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yup, more trailers.

I told you this would happen. Comic-Con made this inevitable. Another post full of trailers so soon after the last one. Still, I had no idea just how good these trailers were going to be.

By request following the last post, release dates are included.


Thor: Ragnarok

There are those times when a director makes the big jump to larger projects and properties and it goes horribly. For whatever horrible cocktail of reasons, it all goes to shit and fans of the director hold our breaths and wait to see if it was just an anomaly (see: Duncan Jones).

But then there are those times when it all goes gloriously right, when the resulting film perfectly blends blockbuster scale with the unique personality that gave the director a following in the first place.

It’s really looking like Thor: Ragnarok is going to fall into the latter category, because this new trailer has Waititi all over it!

This weirder, bonkers, spacey Marvel Studios, where directors get to do their thing, is fucking glorious.

Also, I will never get tired of Loki becoming a temporary good guy — or at least pretending to — every other movie or so.

Release date: November 3, 2017


Bright

Speaking of bonkers, here’s an L.A. cop film that’s also an orgy of urban fantasy.

David Ayer, right, okay, so on the one side, Suicide Squad was terrible.

On the other side, Fury and End of Watch were really great.

It could be really bad, but maybe, just maybe, it’s going to be soooooooooooo goood!

Either way, Joel Edgerton will be awesome.

Release date: December 2017


Ready Player One

A trailer for Ready Player One is finally here.

You know you live in crazy times when a film full to the brim with nostalgic references to the past — many to the 80’s — is directed by Steven Spielberg, one of high gods of that realm.

I loved the remix of “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I get that it’s on the nose, since the whole story of Ready Player One revolves around one big Wonkaesque contest, but I loved it.

Release date: March 30, 2018


Westworld

Okay, this one doesn’t give us much to go on, but it sure does intensify my itch for season two. So, mission accomplished.

It must be a daunting task to follow up a season where you surprised everyone with how great your show was, but then eliminated almost all of the constraints and trajectories that framed your story in the that season’s finale.

I’m really hoping they knock this one out of the park like they did last time.

Release date: 2018 (some reports say not until October, because life is awful)


Stranger Things

OMFuckingG.

I’m only mildly embarrassed to say that I’ve seen the first season three times.

It just checks so many of my boxes. Thus, when they release a season two trailer that shows the season’s events taking place at Halloween with a remix of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in the background, it becomes obvious that the Duffer Bros. are intentionally attempting to make my brain explode from nerd-joy.

Release date: October 27, 2017

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some trailer catchup.

If there’s anything this blog is good for when I’m actually keeping it current, it’s curating trailers for my friends. Based on what those friends tell me, at least.

This fact is often confirmed with conversations like:

“Have you seen the trailer for Disavowed with Rona Thorne?”

“Did you share it on Roused?”

“No.”

“Then I haven’t seen it.”

That’s a lot a pressure for a blog that’s not even really a thing 95% of the time. Still, I do what I can.

Here are just a few of the trailers I’ve neglected to share with all of you good people over the last few months, some as recently as THIS week. I’m nothing if not timely (my life is a joke).


Why I think it could be good: It’s Guillermo del Toro, so obviously I’m in. The only thing I’m confused about it the similarity between the creature and Abe Sapien as he is portrayed in the del Toro directed Hellboy films. Same actor, sure, but it’s obviously much more than that. What’s the deal?

Still, this looks great!


Why I think it could be good: Can we just agree as a society to put Lakeith Stanfield in everything?


Why I think it could be good: Ava Duvernay and amazing source material. At the very least, this one looks like it will be visually astounding.

I really want this to be great, not just because Madeleine L’Engle’s amazing story deserves a solid adaptation, but also because Disney is showing signs of allowing writers and directors to do their thing, even with big properties. David Lowery had his distinct visual style on display in Pete’s Dragon, and following Guardians of the Galaxy’s success, we are seeing the Marvel branch of the House of Mouse giving more wiggle room to directors like Taika Waititi and Ryan Coogler.

Hollywood, and the media in general, rarely ever know why something succeeds or fails, but if something like this succeeds it will increase the chances more projects like it will be greenlit. I’m all for that.


Why I think it could be good: The more footage they release, the more confident I feel that this will be the sort of violent, bonkers, silly, badass followup the first film demands.


 

Why I think it could be good: I still wish Jessica Williams hosted The Daily Show. The world has gone too long without her being a regular part of our lives.


 

Why I think it could be good: It’s pretty rare that I see a trailer for the first time in an actual theater before a movie, but this trailer came out of nowhere for me. That’s a fitting way for me to discover a film that looks surprising and fresh.

Em said to me that of all the upcoming films we’ve seen trailers for lately, she thinks she is most excited for this one. It’s hard to disagree.


Why I think it could be good: Soderbergh comes out of retirement from making films with redneck Ocean’s Eleven. I’ll be there with bells on.


Why I think it could be good: This looks like it will be the sort of weird, genre-skewing, funny, and endearing film I predictably fall in love with as long as it is done well.


Why I think it could be good: This one is going to be tough to watch. That cast though! Hopefully this will be a fitting way to pay tribute to the brave, badass men who lost their lives during that wildfire.


Why I think it could be good: With Ryan Coogler and an amazing cast, this has the potential to be really good. Everything that has come out so far has been encouraging.

Also, see above statements re: A Wrinkle in Time and how I want all these Marvel and Disney projects where directors get to do their thing succeed.


Why I think it could be good: There are those times where an actor makes a film late in their life that seems to encapsulate their work — an epilogue of sorts. I hope this won’t be Harry Dean Stanton’s last film, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s remembered that way, even if he goes on to make another 20.

