I have not seen mamma mia! I have no idea who’s supposed to be British and who’s supposed to be American and who’s supposed to be Greek and who’s supposed to be likeable. All I know is Meryl Streep is bouncing around in overalls, and right now, I actually couldn’t anticipate seeing anything more. Also, when those three men appeared in front of you, who wouldn’t just pretend that Colin Firth was their father and get a move on with things? This is guaranteed to have a culmination of silly dramatic relationships during a wedding, which is annoying in the most Boy Meets World of ways, and just accepting Colin Firth as a personal lord and savior would really just save everyone a lot of trouble. However, if keeping all the men around will result in an array of coy expressions from Meryl, I’m alright with the sacrifice.
Also, for anyone who hasn’t seen this, this is the pinnacle of music videos:
If you’re in the market to make a trailer, and want to find a sure fire linchpin in any movie, here’s what you have to find yourself. You find yourself a motion picture that actually, going far beyond the reaches of mere exposition, names a list of characters you are about to see, giving them each a one or two word title. Voila, you have your structure. The trailer for The Fall looks dangerously epic, every last thing about it. But it starts out with a list of the characters, is sustained by a series of enigmatic face-covering ornaments, and let’s be honest, uses the word (in proper noun form!) Odious. This trailer does make me queasy, between the super saturated colors and the combination of characters (one defined by race, one by human condition, one by specialty, Charles Darwin, and one involving costume? The confusion begins) but I can’t ignore that shot with the slow mo spinning, or that swimming elephant. And I can’t ignore the absolute promise that the story teller is going to break that little girls heart about 2/3 through the movie. They hint at that beautifully in this trailer without ever having to really step outside of the epic. And may there even be a slightly inappropriate relationship between the two main characters? O, the cinematically stunning intrigue! Actually, once I accepted that the story within the story will probably come together, and almost definitely in a really tragic manner, the most jarring part of the trailer was the totally random and isolated MAGNIFICENT by Sir Ebert. I guess we’re just supposed to put that in our critic-trusting pockets, but one word reviews, let alone solitary ones in giant giant letters, just aren’t going to cut it in a world of slow mo and silhouetted horses.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chus Lampreave, Fuera de carta, Javier Cámara, Lola Dueñas, Spanish Cinema
Believe it or not, other people besides Pedro Almodóvar make movies in Spain. I’ve been here for over three months, and I still sometimes doubt it because seemingly 98% of the films released here are imports from the U.S. But in the last week or so posters have been going up around Madrid for this movie, the title of which, when translated, means “Off the menu.”
A couple weeks ago on a bus ride from Valencia to Madrid I saw a Spanish movie called Descongélate of about the same ilk–zany comedic farce about the lives of youngish people in Madrid–and it was actually rather disappointing, despite its endearing commitment to madcap antics. This movie, though, looks like a winner. First of all, good cast. Javier Cámara, Lola Dueñas, and Chus Lampreave are all Almodóvar veterans with impressive comedic skills. Chus in particular is a gem with the crazy old lady role (basically the only character she ever plays, God bless her…she’s kind of like the Estelle Getty of Spain). Secondly, if the trailer’s anything to go by, it’s going to be nice and punchy (although trailers have, on more than a few occasions, been known to mislead). It’s got that pleasing, bouncy rhythm of comedy trailers that, when done just right, sets off chemicals in your brain that convince you that a) life is really fun! and b) you have to see this movie ASAP, it looks fun! It’s got something to do with the snappily edited-together slapstick moments/wacky jokes (complete with swishy transitions and crazy Chus touching man boobs) and the brightly colored text frames asking you menu-themed things like “Meat or fish?” It’s an assault on the senses with pure zaniness, and I must admit that it’s worked like a charm. I can’t think of the last time a trailer made me feel so artificially light-hearted. If this were a local newspaper article I’d conclude with something like, “Let’s just hope that big laughs are on the menu for the actual movie!”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amy Poehler, Baby Mama, Romany Malco, Tina Fey
This is an odd trailer. Formally it’s by-the-book (the gooey voice-over, the story exposition, the use of The Cars’ “Just What I Needed” (they need each other!)), but most of the jokes are just a hair left of the content that usually fills these types of trailers. It’s kind of disorienting to hear the sappy voice-over joke about putting your eggs in someone else’s basket while at the same time watching Amy Poehler squat and piss in a sink. Something just doesn’t quite mesh; there’s a disconnect between form and content that hopefully signifies that this movie will be disgusting, funny, and awesome no matter how hard the production company tries to sell it as a generic comedy blockbuster.
Side note: Romany Malco (the doorman in this movie, also of Weeds fame) is a brilliant, brilliant man, and God’s gift to trailers.
