Posted on Monday, May 13th, 2013 by Angie Han
Wondering what you’ll be watching next fall? The broadcast networks are more than happy to tell you. Fox has revealed a bunch of trailers for their 2013-2014 crop of freshman series, which includes comedies from Seth MacFarlane and Mike Schur and a drama from J.J. Abrams. Check ‘em out after the jump. Read More »
Posted on Monday, May 13th, 2013 by Russ Fischer
We’ve been waiting for The Congress, the new film from Waltz With Bashir director Ari Folman, for what feels like a very long time. (In reality, only since 2009.) The film is loosely based upon a story by science fiction grandmaster Stanislaw Lem, but has been adapted to very specifically suit cinema.
The live-action/animated hybrid features Robin Wright as an actress — actually as Robin Wright — whose career is being pronounced dead. And so she sells her likeness to a firm that uses her as a sample source. Wright playing a version of herself is already fairly strange, but then there are the ways that filmmakers use her likeness, which are really out there.
We’ve seen glimpses of the film’s animation before, but what we see here is far beyond what we’ve had a look at in the past. The animation is beautiful, but it’s the combination of everything that makes this look like one of the most visually commanding movies of the year. Will the script be as compelling? Get a taste in the trailer below. Read More »
Posted on Sunday, May 12th, 2013 by Russ Fischer
All that’s missing is the voice of Ron Howard’s narrator, but otherwise everything you want from Arrested Development is here in the first trailer for the show’s fourth season. The primary cast (Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, and Jessica Walter) all make appearances, and there are some great jokes.
Actually, while the trailer stars slow, it builds a good head of steam fast, and there are a lot of great jokes. As soon as Buster hits the screen, it’s all systems go. Can it be May 26 now? (And also, seriously, where’s Ron Howard?) Read More »
Posted on Friday, May 10th, 2013 by Russ Fischer
I was very moved by Ryan Coogler‘s film Fruitvale Station when it played Sundance under the title Fruitvale. Michael B. Jordan stars as Oscar, a young man detailed by police at an Oakland, CA BART station after a brawl on a train early on New Year’s Day. The night ended in tragedy, and the cell phone cameras carried by many witnesses documented an almost inexplicable display of police force.
The film succeeds by drawing a portrait of Oscar as a troubled young man with ambitions rather than pretending he was a saint. Jordan’s performance is impressive and he displays an incredible ability to express himself in bursts of energy without going outside the tone that Coogler generally strives to maintain. This first trailer gives you a good look at all of Oscar’s characteristics, from his serious problems to his best moments. It comes right up to the line of showing precisely how the night ended, and is a good primer for the film. Read More »
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week we try and pair everything with a nice chablis, take a walk in Rome, remember VHS’ heydays, hit up the French for some comedy, and then get serious about a father who leaves his kids only to come back and find another rooster in the hen house.
Posted on Friday, May 10th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
August: Osage County, a Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony award winning play, is hoping to become a multiple Oscar-winning film. Directed by John Wells (The Company Men), the film has one of the most impressive dramatic casts in recent memory: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch,Margot Martindale, Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, and Sam Shepard. They’ll bring to life a story about a group of young women forced to go home and deal with their parents. A simple story to be sure, but a powder keg for emotion and drama.
Don’t believe me, though. Check out the trailer and poster for the November 8 release. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, May 9th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
Among film fans, few directors are as revered as Alfonso Cuarón. Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También, A Little Princess; these are new classics that never found the mainstream audience they deserved.
For the casual moviegoer, few stars are more likable than Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Oscar-winners both, each has proved time and again they’re major box-office stars. So what happens when you combine their mainstream Hollywood clout with a true auteur aesthetic? You’re about to find out.
The first trailer for their collaboration, Gravity, has just been released. Co-written and directed by Cuarón, it stars Clooney and Bullock as two astronauts who go into space but are detached from their ship, forced to survive all alone in the infinite darkness. The potential Oscar-contender is set for release October 19 in 2D, 3D and 3D IMAX. Finally, after years of delays and anticipation, you can see footage from it now. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 by Russ Fischer
Left to his own devices Lee Daniels makes films that are eccentric and sometimes just way the hell out there. (The Paperboy) But he has called his newest film, The Butler, “a big compromise” and explained that the film might be “the closest I will come to as a work-for-hire.” Does that mean that, on the relative scale of whackadoo films, The Butler will be far closer to “normal” than anything else he’s made?
Hard to say at this point, but the first trailer suggests that there’s some weird stuff going on here. There’s the parade of cameo players appearing as a string of US Presidents. Among them is John Cusack‘s turn as Richard Nixon, which is… interesting. Then there’s Alex Pettyfer playing an uber-douchebag cotton farm overseer, and the digital effects and makeup that shave a few decades off lead Forest Whitaker in some scenes.
Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, who served several different President as the White House butler, and the trailer suggests the film traces his entire life story, using it to frame the sweep of the civil rights movement. It’s a good story, but this trailer looks a lot like a parody that might show up on SNL. So we’ll see — maybe The Butler will be just as crazy as the rest of Daniels’ work. Read More »