Who wants to watch Paris, Texas with me again while we wait for this one?


Why I think it could be good: I loved the first two, I can’t see why I won’t love this one, too. I could really use a funny, depressing, soul-searching vacation with these guys while we eat some of the greatest food imaginable.


Why I think it could be good: The book was so great, and the movie looks like it might be a lovely adaptation.

I know people love to shit all over the time we live in artistically and culturally, but one thing I love is the breakdown of genre ghettos. Brilliant, accomplished directors are willing to offer their take on YA, sci-fi, super heroes, etc. With all the nonsense that sucks these days, at least the loosening of what sorts of storytelling are considered “high” and “low” makes me glad I live when I do.


That’s what I have for you right now. However, it is Comic-Con this week so perhaps there will be another one of these up within a few days.

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baby love. [an ode to edgar wright and baby driver.]

Believe the hype, everybody. Baby Driver and The Big Sick really are as good as everyone has been saying — more on The Big Sick another time, but for now, Baby Driver!

I’m about to write a ton about Edgar Wright, so let me first mention that I loved everything in this movie. The cast is so great. Ansel Elgort is getting lots of attention, but lets not forget that Lily James as Debora is impossible not to fall in love with, Jamie Foxx is at his considerable best as an unhinged sociopath, Jon Hamm and Eiza González are a charismatic match made in hell, Kevin Spacey does Kevin Spacey things. It was great.

And of course, I have to join the chorus of fans singing the soundtrack’s praise as well. It’s heartbeat that makes the film go, and I can assure you I’ll continue to listen to it on Spotify regularly for the foreseeable future.

Now, with that important stuff mentioned, on to my boy Edgar.

There’s a good 20 minutes at the start of Baby Driver where I literally couldn’t sit still. As in, I genuinely couldn’t keep myself from fidgeting and squirming in my seat from sheer joy. That first car chase, combined with the loooooong tracking shot, was everything I wanted this movie to be. It was all the technical brilliance and ebullient film geekery I crave from Wright.

As Guillermo del Toro tweeted, Baby Driver is like a Gene Kelly musical, but with cars and gun violence. “An American In Paris on wheels and crack smoke. It’s a movie in love with cinema – the high of cinema and motion. In love with color and light and lenses and film.

This is peak Edgar Wright. While a definite shift in tone and location for the director, like all of his films it is an invitation into a world shaped by his deep love of cinema — this time, set to music!

He’s a meticulous and methodical director. Everything in an Edgar Wright film is carefully planned and storyboarded. He has a vision in his head, he carefully plans how to collaborate toward its execution, and then he makes it happen — all the while utilizing his encyclopedic knowledge of cinema.

That’s not the only way to make a great movie. Some directors make amazing art by throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks, or by shooting massive amounts of footage and then doing much of the work in the editing room.

But Wright is the opposite of that. It’s all meticulously storyboarded before shooting begins, shot for shot, every frame, angle, and beat. Without that sort of precision, a film like Baby Driver never would have been possible.

It’s not just the massively complicated car and foot chase scenes, everything in this film required Wright’s uncommon level of attention and preparation. Everything had to work together, on rhythm, perfectly choreographed. For example, the actors had earwigs in so they could hear the music, to be certain that each footstep and gunshot was in time to the music, as it was choreographed.

To have one scene where the action plays out in time with the music is fun — like the Queen scene in Shaun of the Dead — but to have the majority of a film work that way is INSANE.

People too often underrate Wright’s technical skill. They’ll mention the Cornetto Trilogy being funny, clever homages to genres that tell meaningful stories about continuing to grow up as an adult, but even that praise too often leaves out how fucking brilliant the actual filmmaking is. Maybe the irony and humility of the films makes it harder for people to take it seriously, but they are missing out. Fortunately, Tony Zhou gets it.

Perhaps part of it is that he makes it look too easy. Wright and his team excel at taking filmmaking with a really high degree of difficulty and doing it so well that it blends in with the larger fabric of the film. Making a fully analog action jukebox musical full of non-CGI car chases is as high as a degree of difficulty is going to get, but this film fits together seamlessly. It’s so visceral and thrilling that it’s easy to miss how impressive the filmmaking is.

Chances are, after the critical and commercial success of Baby Driver, we will get to see what it looks like when this sort of thing is done poorly. We are going to get a bunch of copycat projects in about 18 months, that’s how the business works.

The good news is, we’re also going to get some great films eventually, as some gifted directors will make art that riffs on what Wright does in Baby Driver; much the same way that Edgar Wright takes all of his passions and interests and creates something exciting and new each time out.

It’s always bittersweet — but mostly sweet, because good for them — to see a personally beloved artist graduate from really popular ‘underground’ figure into full-fledged celebrity. His work has been known for a while, with critical raves and a medium sized but massively passionate fanbase. Now he has arrived in earnest as a blockbuster director. We felt like he was ours, but now he belongs to everyone. Yeah, that sounds really creepy, but it’s still true.

We first thought this moment was coming in 2010, after the excited buzz Scott Pilgrim vs. the World got at early screenings, but then that film didn’t perform as well as many predicted at the box office. Then we thought it would happen with Marvel’s Ant-Man, but that ended poorly when Wright left the project soon before filming began over “creative differences,” — something I don’t believe would have happened if production had been set to begin just a year later, and Marvel could have seen how well Guardians of the Galaxy over performed and perhaps allowed more wiggle room for Wright’s vision.

Alas, at long last, the well-deserved time has finally come. Edgar Wright will no longer be an underrated genius, just a genius.

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