Shared Darkness

The teaser trailer for one of fall’s more interesting films — Alejandro Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton as an actor famous for once portraying an iconic superhero but now going through an existential crisis — reveals it to be a jazzy, audacious, gleefully deranged slice of high-art cinema, and seemingly certainly a lot more loose-limbed than Biutiful, Babel, 21 Grams or Amores Perros. Opening to a downbeat version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” this looks like a case study in slipping-knot sanity entertainingly rendered. Great subtitle on its poster, too: “The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.” Amy Ryan, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough and Zach Galifianakis co-star. The film releases October 17 via Fox Searchlight.

The newly released trailer for Compliance (Magnolia, August 17) does little to undermine the film’s advance reputation as an unnerving conversation-starter, and status as one of the most talked-about and controversial films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Based on true events, it looks and feels like a gripping and complex little psychological drama that trips wires of present-day sociological relevance, no doubt. And no matter whether it remains a critics’ darling or punches through with a slightly-wider-than-indie-avenue audience, it should definitely give Dreama Walker a nice autumnal one-two punch, alongside the return of ABC sitcom Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23.

So the trailer for Arbitrage (Roadside Attractions, September 14), the feature-directing debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki, is now online, and it looks like a slick, engaging, well-oiled thing — a casserole of hubris, high finance, fraud, infidelity, deception, loyalty and criminal complicity. Richard Gere is the hedge-fund magnate looking to broker a big sale of his trading empire; Susan Sarandon his wife; Brit Marling his brilliant daughter and heir-apparent; Laetitia Casta the smoking hot mistress whose untimely passing occasions a cover-up; and Tim Roth the cop doggedly in pursuit of the truth, of which Nate Parker seems to represent a telling loose thread. “Can’t wait,” as Bart Scott once barked. For more on the film, click here to visit its web site.

The trailer for Sinister (Summit, October 5), starring Ethan Hawke as a true crime novelist dad who discovers a box of terrifying home videos in his family’s new home, thus triggering supernatural horror, is now online. That it gives off major Insidious and Paranormal Activity vapors is an unsurprising and intentional thing, given that it is from the producer of same. Solid box office ducats seem fairly certain. It just holds the trailer presently, but for more information on the film, hit up its web site here.

The first batch of teaser trailers for next summer’s Monsters University (Disney/Pixar, June 21) have hit online, and even though it’s technically a prequel to 2001’s Monsters, Inc., it looks to promise a better franchise extension than Cars 2. Thoughts?

If one is of the opinion that Julie Delpy is a delight, which is very much the correct opinion to have if one is an open-hearted person rightly familiar with her flirty, thoughtful collaborations with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke, as well as 2 Days in Paris, then the trailer for the latter’s sequel, 2 Days in New York (Magnolia, August 10), co-starring Chris Rock, will bring a smile to your face, if only for the deliciously oddball pairing it seemingly augurs. Cultural differences, unwitting racism and uncomfortable sexual candor get a comedic workout in this tale of a radio deejay and the visiting family of his live-in French girlfriend. Again, the trailer is here for those wishing to take a gander.

If one is over 18 or can figure out a way to lie about their age and peg it to a phony email account, the new red-band trailer for For a Good Time, Call… (Focus, August 31) is online now, over at YouTube. The trailer sells the concept and nicely spotlights a few naughty bits, but, having seen the movie, I can say it doesn’t fully get at and convey the effervescent charm and chemistry of Lauren Anne Miller and Ari Graynor, which is its true strongest selling point.

Quentin Tarantino‘s imaginative and bawdy faux-historical exorcising of demons past will continue this Christmas, in the form of Django Unchained. If Inglourious Basterds was Tarantino’s biggest domestic hit to date, this one seems to have the ability to track right along in its wake — swagger, gunplay and extracted vengeance against unambiguously despicable villains.

The trailer for Red Lights (Millennium Entertainment, July 13), from Buried director Rodrigo Cortés, is out now, and it seems a mildly insane thing, yeah? Robert De Niro is a legendary blind psychic who comes out of retirement; Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy are a pair of paranormal debunkers who cross (paths with) him; and Elizabeth Olsen is the girl who no doubt moves the plot forward and speaks of ominous stuff. It at first seems like a creepy yet character-rooted cat-and-mouse psychological thriller. And then it just goes batshit crazy from the 1:30 mark, at which point it seems a lot less interesting and lot more hokey, over-the-top and Stigmata-y… which I believe was the gist of the reviews from its Sundance Film Festival bow earlier this year.

Needlepoint, claymation and Lego recreations, plus angry nerds? Yes, please! The full-length trailer for The People Vs. George Lucas has me stoked for its release, which is May 13 in Los Angeles, at the Landmark Nuart.

The trailer for Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, a first-person curated documentary of awakened health consciousness from Australian director Joe Cross, is online, and looks to promise a fairly nice emotive punch (even if some curious all-juice diet advocacy), something certainly on par with the sort of feel-good uplift on display week in and week out on NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser. But then there’s the whole issue of trying to mobilize folks to see a film with two such unappealing words in its moniker. Titles matter, wildly — and especially so with documentaries, I’d argue. That makes the incline that much steeper here. The film should be available for DVD purchase in March, according to its website, but also hitting theaters in April.

The trailer for Cowboys and Aliens is now online, and I have to say this isn’t what I was picturing at all, really. More opportunity for Harrison Ford to growl, at least, though, I guess.

Well, after a litany of delays it looks like I Love You Phillip Morris (Roadside Attractions, December 3) is really, truly, finally coming out. And no, that wasn’t a gay joke. The furiously maintained high-wire vulgar insolence of Bad Santa earns writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa a lifetime ticket from me, as long as it’s not a Cats & Dogs movie. Their directorial follow-up, Crazy, Stupid, Love, has already started test screening locally, and will be nipping on the heels of this film with an April 2011 release via Warner Bros., despite shooting almost two years later. Phillip Morris, meanwhile, looks like a romp; I can’t wait.

I’ve now twice watched the new minute-long teaser trailer for I’m Still Here (Magnolia, September 10), Casey Affleck’s documentary about a performance art stunt by strange year in the life of brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix, and the phrase that most comes to mind is “metaphysical wankery.” That doesn’t mean that’s all it is or has to offer, of course, but that’s what it feels like right now, from this proffering. Regardless of whether it’s “real” or a bone-deep mockumentary, what’s the film’s through line, that’s the question. And if it’s the rap career thing, that’s a problem. For more information, click here.

The trailer for The Romantics (Paramount Famous, September 10) plays as a chatty, lit-leaning, femme-sympathetic younger version of a cross between The Big Chill and Rachel Getting Married (no surprise, given the fact that it’s adapted by Galt Niederhoffer from her own novel), but reintroduces the Katie Holmes Problem™, namely that she’s never found a way to translate her eye-batting small screen experience at emoting to something approaching convincing, subdued film acting, where there’s a bit more nuance. Again, for the trailer, click here.

The Jackass films are so nakedly designed to provoke that many critics reflexively pooh-pooh them, when at their core these ribald stunt flicks say something about the inherently human (or is it just masculine?) appreciation of prankish absurdity. And the creative stagings on display in the new trailer for Jackass 3D certainly deliver: fish slaps, porta-potty launches, and a human “duck shoot.” Sign me up.

George Gallo’s Middle Men opens next week, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the mainstream marketing (of which there is little, if any), or the outreach of any studio publicity department representative. It’s an orphaned Paramount Vantage release, with parent corporation Paramount handling in shrugging fashion what I gather is a contractual theatrical release to an unknown number of theaters.

But do they have reason to shrug it off? I checked out the trailer, and it plays — there’s a nice mix of music (Deee-Lite, Biggie, “Super Bon-Bon”), strippers, porn stars, hammy fisticuffs, a cross-bow, someone “making it rain” and all other manner of montage-captured material excess. Smart use of the phrase “mad men,” too, in the trailer’s voiceover; trying to
gravy-train some of the love for AMC’s small screen series is certainly not a bad strategy.

Starring Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht (oh, and Laura Ramsey), it’s one of these “I’m-comin’-up,” fratty-bratty business guy tales, like a boozy cross between The Social Network and The Boiler Room. It doesn’t look cheap, either, given all the locations and extras involved. So despite the presence of Wilson — seemingly the default star every studio project that can’t attract a heavy hitter — and despite the suicide release date against The Other Guys, another guys-guy flick with a much bigger profile, it’s a bit curious that this isn’t getting more of a push. After all, you have a movie, based on a true story, about the early-days intersection of the web and porn, with political blackmail and other commercial intrigue thrown in to boot. If you’re a major studio that can’t sell that (or, weirder still, don’t even really try) what exactly constitutes “mainstream” to you?