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.
Everyone knows Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. How many who just know Agatha Christie from the film and TV versions have ever heard of Endless Night, the 1972 mystery featuring Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Britt Ekland and George Sanders? Perhaps this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees by Sam will point a few people in the direction of this forgotten Christie adaptation, not least because of its score by Bernard Herrmann!
This week also saw the surprise release of our final espresso podcast of the year: following our recent podcast on The Wizard of Oz and Wicked, Sam and Matt met up for the concluding part of this impromptu podcast two-parter to take a closer look at Wicked: For Good. Check out the espresso for their opinions!
And what other trailer goodies do we have waiting for you?
Matt: I’ve not seen Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, an entry into the catalogue of weird meta Nicolas Cage films, but his 2022 film Sick of Myself, while not necessarily a pleasant watch, definitely made me take notice of him. The Drama also doesn’t look like a fun film, but if you’re in the market for something unsettling, it’s likely that this will fit the bill.
Mege: These girls on the verge of turning into young women – do they break the fourth wall because they know more than we do? But of course they do. There is the vast promise of becoming an adult, of maturity, of being taken for a grown-up. It’s bittersweet because it means you have to leave behind the more carefree days of childhood. And those days may come back to haunt you like ghosts. I have an instinctive response to movies that rely on their atmosphere, that do not show us what a scene is really about, that leave off-screen what a character is looking at.
Matt: Okay, I know that Supergirl is only co-produced by James Gunn and not written and/or directed by him – but tonally, he’s definitely got his fingerprints all over this one… and I’m a bit worried that this new DCU may quickly feel rather samey. Though perhaps that’s just the teaser: director Craig Gillespie was at the helm for Lars and the Real Girl, I, Tonya and Cruella, the latter of which was better than a Disney villain prequel had any right to be. I’ve not got Supergirl on my cinema dance card (is that a thing?) just yet, but at home, with a pizza? Why not. And there may well be a trailer coming up that will nudge me towards giving this one a chance on the big screen.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 