trailer sunday – A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Spice in the desert, blood on the dashboard

Jul 18, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

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.

Are we post-wave, pre-wave or both? Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine a future without the pandemic, and everything – including the culture we watch, read, listen to and play – is tinted, not to say tainted, by COVID-19. On Thursday, Matt tried to put his thoughts on the whole Groundhog Day-ness of it all into words. And mention Dune yet again. Obviously

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Don’t stop–

Jul 11, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Matt may not be as big a fan of Anthony Hopkins as many people, but he definitely liked The Father a lot, a film that’s worth seeing for more than just its acting. Check out his thoughts on Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his own play, Le pêre.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: I’ll show you the windmills of my mind!

Jul 4, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

2021 has done funny things to time – sometimes it feels like it’s both speeded up and come to a complete standstill. Well, at least that’s our excuse for the longish break between the previous instalment of The Compleat Ingmar (on The Seventh Seal) and the most recent one, on the small but sweet The Devil’s Eye. Unfortunately it seems that YouTube doesn’t have any useable trailers for that one, just for some little-known horror film called Devil’s Eye – so instead here’s Criterion’s trailer for its wonderful box set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema. Did we mention that we like Criterion here at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: What happens in Russia…

Jun 27, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Horrible rulers? Court intrigue? Perfectly cast historical satire? Huzzah, indeed: last week, Matt blogged about the first season of The Great, written by Tony McNamara of The Favourite fame. The Great, a darkly funny mostly-comedy, may not be quite as scalpel-sharp as Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2018 film, but it’s still well worth checking out – though perhaps not in the company of children, unless you want them to ask interesting questions about sex, death and history.

I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Fuhgeddaboudit!

Jun 20, 2021Jun 20, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Remember when Johnny Depp and Al Pacino were still pretty good guarantees for a good film? Mege certainly did, and in last Friday’s Six Damn Fine Degrees post he took us back to 1997 and to Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: You’re older than you’ve ever been – and now you’re even older

Jun 13, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

From Talia to Tessa: following Sam’s Six Damn Fine Degrees post on The Godfather‘s Connie’s Corleone and Rocky‘s Adrian, Matt followed up this week with Tessa Thompson, who played Bianca, the female lead in Creed, Ryan Coogler’s 2015 follow-up to the Rocky saga – and arguably one of the most charismatic stars of present-day Hollywood.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Mysterious, Secretive, Lonely, Haunted

Jun 6, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Talia Shire is one of those actors that rarely get the limelight, yet in the right part they’re absolutely essential to the functioning of the film they’re in. Take Rocky, in particular: while Stallone works fantastically well (these days, it’s easy to forget what he could bring to a film), without Shire, the film wouldn’t work nearly as well. On Friday, Sam wrote about her contribution, to Rocky as well as to the Godfather films, and it’s a great reminder of Shire and her roles.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: You’ve always been the Petula Clark

May 30, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy: on Friday, Alan took us back to the Overlook Hotel, to talk about Shelley Duvall’s performance in Stanley’s Kubrick seminal Stephen King adaptation The Shining.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: At play amidst the strangeness and fear

May 23, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Do you like a good scare? Do you like feeling a tad miserable? And do you like great acting? Julie’s Friday post on the HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s The Outsider ticks all three boxes – so if you’ve missed it, make sure to check it out!

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Another Night (or Knight?) at the Round Table

May 16, 2021The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Another pretty busy week for all of us, though not on A Damn Fine Cup of Culture – so please bear with us while activity isn’t exactly peaking. We’ll be back before long, promise!

Nonetheless, there was a post on Friday: Mege swerved the weekly Six Damn Fine Degrees feature in a surprising direction, giving the wonderful character actor Bill Camp his due. His rare but great appearances in The Leftovers are worth the price of admission, even if The Leftovers may be one of the most difficult series to recommend to others based on a first season that at times is gruelling and very hard to watch. (Which doesn’t change the fact that it is one of Matt’s favourites… or, some may ask, is that why he likes it so much?)

Anyway, here’s a trailer for The Night Of, which features a characteristically strong, memorable Bill Camp performance.

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