The Essentials Archives

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The Essentials: The Films Of Kathryn Bigelow

August 2, 2017 12:17 pm

“I like high impact movies.” And then some. Kathryn Bigelow was here all along. She’d directed the ‘90s pop action masterpiece “Point Break,” given us the Western horror hybrid “Near Dark” and dazzled audien...

The 10 Best Episodes Of ‘Game Of Thrones’

Jessica Kiang and Oliver Lyttelton

July 17, 2017 2:35 pm

Features, News, Television

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The 'Game' is once again afoot. Last night, "Game of Thrones" (read our episode recap here) returned with a massacre by poison, Jim Broadbent, an undead giant, a proposal of marriage, a bedpan montage, a man-b...

The Essentials: The Films of James Gray

Nikola Grozdanovic and Jessica Kiang

April 13, 2017 11:17 am

Features, News

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Every serious director has his or her distinct storytelling panache: Quentin Tarantino and his jukebox of unapologetic homages, Christopher Nolan and his massive scales, Terrence Malick and his plotless streams...

The 10 Best Tom Hanks Performances Ever

The Playlist Staff

September 7, 2016 2:22 pm

Features

10

Normally, the first week of September is a quiet one in theaters, but this year, something sort of special is happening. For the first time, two true American icons, among the biggest movie stars we’ve ever had...

The Best & The Rest: Ranking Every Clint Eastwood Directed Movie

The Playlist Staff

August 30, 2016 1:15 pm

Features

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There have been few careers in film history like Clint Eastwood's. Strike that: there have been no careers like Clint Eastwood's. After breaking through in the Western TV series “Rawhide,” the actor stepped int...

The Essentials: Abbas Kiarostami’s Best Films

Christopher Bell

July 5, 2016 11:24 am

Features

An awful year got worse yesterday with the announcement that Abbas Kiarostami, the great Iranian filmmaker, had passed away at the age of 76. Emerging as a leading light of the Iranian New Wave in the 1970s, Ki...

The Best & The Rest: Ranking The Complete Brian De Palma

Oliver Lyttelton, Rodrigo Perez, Jessica Kiang and Drew Taylor

June 6, 2016 2:29 pm

Features

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One of the greatest treats of the summer movie season this year for any serious cinephile is “De Palma,” the documentary by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival last year to ra...