Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Actors

Directors

Archives

The Playlist

Watch: Annapurna Pictures Sizzle Reel Celebrates 'The Master,' 'Zero Dark Thirty,' 'Lawless' & More

  • By Ken Guidry
  • |
  • February 26, 2013 9:17 AM
  • |
  • 6 Comments
News
With the Oscars over, it looks like we are finally ready to stop talking about last year’s movies and keep our focus entirely on this year’s crop of films. Well, most of us are ready to do that. Annapurna Pictures has posted a nifty little sizzle reel on their site showcasing the collection of challenging adult dramas that they’ve released and/or have been involved with over the past year. This includes clips from "Lawless," "The Master," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Killing Them Softly," "Spring Breakers" (premiered in Venice last summer) and "The Grandmaster" (premiered in Berlin a few weeks ago), with the latter two set to be released theatrically this year. The reel is a must watch for fans of any or all of these films.
Read More »
More: Annapurna Pictures, The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, Killing Them Softly, Spring Breakers, The Grandmaster, Lawless, Megan Ellison

Megan Ellison Hates Harvey Weinstein & More: 7 Highlights From The Juicy Vanity Fair Profile On The Annapurna Scion

  • By Edward Davis
  • |
  • February 1, 2013 10:00 AM
  • |
  • 33 Comments
News
Vanity Fair’s 2013 Hollywood issue is kind of the gift that keeps on giving. It not only has an awesome oral history of “Pulp Fiction” (highlights of which you can read here), but it also has some pretty in-depth and juicy profiles. But, the most tantalizing is about Megan Ellison, the 27-year old daughter of the third richest man in the U.S. She’s rumored to have been given a bankroll as large as $2 billion from her Dad on her 25th birthday (though her reps deny the figure), with the movie buff using the amount to help bankroll her slate of films.
Read More »
More: Megan Ellison, Annapurna Pictures, Andrew Dominik, Blonde, Harvey Weinstein, The Master, Bennett Miller, Side Effects, Steven Soderbergh, David O. Russell, Killing Them Softly

Kevin Jagernauth's Favorite Films Of 2012

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • January 14, 2013 12:01 PM
  • |
  • 7 Comments
News
2012 is so two weeks ago, right? Well, forgive my tardiness, but I was doing my best to catch up with as much as possible before putting this list together, but even then some films missed out. "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia," "Compliance," "Sleepwalk With Me," "Nobody Walks," "No" and a handful more...I wish I could have seen them, but it just didn't happen.
Read More »
More: 2012: The Year In Review, Best Of 2012, Silver Linings Playbook, Laurence Anyways, Tabu, Anna Karenina, Rust And Bone, Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, Killing Them Softly

Drew Taylor's Top Ten Favorite Films of 2012

  • By Drew Taylor
  • |
  • January 2, 2013 11:04 AM
  • |
  • 8 Comments
Features
2012 was all about escape. Not only in terms of the big-budget movies that offered us escape from the increasingly ugly real world (how many superheroes or swoony vampires can we stomach?), but by the content of the more adult movies. Characters wanted an escape – from slavery, from a futuristic Korea, from time-travel gangsters, from a burdensome lover – and in these stories we were afforded tremendous freedom. They transported us, for sure, while reminding us of the very real hardships 2012 afforded us all. Below are my very favorite movies of the year, all of which I will be escaping to, again and again, for years to come.
Read More »
More: Zero Dark Thirty, Holy Motors, Django Unchained, Room 237, Magic Mike, Anna Karenina, Killing Them Softly, Cloud Atlas, Looper, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Best Of 2012, 2012: The Year In Review

Gabe Toro's Ten Best Films Of 2012

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • December 28, 2012 9:56 AM
  • |
  • 28 Comments
Features
A strong year, this 2012. Every genre had its share of riches, and we were spoiled by new films from Andersons Wes and Paul Thomas, further mythmaking from Quentin Tarantino and an inquisition into our currency from David Cronenberg. We saw the continued evolution of the careers of Jacques Audiard, Rian Johnson, Craig Zobel and Ira Sachs, while William Friedkin was revitalized, and, as if by accident, two more great films tumbled out of Steven Soderbergh’s pocket. By the time Steven Spielberg cranked out his finest film in almost two decades, we were awash in riches.
Read More »
More: Zero Dark Thirty, Alps, Killing Them Softly, The Master, Holy Motors, Wuthering Heights, Jafar Panahi, Moonrise Kingdom, Magic Mike, Amour, 2012: The Year In Review, Best Of 2012

