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.
Remember this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees instalment, or have you already forgotten it? Continuing from the theme of revenge of the previous week, Matt looks back at the first film by Christopher Nolan he saw, Memento – which, while not perfect, is still his favourite movie by the director.
But forget about Nolan for a moment: Matt also continued his trip around Italy with Federico Fellini as tour guide. It took him a while to warm to Amarcord (not everyone can have the same tastes as Roger Ebert did), but even if he found some aspects of the film tiresome, he warmed to it in the end.
And what else is on offer this week?
Sam: Amadeus is one of those films I could watch over and over again and each time enjoy something else about its mastery: the exqusite lead performances, the ingenious adaptation of the Shaffer play into a cinematic experience, the emotional impact of Salieri’s self-consciousness about Mozart or, of course, the magnificent music so excellently excerpted and included here. Now, the new 4K version of the theatrical cut adds even more dimensions of coulour and contrast to Milos Forman’s 1984 masterpiece: the costumes jump from the screen in even more sharpness, light and shadow play beautifully off the streets of Vienna (aka Prague) and the presence of Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham is even more intensely felt, seen and heard. What a good excuse to watch it all over again!
Matt: Something new by Hirokazu Kore-eda? Not a film but a Netflix series? Looking at the trailer, this definitely is the kind of story that Kore-eda does well: four sisters (shades of Our Little Sister) discover that, unbeknownst to them, their father has a second family. At the same time, the trailer makes this story look louder and more farcical than most of Kore-eda’s stories – though almost all of them use humour to some extent. It wouldn’t be the first time that being squeezed into streaming format hasn’t necessarily benefitted a great storyteller, but I’m more than willing to give Asura a chance.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 