The Playlist

Podcast: The Playlist Talks Highlights From TIFF, Telluride And NYFF; Plus Armond White: Genuine Contrarion Or Provocateur?

By Erik McClanahan
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October 3, 2012 6:14 PM
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10 Comments

Features

We've decided to double down this week on podcasts to make up for lost chats. Our slate for this week’s show is as follows: a round-up of festival reports from Toronto, Telluride and the beginning of New York Film Festival. Later in the episode, we discuss contrarian film critic Armond White regarding two pieces he recently wrote: one, called "The Battle of The Andersons," in which he claims Paul W.S Anderson is a better filmmaker than Paul Thomas Anderson. And the other, "The Whip and the Fedora," in which he posits "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls" is better than "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

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5 Fall Festival Films That Still Need Distribution

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 18, 2012 11:00 AM
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5 Comments

Features

TIFF remains one of the biggest distribution markets in the world, and with the festival now over, some distributors are walking away with some big prizes. Focus Features took "The Place Beyond The Pines," Lionsgate and/or Roadside Attractions bought a wealth of pictures, including "Imogene," "Thanks For Sharing" and "Stories We Tell," Anchor Bay landed Rob Zombie's "The Lords Of Salem," IFC Films grabbed "Frances Ha" Magnolia won "The Brass Teapot" Dimension picked up "Aftershock," and Sony Pictures Classics took "Wadjda," and these are just a few of the deals that went down at the festival.

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TIFF Wrap Up: Our 5 Favorite Films Of The Festival, Plus Our Complete Coverage

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 17, 2012 2:04 PM
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3 Comments

Features

Like most festivals, the Toronto International Film Festival is somewhat frontloaded (much to the complains of many of its attendees), with most of the big films playing on or around the first weekend of the festival. But in fact, the festival wrapped up officially yesterday, and as we speak, The Playlist are officially departing the city for another year.

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Oscars: 'The Master,' 'Silver Linings Playbook' & 'Argo' Lead Wide Open Awards Season Field

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 17, 2012 12:01 PM
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5 Comments

Awards

Having covered the Oscar race in quite a bit of detail last year, it's fair to say that it wasn't the most exciting race in history. It became clear from early September onward that "The Artist" was set to be a juggernaut, and as the film swept the precursors in the run-up, it was clear that nothing else -- not "Hugo," not "The Descendants" had a chance at beating it out. And indeed, most of the acting races felt like foregone conclusions from the off. It was clear in the weeks before that Jean Dujardin was going to edge out George Clooney, while Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer had their awards locked up for months, making the Meryl Streep/Viola Davis head to head the only major race that felt up in the air.

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TIFF Review: Low Energy 'Wasteland' A Forgettable Brit Crime Flick

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 17, 2012 10:01 AM
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2 Comments

Reviews

Every six months or so it seems the British film industry cranks out another modestly budgeted crime flick. Usually identified by a cast of recognizable but not quite famous faces, a desaturated color scheme, working class setting and familiar plot machinations, these are comfort food for genre fans that provide a distraction for a couple of hours and little else more. However, every now and then a film breaks out of the mould, offers up a higher standard of filmmaking verve and storytelling inspiration to become something that stretches beyond its genre trappings. "Wasteland" is not one of those movies.

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'Silver Linings Playbook' Wins TIFF Audience Award

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 16, 2012 12:18 PM
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22 Comments

News

"Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech," "American Beauty"...as the pre-screening ads at TIFF this year reminded viewers, the Audience Award at the festival has usually been a strong augur of Oscar potential, and in 2012 it looks like the season may belong to David O. Russell's latest effort.

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TIFF Review: 'Underground' A Lean, Compact Look At The Early Life Of Julian Assange

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 16, 2012 9:05 AM
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3 Comments

Reviews

Part of understanding Julian Assange is knowing that he's spent nearly his entire life on the run. While he's currently holed up in Ecuador's embassy in the U.K., this latest roadblock for the hacker/activist is just another bump in a lifetime that has seen him constantly on the move. What many folks don't know is that when Assange was eight years old, his mother married a man who belonged to Australia's white supremacist group/cult The Family, who "recruited" (read: kidnapped) children with Aryan features to bring them into the fold. Leaving the organization in 1990, Assange, his mother and brother changed their addresses and kept an eye over their shoulder as The Family was never too far behind, and that's where Robert Connolly's solidly built "Underground" begins.

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TIFF Review: Tommy Lee Jones Shines In Otherwise Serviceable, Flawed 'Emperor'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 15, 2012 8:18 AM
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1 Comment

Reviews

"We must be seen as liberators, not conquerors," Tommy Lee Jones' crusty General MacArthur says in the opening moments of "Emperor," and that line of dialogue is about as thematically rich as the film gets. A modestly budgeted, respectfully executed post-WWII drama, the film is also entirely edgeless, and aside from a couple of swear words is ready to be shown in classrooms and on the History Channel in endless repeats. As a big-screen outing, it's a very minor war film, that traps one actor in a miscalculated character and doesn't give us enough of another, who is clearly the best thing in the picture overall.

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TIFF Review: Penn Badgley Is Solid In Otherwise Uneven 'Greetings From Tim Buckley'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 14, 2012 4:09 PM
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3 Comments

Reviews

While the film might not be quite as sweet and heady as drinking a glass of lilac wine, Penn Badgley's performance in "Greetings From Tim Buckley" does justice to the late Jeff Buckley, while also revealing that the "Gossip Girl" star has quite a few more talents than he's thus far been given credit for. But his swoop of wild hair and impressive vocal theatrics aside, the rest of the movie around him tells a trio of stories that never quite unite to land the emotional connection they're aiming for.

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Rachel McAdams & Olga Kurylenko Discuss The Challenges & Thrills Of Terrence Malick's 'To The Wonder'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 14, 2012 10:57 AM
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5 Comments

Interviews

Anyone who says that actors are an afterthought in a Terrence Malick film are doing a serious injustice to the director and his work. It would be somewhat surprising to find A-listers queueing up to work with the filmmaker if he wasn't someone who worked well with his performers, and one doesn't have to think very hard to come up with memorable turns in his pictures -- Sissy Spacek in "Badlands," Richard Gere in "Days Of Heaven," Jim Caviezel in "The Thin Red Line," Q'orianka Kilcher in "The New World," Hunter McCracken in "The Tree Of Life" -- even if the landscape and imagery is just as important.

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