Box Office: 'Twilight' Stays At #1, 'Killing Them Softly' Worst Brad Pitt Wide Release Opening In 18 Years

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • December 2, 2012 11:43 AM
  • |
  • 31 Comments
Box Office
The post-Thanksgiving weekend is usually fairly slow business and this three-day frame was no exception. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2” ruled the roost for a third consecutive week, pulling in numbers to suggest that through five movies, this series had leveled-off domestically into consistent “Are you kidding?” box office tallies. “Twilight” has come to a close as a story, but as a brand, it’s hard to believe Lionsgate is going to call it quits, particularly as this entry is set to become the biggest in the franchise worldwide. With Lionsgate/Summit crossing a cool billion both stateside and overseas, it’s going to be hard to turn down a film series capable of goosing those numbers.
Read More »
More: Weekend Box-Office, Killing Them Softly

What Are You Seeing This Weekend? 'Killing Them Softly' Looking To Take A 'Collection,' Hopefully It Won't Be A 'Silent Night'

  • By Emma Bernstein
  • |
  • November 30, 2012 3:48 PM
  • |
  • 4 Comments
News
Even the heartwarming and familial atmosphere of Thanksgiving can't last forever. Or longer than a few days, it seems. Last weekend's prevalent buoyancy - marked by an animated fairy world, a triumphant teenage army, and CG zoo animals - is eschewed this week in favor of violent real world problems. Enter hitmen, war criminals, mass murderers, vengeful robots, inescapable vanity, failed careers, and a sadistic Santa Claus (just to keep things seasonal). What blood-spattered rage-fest will you be attending? Tell us in the comments below!
Read More »
More: Killing Them Softly, The Collection, Back To 1942, California Solo, Silent Night, King Kelly, Walk Away Renee

5 Great '70s Crime Thrillers To Prepare You For 'Killing Them Softly'

  • By The Playlist Staff
  • |
  • November 29, 2012 12:27 PM
  • |
  • 9 Comments
Features
Though The Weinstein Company are selling it as a Tarantino-esque shoot 'em up, audiences going to see "Killing Them Softly" once it opens this Friday will find they've been subjected to something of a bait-and-switch. This is because Andrew Dominik's film (his first since the acclaimed "The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford") is something of a throwback to the crime pictures of the 1970s when the films were rich in political subtext, full of characters beaten down by a rotten economy, and not necessarily packed with action or lightness.
Read More »
More: Features, Killing Them Softly

10 Undervalued Actors Who Deserve To Get More Work

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
  • |
  • November 28, 2012 2:26 PM
  • |
  • 33 Comments
Features
This week sees the release of Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly," a gripping little crime movie than threatens to be one of The Playlist's highlights of 2012. And among its many pleasures is the chance to see some character actor favorites like James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and newer up-and-comers like Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn given substantial roles to chew on. Best of all is a major role for the incomparably great Richard Jenkins.
Read More »
More: Features, Killing Them Softly, Gary Cole, Rosemarie DeWitt, Olivia Thirlby, Michael Pitt, Frank Grillo, Sally Hawkins, Jennifer Connelly, Kathryn Hahn, Shea Whigham

Review: Brilliant & Angry 'Killing Them Softly' Is The Anti-Thriller For Our Times

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • November 28, 2012 12:03 PM
  • |
  • 6 Comments
Reviews
"What is that American promise? It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have obligations to treat each other with dignity and respect," Barack Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. And that section of the speech opens Andrew Dominik's seething "Killing Them Softly," as he cuts the audio between white noise and the silent black title screen, signifying the blind emptiness of Obama's statement and the thematic current he'll be taking for the film. We are not a changed nation. We are not a nation of equals. The government are a bunch of children who need to be led by the hand into any decision-making process and Americans at both the top and bottom rungs of the ladder all have their share of the blame to take. Uncompromising and uncommercial, divisive and brave, "Killing Them Softly" bitterly boils at the state of the nation.
Read More »
More: Killing Them Softly, Review, Brad Pitt, Andrew Dominik

Follow Us

Email Updates

What's Poppin'

Recent Comments

Blog Roll

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories