Happy Friday! After what felt like, personally, the longest week of all time, we can finally unwind with some good old fashioned trailers. As it has been the past couple weeks, we’ve got potential Oscar contenders, Oscar bait, pure steaming trash, and a fair batch of TV! Let’s roll.
All the Money in the World
Kevin Spacey playing a total asshole with a lot of money and power? Shocking. At least he looks different this time. If you can’t tell, I’ve had it up to here with House of Cards, but I’m just taking that frustration out on Spacey. He is incredible as Frank Underwood and incredible as every boss man asshole he’s portrayed. I’m sure this will be great too.
This is based on a true story, so it’s nice to see the world’s worst grandfather finally get some screen time. All the information you need is in the trailer to get intrigued by the flick, but I’m here for the dynamic of a grandfather who refuses to pay a dime mixing with a daughter in desperation. Throw in Marky Mark as the voice of reason/fixer and you got me sold.
The Shape of Water
*Advisory: This is NOT a prequel to Abe Sapien in Hellboy. In the words of our own Andy Lavelle: “Not everything’s a damn universe.”
The Shape of Water is blowing up this week. Winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (the highest honor there) to generating insane buzz out of TIFF is a real good way to build Oscar hype AND start getting that mainstream audience interested. I’ll be honest in saying I don’t know how I feel about it though. It looks weird, which whatever. Maybe it’s because the trailer gives a lot of the plot away? Or maybe I just don’t know how on board I can get with that ugly thing being romantically involved with a woman.
I’m being a hater, but this will be a big player in the winter and Guillermo del Toro makes some fine movies. At the very least, we’ll get Michael Shannon being Michael Shannon and just dominating every scene. I’m there for that.
Red Sparrow
Jennifer Lawrence is in major need of a hit. Joy was mehhhhhh. Passengers could have been amazing but it was instead the most average piece of moviemaking of all time. And now with the release of mother! this weekend, which is looking like it will be torn apart by audiences after a misleading marketing campaign (do NOT get me started on it, I’m still too annoyed to write a review) and consequentially a dud at the box office, JLaw needs something.
Atomic Blonde 2.0: “Less action, more sex” could be it. Reteaming with the dude that directed the Hunger Games movies is a good move, and Joel Edgerton pretty consistently picks good movies so there is a lot going for this. If it comes out early Spring it could easily dominate the B.O.
The Commuter
Liam “I’m done with action movies” Neeson is back…in an action movie. To be fair, it looks like more of a thriller than action, but regardless, my dude Neesons still out here kickin’ ass. A nice January release and the finest B-movie director we have today, Jaume Collet-Serra, means this should be pure entertainment porn.
The Disaster Artist
The Disaster Artist could look legitimately dumb as all hell to those uninformed on the source material. It’s based on the book of the same name about the making of the worst movie of all time, The Room. Despite being a die hard movie fan, I am yet to actually watch The Room. Mainly for fear of cringing so hard I die. That said, it is legendary and apparently the ultimate “so bad, it’s good” in a funny way.
On surface level, it looks really funny. Franco’s impression is apparently spot on for the actual man he’s portraying, so you can’t even be mad and think he’s going for another weird, absurdist thing. It’s jam packed with literally every famous person that has worked in comedy and looking at the IMDB page of just cameos and minor roles gets me hyperventilating. On a deeper level, it’s clear that this movie also has heart and despite the guy being weirder than your distant uncle after his 8th (ok, 100th) drink on Christmas, the character Franco is making him out to be at least has a bit of sweetness and true passion to him. A movie so ridiculous that can still make you ache for those that chase their dreams is a well balanced act and should resonate with critics and the public alike.
Downsizing
I touched on the movie in a previous trailer roundup, so I don’t have much more to say. But, this being the first full length trailer, it looks to be a bit funnier and sincere than I originally thought. Less biting satire, more human emotion.
Fifty Shades Freed
HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA. What even are these movies???
Search Party: Season 2
Search Party is one of those underseen, underappreciated diamonds in the rough from last year. It’s a part of the new TBS programming that is putting an emphasis on binge-able shows, with defined traits rather than your basic network sitcoms. For example, this is much more a dark comedy than anything else, and more a drama than an actual sitcom. Angie Tribeca is a whacky satire of police procedurals with a focus on the very literal meaning of every word spoken. Throw in things like People of Earth, Wrecked, and The Detour and you begin to see the focus on originality, as opposed to more shows where four friends sit in their apartment.
Search Party is probably the second to last in viewership out of those shows, or at least in chatter surrounding it. But it definitely deserves to be on the level with Tribeca because it is dark, entertaining, and sharply funny.
Lore
The Lore podcast was my jam for awhile because it told legitimately creepy stories, but I’ve been off it for awhile as it’s turned into more conventional stories and talk of the history. Being adapted into a TV show was not something I was expecting but here we are. They’re clearly running with the creepy aspect of Lore, which is good, but how that translates should be interesting to see. For specifics, Lore doesn’t really rely on those traditional scary stories. There is not much, if any, paranormal aspects. And if there is, the host is quick to dispel them or offer up clear evidence to why it isn’t. While that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining or scary, it probably means these are going to be much more atmospheric in their creepy nature than their actual story being scary.
Big Mouth
Nick Kroll and John Mulaney doing anything is entertaining and hilarious. i’m not huge on animated shows but Kroll created, Mulaney voicing is enough for me.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 9
Check our write up on the trailer here.