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.
Can a week go wrong if it starts with a slice of Fellini? Probably not – though Matt wasn’t entirely taken with Il Bidone, which is probably a better film than Fellini’s pre-I Vitelloni films, but it also lacks a certain… Fellini touch, perhaps?
A film that’s unlikely to pop up in the Criterion Collection any time soon (though one never knows, eh?) is the focus of this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees post, courtesy of Sam: Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
And what else have we got for your mid-December trailer needs?
Matt: I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the 2005 star vehicle for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that had them play a married couple who find out they’re professional assassins working for competing agencies. It had a fun idea… but honestly, I don’t remember anything else about the film. The upcoming TV series reboot has that idea going for it, even if it’s no longer all that fresh – but it’s also got a great cast that includes the likes of Donald Glover, Parker Posey, John Turturro, Alexander Skarsgård and Sarah Paulson. Glover’s also one of the series creators, which is a good sign, and Hiro Murai – who directed many of the best episodes of Atlanta, Barry and Station Eleven – is also involved. Let’s put it like this: if Mr. & Mrs. Smith is just another reboot that will be forgotten soon, we’ve not lost much – and there’s a chance it’ll be something more, something better.
Matt: If you’re a gamer, chances are that this is the trailer that’s taken up most of your brain space this week. A GTA game is always something special, though looking at the video game industry in 2023 it’s difficult not to be ambivalent about this. I’m sure Rockstar will create an amazing achievement in many ways – but please, guys, can you do it without destroying quite as many lives in the process?
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 