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.
This week may not have been quite as generous as the last one, but there are still some choice trailers to share with our readers – beginning with one that should be a good fit for Mege’s Six Damn Fine Degrees post on the working stiffs of rock music, including one Nicholas Cave Esq.
Let’s follow that with one of Marvel’s trailers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a film that Matt enjoyed better than he expected.
It’s more or less impossible not to address the big trailer elephant in the room, mind you, so here’s Sam to talk about it…
Sam: The Matrix sequels are a lasting trauma for me, so I went into the new trailer for Matrix Resurrections very sceptically. After all, it had been one of the greatest disappointments of my early twenties to have to experience the double letdown of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003) after the mindblowing cinematic powerhouse that had been The Matrix (1999). Now, a lot of time has passed, and despite the bitter memories, seeing Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss return to their roles after almost two decades fills even me with some excitement. And I must say the trailer looks extremely promising: set in an eerily sunny version of San Francisco, Keanu Reeve’s Neo seems to have no recollection of anything prior and doesn’t seem to recognise Trinity or Morpheus (now played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Slowly but surely, the reality (?) of the Matrix seeps in and blue pills seem abundant. Along the ride are new but well-known faces (Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Ricci, Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson) and everything under the direction of Lana Wachowski looks spectacular and not overtly over the top. If the storyline holds and things don’t get out of hand ending up in the uncontrolled mess that was the previous sequels, this might actually be a real winner!
Matt: And to end with, here’s a double bill of trailers that link to one of the most iconic directors in all of cinema. I’d previously been doubtful of HBO’s modernised remake of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, in spite of the pedigree (the Bergman original, In Treatment’s Hagai Levi in the writer’s chair, Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain reunited after A Most Violent Year). However, while US critics seem to be ambivalent about the series as a whole, everyone praises the two leads for an amazing acting job. Since we recently got Sky Show, which carries almost all of HBO’s output, I may well check out the series – but it’s always difficult to watch something based on the kind of sublimeness that is Bergman’s original TV series. Anyway, talking of Bergman: how can I not be fascinated by a film called Bergman Island, having seen the Fårö islands in so many of the director’s films? I’ve only seen Mia Hansen-Løve 2016 film Things to Come, and while I liked that one well enough, I might not be interested in Hansen-Løve’s new film on its strength alone – but combined with the leads, Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth and Mia Wasikowsa? I think I could be tempted indeed. Though, knowing Bergman, I doubt that the endeavour ends altogether happily.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 