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.
Once again: what do you do if you want to post a trailer, but the post it refers to isn’t about a film? Books and music are difficult – but with musicals it’s a bit easier, because even stage shows get trailers nowadays. So, while there’s no Uncle Sam analogue in it, here’s a trailer for a recent(ish) staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. Because, hey fella, feel like you’re a failure? Feel misunderstood? C’mere and kill a president! Trust me, it’ll all make sense if you read the post.
Then, yesterday, Matt finally finished a post he’d been working on for a while. While he did think Ridley Scott’s latest The Last Duel was muddled, he still considers it one of Scott’s best films in a while. And Jodie Comer’s performance more than makes up for Matt Damon’s true-to-the-Middle-Ages haircut.
And, to round this week’s trailer post off…
Sam: Fans of multi-talented cult sci-fi/fantasy and comic book author Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Good Omens, Stardust) will be thrilled by the first look at the upcoming Netflix adaptation of his Sandman series, a multi-part comic, whose protagonist Morpheus – master in the world of dreams – is set free after decades in capture and sets out to retrieve his objects of power. The trailer only allows us glimpses of Dream/Morpheus himself (Tom Sturridge) and instead gives Charles Dance centre stage (always a clever idea!). The veritable genie from the bottle will be released in November and one can look forward to the likes of Stephen Fry, Gwendoline Christie and David Thewlis join the cast. Who needs sleep when one has such dreamy series prospects?
Mege: It’s not a good time to go and see a horror flick about people getting infected and mutating into something else, but darn it, this one I will have to see. Antlers is not Scott Cooper’s first film; the actor-turned-director has made such diverse films as Crazy Heart (2009) and Black Mass (2015), and now he regales us with something that could have come out of the A24 factory, as if he had never done something else than highly effective, blood-curdling body-horror features.
Matt: While he is undoubtedly an immensely charismatic actor, I’ve not always been a great fan of Idris Elba’s choice of roles post The Wire. Put him in a neo-western with the likes of Regina King (great in The Leftovers, fantastic in Watchmen), LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz and Delroy Lindo, and you’ve already got several additional arguments to check out The Harder They Fall, which received a limited release a while ago and is coming out on Netflix very soon. The trailer makes this look like stylish fun at least, so pour yourself a shot of tequila and find out if the whole movie lives up to one of the punchiest trailers in a while.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 