This Week In Trailers: Charlie's Country, One Rogue Reporter, Bicycling With Molière, Hill Street, Welcome To Leith
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 go on walkabout, muckrake with the best the British has to offer, find out why double penetration at 8 am is such hard work, hate on some real life Nazis, and go skateboarding in Dublin.Charlie's Country Trailer
A couple of facts:
1) I haven't seen any of director's Rolf de Heer's award winning films.
2) The last time I actually saw, and recognized, celebrated actor David Gulpilil was Crocodile Dundee. In 1986.
There's an irony in there somewhere that this movie is something of a legitimate mirror that is being held up to Australian society compared to the stereotyped filter that we received through Paul Hogan. What I love about this trailer is how controlled it is. The score just quietly plays in the background as we are led very firmly through the narrative that is this movie. While we don't get much context, subtext or otherwise it's inconsequential to the fact that what we get is this man who very much is grappling with internal and external turmoil. I won't speculate on what those elements might be but what we get here is fantastically slow. A couple of pull quotes here, a couple of nods to who we're looking at, that's all we get and all we deserve. This is incredibly effective at letting us get to know our protagonist and a portion of his troubles. Too often we praise the slick but praise be to trailers like this that offer something quite complex. Quite moved by it all.
One Rogue Reporter Trailer
This is an interesting one.
While I'm not sure how well the heavy metal translates into bringing us into a world where we're here to discuss the finer points of yellow journalism in the UK, I am very much piqued by the idea of turning the tables on those who ply their trade by exposing seedy underbellies. After a fascinating interview with the movie's star was broadcast on last week's On The Media, this trailer was a no-brainer after listening to the likes of Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan give their two cents on what they think about tabloid journalism after being on the receiving end of it.
First time directors Tom Jenkinson and Rich Peppiatt take a very frenetic approach, if the trailer is any indication, to how this is going to be offered up to us. A little trickery and deception and part media critique I think documentaries like this will never be antiquated as however we consume news and however we all consume our information there will always be a need to dig into examining whether those consumption habits are valid. I think the best bits here are getting an idea from those who have been at the forefront of this media revolution and how people's lives have been dissected and then getting that insight into the ways news organizations have turned topics that would have been strictly the domain of the National Enquirer are now the ways mainstream media outlets operate. It's maddening, hilarious, disappointing and angering all at the same time. Welcome to the newsroom of the 21st century.
Hill Street Trailer
Quick: Who's your favorite skateboarder who came out of Ireland?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Director Jj Rolfe's look at skateboard culture in Ireland since the 80's is something of a novel concept. It's fundamentally interesting to look at how a culture appropriates another's cultural phenomenon and it's with that sense of curiosity that this trailer appealed to me as a viewer. It's through that prism of co-opting that is on display here and comes through by dissecting what was happening in Ireland at that time and why skateboarding seemed to resonate with Irish youth. It very much seems like a documentary we've seen that wants to break down the evolution of skateboarding but the trailer here diverges from that by using it to define how it helped bring people together. While there's nothing especially flashy going on in the style in which it's presented it's nonetheless the content that is driving my interest.
Bicycling With Molière Trailer
I fully admit it: Hearing a line like "A double penetration at 8am is not easy" got my attention.
While not familiar with director Philippe Le Guay's work, I am more interested in Lambert Wilson and Fabrice Luchini. The latter more so for his work in the fantastic 2012 film In the House. When you watch this trailer it really does feel like a play come to life simply based on how we're given the plot and the way the moments we're given seemed to be framed. It very much feels like the weight of the movie rests on the relationship between Wilson and Luchini and it becomes the French version of The Trip in a way. That friendship and that biting cattiness that can occur between people who have known each other as long as this trailer makes it appear to be just comes across so fluidly and naturally. There doesn't seem to be many films that take a close look at the friendships that men have with one another in a way that is both insightful and biting that this does and the movie's aims are presented quite clearly without much interference by ginning up the presence of the female lead that seems to drive some piece of the overall plot. Just a fun and breezy movie that hopefully will reveal something about the ways in which friendship can operate between two dudes.
Welcome to Leith Trailer
Frightening.
There are just some things you hope never come to pass. One of those items is white supremacists getting a foothold in the local community. Directors Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher Walker currently have a Kickstarter campaign to help finance the completion of a vitally important documentary. I say vitally important from the standpoint that anyone who watches this trailer has to understand that this is not just some anomaly but that this kind of thinking and threat is very real. When you watch this pitch, this trailer, you can feel the outrage slowly ratchet up to full on anger when you consider that while we have the First Amendment there are indeed consequences to letting the world know about your backward, ignorant, offensive, views known to the world. Sprinkle a little hatred and the threat of violence on top of that and you've got yourself a tightly wrapped explosive that is just itching to ignite. The pitch/trailer does not mess around, does not speak in platitudes, but lets the content of what will be examined speak for itself. It's wonderfully presented, really well shot, and could not be more deserving of a couple minutes of your time.
Nota bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers to possibly be included in this column, even have a trailer of your own to pitch, please let me know by sending me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com or look me up via Twitter at @Stipp
In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week: