I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone walk into a bar

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.

Want something new in your streaming playlist? Once again, Melanie delivers a top-notch tip in her latest Six Damn Fine Degrees post, this time about Chinese historical drama Flourished Peony. (Make sure to switch on subtitles in the trailer below!)

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Grab a slice and enjoy

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.

In this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees: more books (Melanie wrote about making her way through Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga), so even less of an opportunity to post a fitting trailer! So, if it’s not too much of an insult to fans of the saga, here’s a trailer for the third season of a different sci-fi saga: Apple TV’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Obviously we need more adaptations of long-form sci-fi!

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Just when you thought it was safe to go to Scotland again

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.

This week, Alan wrote about his childhood love for Greg Bear’s novel Blood Music – which makes for a great Six Damn Fine Degrees post, but sadly, it makes the whole issue of finding a trailer difficult, since Bear’s writings had never been turned into films or TV series. However, YouTube does have a reading of the original short story that Bear expanded into the novel, so if you need one hour of audio while you’re cooking or doing the dishes, why not check this out?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: No hay pelicula! It is… an illusion.

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.

This year, we lost some of the greats – such as Gene Hackman, who starred in so many memorable films. One of the lesser known but equally deserving Hackman movies is the 1975 neo-noir Night Moves – a film all the more notable for how long it keeps its thriller plot on the back-burner, lulling its protagonist as much as its audience into a false sense of safety. Check out Matt’s thoughts on Night Moves here.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: This post will self-destruct in five seconds (under the sheer weight of trailers)

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.

The novels of Thomas Hardy – in particular his last two, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure – are the supreme downers, making you feel for their protagonists and then follow them on their descent into the kind of tragedy that would have made Antigone, Electra and Medea wince. And yet: these are beautifully written books, filled with sadness and anger at a society that chooses cruel judgment over mercy and empathy. Check out this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees to find out why these books have proven to be so enduring for Matt.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Are you watching them, or are they watching you?

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.

It’s not for the faint of heart, as Julie writes in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees entry, but Nicholas Windig Refn’s Bronson is worth a revisit.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Cinema is imitation, twenty-four times a second

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.

This week, Alan took our Six Damn Fine Degrees feature on a trip to the 1980s, to the Pet Shop Boys’ feature film It Couldn’t Happen Here – a feature film dressed up as a music video, vice versa, or both at once?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: And I would walk 500 miles

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.

What are our portals to the past? It could be our parents’ attic, or our boxes of music and video tapes (for which we might not even have any devices to play them on any more), or any other collection or archive. To find out more about Sam’s portals to the past, check out his Six Damn Fine Degrees post. And, since Vertigo represents one of Sam’s most-used such portals, here’s the original trailer for Hitchcock’s classic.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Fear is the mind killer

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.

It can’t all be films: in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees, Matt wrote about his happiest childhood memories, which are largely of the times he spent at the library or reading books he got from the library. And what better trailer to feature with respect to cool libraries than this one?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: If Tom Cruise is 62 years old, how old does that make me?

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.

Being a parent isn’t just about introducing your kids to all the books, films and series you loved when you were their age: in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees, Melanie wrote about the weird and wonderful shows her (by now 14-year-old) daughter has introduced her.

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