Birdcall's Trailers of the Week

I love trailers, oftentimes more than the movie itself. The creation of a trailer is a very fine art, though often isn't given it's due respect. You want to sell the film without giving too much away; give fleeting glimpses of interesting scenes; write in sentences, not paragraphs. Ideally...

So this is my first weekly "Trailers of the Week" entry. Let's see how long I can keep it up. This being the first one, I tried to scan the media outlets that I read and collect some of the ones from the last month or so. The Trailers of the Week series is not necessarily going to be about new trailers, but rather trailers that I liked, or for movies that I am looking forward too, or ones that I am merely amused by, or ones that I think are interesting in some way, or... This first entry is probably the least curated. In the future expect less and of higher quality. Here I chose a bunch that caught my eye.


The first entry is definitely one that I am looking forward to: Greenberg. Noah Baumbach is among my favorite working directors today, with only a tiny handful of competition. I eagerly await everything the man puts out. Buzz is good on this one, and it's my most watched trailer of the last month.

This next one caught my eye this week. I like slice of life films that show the lives of regular people. I'm not sure if this is that, the trailer text places it all within the context of modern day Iran, a place that I don't often hear a lot about cinematically.

This is one of those films that are usually either loved or hated by people, even though the content is hardly political or scandalous. Instead, it is the very minuteness of the story that bothers people. This minuteness gets labeled pretentiousness. That said, I am wary of the genre, these post-mumblecore indie dramas about white kids trying to connect, even though I myself would be a fine candidate to make one. They just seem so pretentious, haha. Maybe it's just projection: I don't really hate them, I hate myself for making them and others for having beaten to the punch with their pretentiousness.

And now, for something completely different:

Michel Gondry, he's on that list of working directors I adore, though lately he seems to be grasping at straws (Green Hornet? Really?) and making me wish Charlie Kaufman didn't decide to become a director (j'adore Schenectady, New York though). This is a doc about his family, or his grandmother, or something.

Luke Wilson, where art thou? Through some twist of fate, watchers of Bottle Rocket fifteen years ago decided that Owen was the brother to become a star. Fast forward to present day and our Anthony is now schilling for AT and T. Yeesh. Whatever pays the bills, I guess. This is the first movie I've seen Luke in in a long time (I didn't seen Henry Poole, that one with jesus on the house, or whatever) since his great cameo in 3:10 to Yuma in... 2007. Good to see him with work. He really should call his friend Wes up though...

This is the latest from Luc Besson. You know, the guy that did The Professional, 5th Element, The Dive and other films of beauty? I get the feeling that Angel-A, his last effort, didn't go over well, though I thought it was lovely. This one is based on a series of french graphic novels I've never heard of. Looks like fun.

This is for another one of those low budget indie coming of age dramedies that I love/hate.