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, we had Matt writing about the odd allure of a series of games that are shallow timewasters – but that he nonetheless keeps returning to, most recently with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Meanwhile, Mege checked out the latest Luc Besson film, Dogman, for this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees.
And what else does the week have in store for us?
Mege: Ooohhh, John Carpenter is still at it? Told by survivors? Is that a trick, like the found-footage ploy? No matter, I think I am ready to be well and truly frightened again. And I like a good horror anthology – you can hold the tension for about an hour, and there are no three-hour horror movies, just as proof.
Matt: Wes Anderson is an odd one – and people’s reactions to Anderson’s films are even stranger. While there are those who say that every Anderson film is pretty much the same – and obviously they are all very recognisable, using the same actors, aesthetics and themes – there are others who like some of the films and dislike others, which doesn’t really fit with the “They’re all the same, aren’t they?” narrative. Personally, I don’t much like Anderson’s early films, but I fell in love with the more heightened artifice that came in around the time of Fantastic Mr Fox. (Ironically, I find the films that lean into the artifice more emotionally engaging and less offputtingly arch.) I’m looking forward to watching Anderson’s anthology of Roald Dahl stories done for Netflix – but as is so often the case with Netflix, I have to make sure not to forget that there are all these things I’ve yet to watch. Sometimes I wonder whether Mubi, with its expiration dates on the films it has on offer, would be better suited to my viewing habits.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 