This Week In Trailers: Man Made, Behind The Curve, Far From The Tree, Busted!
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 uncover a mystery in South Korea, go to a transgender bodybuilding competition, watch some flat Earthers make their case, and we learn about the hardships some families have to overcome to find peace.
Busted!
Korean variety show.
I may not know my Korean superstars, but as it relates to this show's trailer and these participants, I am all in.
Korea's most beloved entertainers are brought together by a mysterious host to solve a series of crime cases in this Netflix Korean variety show. Determined, but clueless, the team of amateur detectives bumble their way through the crime scenes resulting in endless comedy and drama.
This show looks insane, hilarious, with just the right amount of narrative to make this engaging. Further, it appears to be the kind of thing you would put on after a long day of slugging it out at work. It may not be highfalutin but this is what on-demand entertainment is supposed to be and so consider me interested.
Man Made
See me for who I am.
Just a powerful trailer by director T Cooper. A trans man who is also a successful journalist and artist, T Cooper is presenting not so much a story of female-to-male (FTM) transgender individuals competing in a bodybuilding competition as the story goes deeper than that. The further you go into this trailer the more apparent it is that these are stories of human beings. These are people who are searching for their place in this world and the sheer humanity that radiates from this trailer ought to resonate with anyone who has ever felt different. It moved me.
Behind the Curve
Bring it.
I visited Washington D.C. for the first time in my life this week. And, circling the obelisk of the Washington Monument, members of the Flat Earth Society were there crying out that our globe was not spherical but flat. It was the first time I have ever come into physical contact with people who would loudly proclaim this and, because of this, director Daniel J. Clark wins the Timely Topic award with this trailer. I do appreciate that the tone that's struck here is not an aggressive one and, for me, that makes for a far more palatable viewing experience. Yes, there are some cockamamie things discussed in this trailer, but I've always had a fondness for people like Art Bell and how nutty topics were always welcomed. While this doesn't appear to be profound or particularly ground-breaking in its revelations, I'm still won over by its charms.
Far from the Tree
"I don't think I need to be fixed."
The above quote comes from the trailer and it's powerful. Director Rachel Dretzin looks at how tough familial situations can be something to be celebrated, I can't purport to know what we learn along the way in this story, but the theme of gratitude and love certainly seems to echo throughout. I'm at a loss to even try in identifying with anything that happens to any of these people. However, that seems to be the point. It is illuminating these families have dealt with adversity and have come out on the other side. Uplifting and inspiring.
Nota bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers for possible inclusion 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: