Trailer Hitch
By Zach Kolkin
August 22, 2005
Welcome to Trailer Hitch, your weekly look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week we're looking at previews for a number of smaller fall releases that might have so far slipped under your radar. Keep reading to see which clip is our Trailer of the Week.
Who ever thought this was a good idea for a movie?
Carlito's Way: Rise to Power
There's one every week, isn't there? This week's entrant in the Completely Unnecessary Remake/Sequel contest is actually a prequel to Brian De Palma's 1993 crime thriller starring Al Pacino. Pacino and De Palma, of course, are nowhere to be found on this film. Their replacements are Jay Hernandez and Michael Scott Bregman, respectively. Hernandez, as his IMDb trivia page helpfully notes, "played on the �stars' team for MTV's Rock and Jock in 2002," while Bregman, who also wrote the screenplay for Rise to Power, has previous experience as the producer of such winners as The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Stephen Baldwin's One Tough Cop. Fantastic pedigree, huh? One interesting thing about this movie is its release strategy; while it is scheduled to be released in theaters on September 7th for "promotional preview screenings", it is being released on DVD three weeks later. In other words, this is a glorified straight-to-video film. As for the trailer itself, it did absolutely nothing to dissuade me from the opinion that this movie is nothing more than a shameless attempt to make a quick buck. I can only hope that this attempt fails miserably.
OK, I'm intrigued
Music From the Inside Out
This documentary focuses on the world of professional musicians, specifically those involved in the Philadelphia Orchestra. The trailer does a great job of selling the film's fundamental question and concern: what is it about the essence of music that makes its such an enjoyable (and magical) experience? As someone who has played a musical instrument since a young age, I personally had no trouble understanding the appeal behind this documentary, and found its concept to be extraordinarily engaging. However, I'm not necessarily sure that the movie would seem all that interesting to those who are not already involved in music. Then again, recent documentaries have turned everything from spelling bees to ballroom dancing into compelling subjects, so maybe I'm selling the breadth of this film's appeal short. The preview � which is mainly a series of fairly lengthy clips from the picture, without any sort of voiceover introduction � seems to sell the movie fairly, and hopefully, the documentary itself will be just as interesting as this trailer.
The Squid and the Whale
Although he had written and directed three films before working on The Life Aquatic, it seems that all anyone ever recognizes Noah Baumbach for is his newfound creative partnership with Wes Anderson. Baumbach's latest solo effort, however, is certainly being sold as if the man had never written a thing until he was influenced by Anderson. Some aspects of The Squid and the Whale certainly seem to bear some similarities to Anderson's work: the dysfunctional family, the quirky characters, the nostalgic '80s setting. The trailer is subtly funny, and its cast seems to fit into the film's world quite nicely. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play a separated husband and wife, while Jesse Eisenberg (the boy from the hugely underrated Roger Dodger) plays one of their sons, who ends up competing with his father for the same girls. Though Baumbach might end up being known solely for his collaborations with Anderson, The Squid and the Whale certainly looks like it has great potential, and if it is anywhere close to the quality of Anderson's own dysfunctional family film, The Royal Tenenbaums, we'll all be very lucky.
Paradise Now
Unlike many other trailers for independent pictures, this ad for Paradise Now takes an interesting route, using the conventions of mainstream movie trailers to try and sell this picture. The clip features a typically gravelly-voiced man doing a voiceover, as well as Alexi Murdoch's "Orange Sky" � a song you'll probably recognize from its previous appearance in a Honda commercial � playing in the background. There's even a made-for-Hollywood tagline: "Sometimes the most courageous act is what you don't do." It is a bit jarring, in fact, to see these elements being used in the advertising campaign of a Palestinian-made film denouncing violence in the Middle East. The movie centers on a pair of longtime friends who have been recruited as suicide bombers, and the emotional turmoil they face as they try and decide whether or not to carry out their mission. Is Warner's mainstream-ization of Paradise Now a smart marketing move or a silly, ultimately fruitless ploy? Only time will tell, but it's yet another interesting point for discussion surrounding this clearly thought-provoking film.
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
Our second documentary of the week focuses on a decidedly more somber subject than classical music: the racially-motivated murder of Emmett Till, a 15-year-old boy, in 1955. The preview is set to gospel music that is both beautiful and haunting; it would seem that this is intended to parallel the circumstances of Till's death, which, while unquestionably reprehensible, was one of the primary catalysts for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The preview mainly focuses on footage of interviews conducted by the filmmaker with Till's mother, who contributed to the picture before her death in 2003. As the preview hints at, the two men accused of Till's murder were, astonishingly, acquitted in their trial, even though they would later confess to the killing in a magazine interview. Though the clip does not mention it, it is also worth nothing that this documentary has already led the Justice Department to reopen the case in light of new evidence suggesting that the two men may have been part of a larger conspiracy. The strength of the movie's argument makes it highly intriguing, and this preview introduces that highly compelling quality quite effectively.
Revolver
Guy Ritchie returns to the genre that made him famous in his latest film, Revolver, which gets its first trailer here. The clip is stylish in an extremely overt way, and it's clear that the viewer is supposed to pick up on the notion that this is a very cool movie. There is no dialogue in the trailer; instead, there are many short, silent clips spliced together and set to some moody rock music. The clips all hint at the type of themes you'd expect to see in a Ritchie film: violence, sex, crime, some more sex, and some more violence. We only get brief glimpses at the members of Revolver's cast, which includes Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, and Vincent Pastore. Pastore appears in the trailer's first shot looking so similar to Big Pussy that I could have sworn I was watching an ad for The Sopranos. Nevertheless, this is a good ad that seems like it will appeal strongly to those who are fans of Ritchie's previous work. Though there isn't any premise hinted at in this teaser, I think a lot of people will already be sold on Revolver.
I'm already counting down the days
Lonesome Jim
Liv Tyler moves from making out with one Affleck brother to smooching another in Lonesome Jim, Steve Buscemi's latest directorial effort, which stars Casey Affleck in the title role. After his brother falls into a coma after a car accident, Affleck's character returns home to a small, Midwestern town, where he meets a nurse who works at the local hospital. Their ensuing romance is what is predominantly focused on in the trailer, and Affleck and Tyler seem to have a nice and refreshingly understated chemistry together. This is Affleck's first non-supporting role since 2002's Gerry, and, though he obviously has a significantly larger amount of dialogue in this film, he seems to bring an inward quietness to the role that reminds me of some of his other roles. Fans of engagingly unassuming indie dramas will definitely want to keep their eyes out for Lonesome Jim.
Steal Me (Trailer of the Week)
Steal Me is an indie drama, and its trailer focuses, exactly as it should, on highlighting the seemingly great acting performances turned in by its largely unknown cast. The story revolves around a young boy, who also happens to be a kleptomaniac, who in searching for his mother finds himself taken in by an apprehensive family. As with any good tale of adolescence, this movie appears to tackle all the important issues of growing up, including one's relationship with one's parents, one's relationship with the opposite sex, and one's relationship with oneself. The preview does a fantastic job of setting up the film's plotline; there is no voiceover, but the scenes are more than explicatory enough to sell the picture. Frequently, it seems like it takes an independent movie to fully and properly tell the story of teenage life; Steal Me will hopefully follow in that well-established tradition.
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