Film Trailer
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Trailer Watch: Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria
The premise for Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria is a ripe one. An aging actress, cast opposite the role that provided her breakout decades prior, is now tormented by her young colleague and the passage of time. Looks can be deceiving, but the trailer, released today ahead of tomorrow’s Cannes premiere, hints less towards introspection and more towards camp. Perhaps it’s the peculiar pairing of Juliette Binoche and the stunningly one-note Kristen Stewart, but the plot mechanizations wherein Binoche’s new role mimics her lust for the Stewart assistant character feel a bit trite. Here’s hoping Assayas proves me wrong.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 22, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Land Ho!
While Christopher Nolan’s co-opted eyeballs with the trailer to what is sure to be another portentous sci-fi jaunt, a nice tonic is to be found in this glimpse of Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens’ Sundance charmer, Land Ho! Paul Eenhoorn and Earl Lynn Nelson star as a couple of ex-brother-in-laws who take to Reykjavik to “get their groove back.” Damping down the epiphanies and life crises that accompany most riffs on the road movie, Land Ho! finds its subtle grace in situational hilarity. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film stateside on July 11.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 16, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner
One of several high profile titles premiering this week at Cannes, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner explores the late career of the eccentric 19th century British painter. Foremost regarded for his alternately bleak and hilarious portraits of middle class London, it will be interesting to see Leigh tackle a (period steeped) biopic. Of course, character driven narratives are Leigh’s bread and butter, given his now widely imitated scripting process in which the fruits of rehearsals are folded into the pages. Starring frequent collaborator Timothy Spall, the film premieres tomorrow in Competition and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics on December 10. Watch the trailer […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 14, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Alice Rohrwacher’s Le Meraviglie
Conventional wisdom says to wait until a foreign trailer has subtitles before posting, but the gist is apparent enough in this first snippet from Alice Rohrwacher’s Cannes Competition entry Le Meraviglie. Set in the Umbrian countryside, the film centers on the eldest daughter of a provincial bee-keeping family, whose summer is upended by the arrival of a young German boy and local television competition, headed by none other than Monica Bellucci. Already silly/offensive conjectures are being batted around about Rohrwacher’s chances given the fact that both she and jury president Jane Campion are women, but we’ll see if they’re at all warranted in the ensuing weeks.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 7, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Lav Diaz’s Norte, The End of History
The Film Society of Lincoln Center recently announced, along with their all-star Summer calendar, that they’ll be hosting a Lav Diaz retrospective, set to run from June 2014 through February 2015. That’s not quite as drastic as it sounds: beginning with his latest, Norte, The End of History, the Film Society will screen one Diaz per month in a cheeky nod to the Filipino auteur’s generous running times. (2004’s Evolution of a Filipino Family clocks in at 540 minutes.) In conjunction with said announcement, Cinema Guild has released the official trailer to Norte, which is billed as “an epic reimagining of Crime and Punishment.” The film […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 2, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Richard Linklater’s Boyhood
Trailer cutting is an art in itself and more often than not the results undersell or miss-sell the very package they promote. So goes this slightly corny bumper for Richard Linklater’s masterpiece, Boyhood, though as I recall from my knee jerk reaction to the Coldplay-scored opening sequence, any glimpse of heavy handedness in the film is not worth fretting over. It’s simply one of the most profound viewing experiences I’ve ever had and the less you know going into it, the better. That one of the more holistic family portraits in film has earned an R from the MPAA is an egregious error. IFC Films […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 25, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism
Corneliu Porumboiu’s fifth film The Second Game just screened as part of Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real series, but his fourth, When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, is still nearing theaters. While several of Porumboiu’s contemporaries of New Romanian Cinema train their eye on domestic disturbances — of both the absurdist and pragmatic variety — Metabolism pulls back the curtain on a filmmaker’s mid-shoot inner turmoil. Plagued by some sort of imaginary condition (the absurd), he falls into an affair with his lead actress (the pragmatic) and suffers a crisis of doubt. Meticulously crafted, each scene is comprised of a single long take. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 24, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: David Michôd’s The Rover
I was a big fan of David Michôd’s familial crime drama Animal Kingdom, and not just because I saw it on an airplane. If his follow-up The Rover looks to try on a rather generic premise — a hero on the hunt for what’s rightfully his — that’s hopefully not much cause for concern: Animal Kingdom found its strength not in plot, but in its characterization and pacing. Reteaming with the always reliable Guy Pierce, Michôd trades in the rest of his local ensemble for the dubious star wattage of Robert Pattinson, performing an indiscernible accent as a discarded gang member. Premiering in […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 17, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida
Recent Grand Jury Prize recipient at the Sarasota Film Festival and a FIPRESCI winner in Toronto, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida tells the story of a would-be nun who haphazardly uncovers her Jewish background. Set in 1960s Poland, the discovery leads the eponymous Ida through a tear in her family’s history, stretching as far back as the Nazi occupation. Music Box Films releases the formally and emotionally stunning Ida on May 2.
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 16, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Obvious Child
Ahead of its June 6 release, A24 has released the trailer to yet another potential hitmaker in their arsenal: Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child. I interviewed Robespierre about the film for our upcoming Spring issue, which upends the traditional romantic comedy route of boy meets girl by wedging an abortion into the mix. Jenny Slate stars as Donna Stern, a comedian whose pathological on-stage oversharing is momentarily stunted when she finds herself pregnant by a one night stand. Surrounded by a winsome ensemble — including Gaby Hoffman and Gabe Liedman — Donna juggles her misstep and budding relationship with Max (Jake Lacy) […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 15, 2014
