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.
Mege: I don’t know what it is about the U.S. South, but it seems like it’s entirely made up of creepy priests, damaged war veterans, corrupt police officers, guns as birthday gifts, and young hotshots who think that they can right any kind of wrong in their family. That is a sad cliché, but it makes for pretty good stories. Antonio Campos’ The Devil All the Time has all of that, and if I gave you the cast list, all y’all ain’t gonna believe me anyways.
Matt: I don’t have any problems with creators taking some old intellectual property and doing something interesting with it. I think there’s potential in remakes and reboots that bring a different perspective to things. Cases in point: last year’s Watchmen, the Mads Mikkelsen Hannibal or Ronald D. Moore’s take on Battlestar Galactica (its ending notwithstanding). But I don’t know if I’ve yet seen a single one of these character origins that seemed to have much to offer. It’s a balancing act: stick too much to the original and you’re not really adding anything worthwhile, move away too much from it and the result seems to be a cynical grab for name recognition. But these two simply make me go “Huh?” Which is, at least in the case of Ratched, a shame, because Sarah Paulson deserves to be in better material.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 