Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment 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.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy: on Friday, Alan took us back to the Overlook Hotel, to talk about Shelley Duvall’s performance in Stanley’s Kubrick seminal Stephen King adaptation The Shining.
But that’s not all we had on offer this week: on Saturday, Matt shared his thoughts on Netflix’ 2018 series Maniac, which three years after its release may actually work better than it did back then. There’s something to these pandemic times that works very well with the destabilising strangeness of Cary Fukunaga’s limited series.
And this brings us to the regular trailers, recommended to you by our cultural baristas. Enjoy!
Sam: Just in time for the seemingly late summer of 2021 comes French director François Ozon’s latest film. His past productions have already included suspensefully summery entries like Swimming Pool and Sous le sable but The Summer of 85 (Été 85) seems to be much closer to the stunningly romantic summer of Luca Guadanigno’s Call Me By Your Name, at least at the outset. Ozon wouldn’t be Ozon, however, if he didn’t manage to pepper the initial harmony with love triangles, jealousy and potential delinquency. So what starts out as a breezy affair between its two male protagonists (Benjamin Voisin and Félix Lefebvre) soon turns dark and unpredictable. Will there be sizzling sensuality or heartbreaking homicide? It’s too hard to tell from these first trailer moments!
Mege: Bad Times at the El Royale didn’t really work, did it? Guns Akimbo was crap, and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen was deeply mediocre, too. Even now that The Comeback Trail is out, nobody seems to have seen it. And so here is Gunpowder Milkshake, something between Widows, Birds of Prey and John Wick. Maybe, against all odds, this is the fun escapism we might need right now.
Matt: And, finally, here’s a trailer for Edgar Wright’s latest, the properly Lahndan horror film Last Night in Soho. I enjoy Wright’s craftsmanship, but I have to admit that his early work on the TV series Spaced and the first film in the Cornetto Trilogy, Shaun of the Dead, work better for me than the more polished later films. Still, Last Night in Soho looks stylish as hell, and I’m not going to say no to a last chance to watch Diana Rigg, am I?
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 