This Week In Trailers: Los Espookys, Liam Gallagher: As It Was, The Cold Blue, David Crosby: Remember My Name
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 pick a fight with Liam Gallagher, find out what it was like to battle Nazis, get to know David Crosby, and trip the light fantastic south of the border.
Liam Gallagher: As It Was
Brilliant, directors Charlie Lightening and Gavin Fitzgerald are giving us something I thought we'd never get: a documentary about the irascible Liam Gallagher.
LIAM GALLAGHER: AS IT WAS tells the honest and emotional story of how one of the most electrifying rock'n'roll frontmen went from the dizzying heights of his champagne supernova years in Oasis to living on the edge, ostracised and lost in the musical wilderness of booze, notoriety and bitter legal battles.
Starting again alone, stripped bare and with nowhere to hide, Liam risks everything to make the greatest comeback of all time.
Overly generous hyperbole aside, the story seems worth watching if only to understand how Gallagher made Oasis, and his ego, such a force of nature
Los Espookys
I have no words. I mean, what can you say about a series that looks and acts just as bizarre as the title of the series? I'm enamored of anything that's as ambitious and as bold as this appears to be. Toss in a little Armisen to tie it all together and you've got the recipe for something good. Here's the official synopsis
From the minds of Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega, alongside Fred Armisen and Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live, comes the Spanish-language comedy Los Espookys. The half-hour, six-episode series follows a group of friends who turn their love for horror into a peculiar business.
The Cold Blue
Director Erik Nelson is on to something here. Initially feeling like it could belong on the History Channel, this trailer knows just the levers to pull to remind you why these stories will continue to endure for decades to come.
Chronicling the heroic struggles of the Eighth Air Force during World War II, who flew B-17 Bombers over Europe, the film features rediscovered and meticulously restored raw color footage found in the national archives from the 1944 documentary Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, directed by the legendary director William Wyler.
A meditation on youth, war and trauma, The Cold Blue is a tribute to one of the world's greatest filmmakers, his cameraman Harold Tannenbaum – who perished in combat while filming – and the men of the Eighth Air Force, who flew mission after lethal mission during the Air War.
It need not sell you or convince you of anything, it just needs you to listen to these stories. Even though there are always tales of heroics from World War II, it's always nice for someone to dust a few off and give them a new polish.
David Crosby: Remember My Name
With Cameron Crowe producing, director A.J. Eaton is bringing us a story I wouldn't have otherwise known I needed. Crosby was an influential voice amongst greats ever since he came onto the music scene in 1965. His jams aren't necessarily my jam but the trailer is something more than just a documentary. It's a story of a guy at the birth of the flower power movement and then witnessed what it morphed into. The back half of the trailer lingers like a sad emotion, recriminations bubbling up out of those he was once close to, the net feeling more like Crazy Heart than something hopeful.
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: