The trailer has arrived for Celine Song’s directorial debut Past Lives, which garnered early buzz out of Sundance before screening at Berlin. The decades-spanning film, loosely inspired by the filmmaker’s own life, stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro. Per the film’s official synopsis: Nora (Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo), two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance. Magaro plays Arthur, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 22, 2023The trailer for Ari Aster’s highly-anticipated new film, Beau Is Afraid (formerly titled Disappointment Blvd), has arrived. The writer-director, whose previous films Hereditary and Midsommar have been widely lauded, appears to be continuing his work in the horror genre, though the trailer contains a distinct comedic streak. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as an emotionally stunted man who embarks on a strange, arduous journey to get home to his mother. Also starring are Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Hayley Squires, Denis Ménochet, Kylie Rogers, Armen Nahapetian, Zoe Lister-Jones, Parker Posey, and Patti LuPone. Beau Is Afraid will hit […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 10, 2023Watch the first trailer for Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year before screening at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Michelle Williams as a ceramic artist named Lizzy who’s preparing for an upcoming show, but is constantly thwarted from working by mundane inconveniences. Hong Chau also stars as Jo, Lizzy’s landlord/colleague/artistic rival, who is currently thriving in her career. The film also features Maryann Plunkett, John Magaro, André Benjamin, James Le Gros and Judd Hirsch in supporting roles. During his Cannes coverage, our Vadim Rizov wrote: “Showing Up is a comedy of frustration […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 15, 2022While it’s been 35 years since the release of Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick’s U.S. Marines drama that featured R. Lee Ermey showering young male recruits with derogatory four-letter words, numerous films have sought to further emphasize the dehumanizing nature of military training bootcamps. At first glance, it might appear that The Inspection, writer-director Elegance Bratton’s narrative feature debut, fits comfortably within those expectations. Set in the early 2000s, the film opens as Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) has been kicked out of his mother’s (Gabrielle Union) apartment for being gay and finds himself at a homeless shelter in New Jersey. […]
by Erik Luers on Nov 18, 2022The first trailer has arrived for Darren Aronofsky‘s dark drama The Whale, which stars Brendan Fraser in a highly-anticipated comeback role for the actor. The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and London Film Festival. A24 will distribute the film stateside. Based on the 2012 play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter (who wrote the screenplay), The Whale follows a 600-pound man named Charlie (Fraser), a reclusive former English teacher who attempts to re-connect with his estranged 17-year-old daughter (Sadie Sink). Hong Chau […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 8, 2022One year after releasing The Souvenir: Part II, the final chapter of her meditative meta-memoir project, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg returns with her sixth feature film, The Eternal Daughter. The mysterious and captivating trailer for the forthcoming A24 title was released today. The film stars Tilda Swinton, one of Hogg’s Souvenir collaborators, who occupies an intriguing dual role as an artist and her elderly mother who spend some time visiting an old family property. Though it used to be a sprawling mansion, it now exists as a modestly-sized hotel that the duo check into for an extended stay. While the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 1, 2022The trailer has arrived for Aftersun, the feature debut from Scottish writer/director (and former 25 New Faces of Film) Charlotte Wells. The film chronicles the relationship between a doting father and his pre-teen daughter, specifically through the lens of a formative vacation they took to a resort in Turkey. After premiering at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week to much acclaim, Aftersun was selected for further festival programming at Telluride, TIFF and will now screen at the 60th New York Film Festival. The film’s official synopsis reads: At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Sep 27, 2022Pearl, Ti West’s prequel to the 70s slasher-inspired X, is a far more claustrophobic study of psychological ruin and bodily decay than it is a gory exercise in picking off victims one by one. Unburdened by the heavy prosthetics and dual role that defined her performance in X, star and co-writer Mia Goth, that film’s de facto villain, gives a gloriously unsettling performance as the now titular character depicted during her early 20s in 1918. Pearl lives under the domineering thumb of her German mother Ruth (Tandi Wright), cares for her Spanish flu-stricken father (Matthew Sunderland) and desperately yearns for […]
by Natalia Keogan on Sep 16, 2022A24 has released a trailer for Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s second feature, the melancholy coming of age story Close. The film won the Grand Prix (shared with Claire Denis‘s Stars at Noon) at Cannes, four years after Dhont’s debut feature Girl won the Caméra d’Or and Queer Palm in 2018. Close follows two 13-year-old best friends, Léo and Rémi (Eden Dambrine and Gustav de Waele) who spent an idyllic summer strengthening their unique bond. When they arrive back at school, however, the two are harassed by classmates over the nature of their relationship. Embarrassed by these insults and accusations, Léo […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Sep 7, 2022Director Owen Kline texted me recently to let me know he was in my neighborhood, so we linked up in Washington Square Park to see what was good. He’d just gotten back from Cannes where his debut feature, Funny Pages, was a smash hit. I was excited to hear some glamorous, and hopefully debaucherous, tales from the Croisette. Instead, the very first words out of his mouth were, “Pick a number between between one and a thousand. And don’t tell me what it is!” He looked me dead in the eyes, on some mentalist shit, scribbled furiously on a clipboard for […]
by Michael Bilandic on Aug 25, 2022