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.
Sometimes it’s hard to top our first experience with an actor, a director, a writer, isn’t it? Matt’s first Kore-eda film was After Life, and he’ll gladly admit that he will use any opportunity to talk about the director’s beautiful take on what happens after we die. Watching the Criterion release of After Life let him indulge in two of his loves.
Talking of directors beloved by our baristas: Sam once again returned to the Hitchcock well for this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees, writing about Hitch’s collaboration with Ivor Novello, Downhill. And since it’s often difficult to find trailers for films from the silent era, here’s something else instead: the movie in its entirety. Enjoy!
And since we’re indulging in some personal favourites: Sam and Julie were joined by frequent guest Dan Thron (of the wonderful movie podcast Martini Giant) to talk about a film all three of them love. With Halloween less than a week in the past, what better time to revisit William Friedkin’s horror classic The Exorcist?
But wait: there’s more to this week’s trailers than favourite directors and horror classics!
Mege: It always has to be us and them, hasn’t it, and those who dare cross that line will find themselves in the middle of a shitstorm that, eventually, will no longer be about the original bone of contention, but about other bones of that skeleton in the collective cupboard. I am a white, middle-aged heterosexual male, so I don’t know what it means to be part of some minority. I never had to fight, and I never had to act according to some stupid stereotype. I just know that Jeffrey Wright is a fantastic actor, and I want to know what he is up to next. Stick of dynamite, the poster promises. Let’s see.
Matt: I grew up at the tail end of the golden age of TV miniseries. Das Boot, The Thorn Birds (featuring Bryan Brown as a bad guy), A Town Like Alice (featuring Bryan Brown as a good guy), and British classics that I only got to see decades later, on DVD: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People, or Edge of Darkness. One particular series I have distinct, and fond, memories of watching as a kid was Shogun (which was probably the first time I saw Toshiro Mifune in anything). We rewatched it a few years ago, and while it’s still very engaging, it’s also pretty dated. I wouldn’t say that it needed a remake, a notion I’m not a big fan of (to say the least), but I can definitely see the interest in a new adaptation – and while Hiroyuki Sanada is no Toshiro Mifune (who is?), he’s a fascinating, eminently watchable performer. Here’s hoping it’ll pop up on one of my streaming services.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 