This Week In Trailers: Wild Rose, Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics And Men, Ghost Town Anthology, Drunk Parents, Styx

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 reflect on the Wu-Tang Clan, figure out the shortest distance between Scotland and Nashville, navigate some troubled waters, get weirded out, and mourn Alec Baldwin's career.

Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men

What director Sacha Jenkins hopefully does with this documentary is deconstruct this supergroup to its individual atoms. I've never listened to a single bar of the Wu-Tang's music, but this trailer is magic. No matter your familiarity with the band's incredible cultural influence, what we get here is incredibly satisfying. The pacing, the editing, the pitch that this is going to be a 4-part series, it all adds up to something I'm putting on my must-see list.

Styx

Trouble at sea. Director Wolfgang Fischer has crafted a different kind of thriller. It's small, it's intimate, and it's not about someone lost at sea, our protagonist very much knows where she is, and that's the thrill. Something is afoot, and we're not told what's causing the chaos. The trailer plays it tight to the vest, and the trailer is better off because of it.

Wild Rose

Director Tom Harper has something unique to give to the world, and this trailer is one of them. The way this thing gently carries you from the set up of the narrative to the way it gingerly takes your heart is nothing short of fantastic. Yes, we've seen movies about having dreams, about what it takes to generate something close to the fulfillment of that dream, but if you do it right, we can always welcome these kinds of films into our lives. One of the best trailers I've seen so far this year.

Ghost Town Anthology

Whatever director Denis Coté is doing here is confounding. I mean, just read what this movie is all about:

Set in the small town of Sainte-Irénée-les-Neiges, Quebec, the film centers on the inhabitants of the town who are struggling to cope after Simon Dubé, the teenage son of an area family, is killed in a car accident.

What that says above and what this trailer shows are two entirely different things but that's alright. Shake it up, keep 'em guessing, get weird. This one hits the jackpot on all three of those things.

Drunk Parents

Look, it would be easy to dunk on director Fred Wolf's latest foray into broad comedy, but I'm sure a lot of people's parents will find this to be the highlight of their day. It lays it on thick and just never relents as we go from one insane concocted moment to the other. But maybe this will probably end up being a sleeper hit with the 50+ set.

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:

  • This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy Trailer – Oh yeah
  • Level 16 Trailer - GTFO
  • Berlin, I Love You Trailer – Looks like a quaint diversion
  • American Gods Season 2 Trailer - I don't know what's happening here
  • O.G. Trailer – Love the intensity
  • Documentary Now! Season 3 Trailer – I'm so in
  • Song of Parkland Trailer – Inspired
  • The Beach Bum Trailer - The colors, man, the colors
  • Trading Paint Trailer - Hahahaha...No
  • The Umbrella Academy Trailer – A hodgepodge of nothing interesting
  • The Boys Trailer – Noice
  • Knightfall Trailer – OK
  • Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile Trailer – Uhh, this guy was a psychopathic killer, right?
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Trailer – Inspiring, for sure