist Staff Pick Their Most Underrated & Overrated Films Of 2011

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 20, 2011 9:26 AM
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65 Comments

Features

One of the pecularities of our site is our insistence on writing in the third personn, something designed to create the impression of a collective, a hive mind, and it's served us fairly well so far. But the realities of this are a little trickier; we're not all programmed the same way, and our beloved readers, understandably, can be puzzled to see a film derided in a review, and then ranking highly in our end-of-year features. But the truth is, we're not all cut from the same cloth; one person's treasure can be another's trash, and the debates around The Playlist's proverbial water cooler rage on year-round (for some reason, we continue to fight about Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," two years after it came out).

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Awards Mania As 'The Artist,' 'The Tree Of Life' & 'The Descendants' Earn Top Critic Organization Honors

By Gabe Toro
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December 12, 2011 8:59 AM
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1 Comment

News

Sunday was a major day for Oscar prognosticators, as a number of critics organizations went live with their end-of-2011 honors. Some films gained support, and some lost quite a bit of steam, but for those of you who look at the whole thing like a horse race, there was a lot of movement amongst a thick group of thoroughbreds.

Audiences Celebrate 'New Year's Eve' Early On The Worst Box Office Weekend Of 2011

By Gabe Toro
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December 11, 2011 12:07 PM
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4 Comments

News

It’s not a surprise to see two of the year’s mildest weekends following each other. It is, however, a bit of a departure to see them at the beginning of December. The top twenty films at the box office brought a cumulative $73.2 million, the worst weekend of 2011. That's right, even worse than last weekend which had no new wide releases. You can keep filling up the theaters with crap Hollywood, just don't expect anyone to go.

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Weekend Box Office: 'Twilight' Beats Back 'Muppets' For Third Straight Week At #1

By Gabe Toro
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December 4, 2011 12:10 PM
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7 Comments

News

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The Amazing Race: 'Hugo' Gets A Boost In First Official Week Of The Awards Season, Can It Go All The Way?

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 2, 2011 2:20 PM
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4 Comments

Awards

Considering we've been writing about most weeks since August, it's odd to think that the awards season really only got underway this week. Everything up to now has been foreplay, but with the Gotham Awards on Sunday night, the Spirit Awards nominations and New York Film Critics' Circle Awards on Tuesday, and the National Board of Review yesterday, we're entering the underwear-removal phase of the season. To extend the metaphor. Probably too far.

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National Board Of Review Gives Best Picture & Director To 'Hugo'; Tilda Swinton & George Clooney Take Acting Awards

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 1, 2011 4:14 PM
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8 Comments

Awards

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The Amazing Race: Does A Packed Field Of Nostalgic Crowd-Pleasers Leave The Door Open For More Complex Fare?

By Oliver Lyttelton
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November 28, 2011 1:37 PM
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3 Comments

Awards

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, certain things started to crystallize about this year's Best Picture Oscar race. Films like "Hugo," "My Week With Marilyn" and "The Artist" opened, joining the already-percolating "The Descendants" and earlier hopeful nominees like "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball" and "The Help." Studios held sneak screenings of two more that aren't due in theaters for weeks yet, "War Horse" and "We Bought A Zoo," leaving Stephen Daldry's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" the biggest contender yet to be revealed.

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Weekend Box Office: It's A 'Twilight' Thanksgiving While 'The Muppets' Wins The Family Film Battle Royale

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 27, 2011 11:59 AM
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4 Comments

News

It's Thankgiving, which means people spend time and money to go see their loved ones, only to get away from them as fast as possible. And always the first to escape from dull holiday festivities, it looks like teens (and Moms who should know better) kept flocking to see Edward and Bella fang bang as "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1" took the top spot in week number two, taking in $62.3 million over the five day long weekend. However, the franchise is becoming increasingly front-loaded with its biggest second week drop over, hovering somewhere around 76%. Even so, the film should have at least one more solid week in the bank as next weekend is a bizarrely barren with no major release scheduled. However, it will likely be leap-frogged by this weekend's number two movie "The Muppets."

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The Cast Of 'Hugo' Talk The Influence Of 'Under The Roofs Of Paris,' World War I & Working With Martin Scorsese

By Oliver Lyttelton
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November 24, 2011 9:49 AM
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0 Comments

Features

As Graham King told us a few days back, casting a Martin Scorsese film is far from the hardest part of the process. With the director's legendary status now cemented by a long-overdue Best Director Oscar for "The Departed" a few years ago, top actors are delighted to line up, even if it's for a brief cameo, in a Scorsese-helmed project. The filmmaker's latest, "Hugo," is no exception. Its young leads, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz, are among the most widely-praised child actors of recent years, and the supporting cast ranges from Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley to comic whirlwind Sacha Baron Cohen, with Jude Law, Emily Mortimer, Ray Winstone, Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour, Helen McCrory and Michael Stuhlbarg among the litany of other stars cropping up at some point.

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