Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest installment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Matt: May I be honest? They had me at Carrie Coon. Ever since The Leftovers, I am a big fan of her. To be fair, though, it seems that there are other pleasures to be had here, not least writer-director Sean Durkin, whose Martha Marcy May Marlene was compelling, original and excellently acted.
Mege: It seems that Christian Petzold is incapable of making a bad or uninteresting movie. He takes the Undine story and makes something new out of it while using his stars from Transit, Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski. It’s one of the movies I’ve waited for the longest.
Julie: In the #MeToo discussion, sadly, there are still voices that are not heard, or are not heard nearly enough. Women of colour who come forward, or want to come forward, shoulder a specific weight associated with their identity and heritage. Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, who also collaborated on The Hunting Ground and The Invisible War, shine a light on abuses by people in power in cases where survivors are even less likely to come forward and be heard. And the additional burden race and racism brings for the survivors of these abuses, and their decision whether or not to come forward.
Eric: For something set in the the latter half of the 1700s, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout hit manages to hold a mirror to the world we live in right now. It’s a statement of intent. How do you depict the past while acknowledging the present? You blow through arbitrary boundaries of race and creed and acknowledge everyone’s inherent humanity. This is an approach that stands out not just for its sheer heart-on-sleeves bravura, but also the talent in the songwriting, with its melding of pop and hip-hop married to the sheer populist theatre of its story. Hamilton makes sweeping statements about how we need to treat history (and is perhaps not entirely successful in many ways), but it doesn’t forget to be profoundly sweeping entertainment at the same time. For those of us who missed seeing it on stage (and I am one of those), here is the next best thing.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 