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.
Recently, Matt’s been exploring another set of virtual lands – though while Little Orpheus is gorgeous to look at (and listen to), there’s something about its lack of variety and challenge that makes it difficult to truly appreciate the craft in this one.
Meanwhile, Julie took the Six Damn Fine Degrees series in a decidedly ’80s direction, with John Carpenter’s pop-paranoia cult classic They Live!
Which takes us to our regular weekly trailer programming.
Mege: Look, you don’t really need to watch the trailer in order to know what’s in the new chapter: stylish killings, far-out hitmen, crime syndicates, bodies piling up, and in the middle of it all, sexiest man alive Keanu Reeves who does or does not want to kill his way out of that mess. It’s James Bond on a bad batch of speed. Enjoy.
Matt: Our favourite cinema has just started a series of films focusing on that most toothsome of monsters, the vampire. They started with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr – which may be weakest when it tries to tell a vampire story, but it’s still well worth it for the dreamlike, supremely atmospheric quality that wouldn’t feel out of place in an exhibition on early surrealist film at the Tate Modern.
Sam: A riveting new collaboration between director Luca Guadagnino and actor Timothée Chalamet is on the horizon and quite a different animal from their indie success that was Call Me By Your Name in 2017: Bones and All sees Chalamet teach young woman Maren (newcomer Taylor Russell) how to survive on the fringes of society. Gone is the teenage love dreamy atmosphere of their prior film: This is gritty, dark and murderously good trailer fare, making excellent use of Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want It Darker’.
Sam: The true Bildersturm of a trailer that is Damien Chazelle’s newest epic Babylon introduces us to 1920s Hollywood and the decadent continuing party that were the Golden Years of American filmmaking: Besides Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Tobey Maguire, there is a new promising star in the shape of Diego Calva standing out of this trailer. A frolicking romp or darkly shimmering satire? With Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash) at the helm, you can’t be quite sure…
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 