trailers

A Tale of Two Trailers

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I thought that I had a pretty good grasp about film American Honey, which opens this weekend, because I’d seen its trailer several times over the past couple months. After all, it’s directed by Andrea Arnold, a director I very much admire for Red Road and Fish Tank, two superb and VERY unsettling movies with female protagonists. American Honey won the Jury prize at Cannes and has been favored by critics who’ve seen it (unlike me). But THEN I saw a more recent promo for the film and was jarred by the contrast. Both the trailer and the promo are from the distributor A24. I’m showing them to you in the reverse order that I saw them. Watch them both and see what YOU think.

Here’s the promo. Seems to me like it’s about a party-heavy, teen adventure road movie. A lark.

Now here’s the trailer that I had seen first. Seems like a searingly realistic movie about alienated and unsupported teen runaways, dabbling in all sorts of scams and and illegality, with lots of risky (and very dangerous) behaviors. Seems more edgy and even disturbing to me.

One of these (I suspect the promo) is going to end up on my list of Most Misleading Trailers.

Anyway, by all reports it’s another fine film from Arnold, and I’m looking forward to the entire 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Why I already hate Conviction

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It’s common that a movie trailer will turn me off from seeing a film that I suspect is bad. But sometimes a trailer makes me think that it’s a pretty good movie that I don’t want to see, either. That’s the case with Conviction, the story of a young woman whose brother is convicted of murder; over 18 years, she gets her GED, her college and law degrees and begins a legal struggle to clear him and rescue him from Death Row.  It’s an Oscar vehicle for Hilary Swank, who plays the sister, and what appears to be another fine performance by Sam Rockwell, who plays the brother.  It’s based on the true story of one Betty Anne Waters.

The problem for me is that the film looks self righteous, overly earnest and humorless. It’s just too damn inspirational.  Melissa Leo, who can add texture to any performance, apparently has been given a one-note cardboard cut-out role of a close-minded cop.

And here’s a lawyer’s quibble:  You wouldn’t expect somebody right out of night law school to overturn a murder conviction with a well-reasoned appeal – and she doesn’t. Instead, she gets the Innocence Project to test the DNA, which clears the brother (that isn’t a spoiler if you’ve seen the trailer).  Now you don’t need to go to law school to involve the Innocence Project – they get involved on the wishes of the non-lawyer relatives of convicts all the time.  So the 18-year struggle may be extraordinary, but that’s not what gets the brother off.

This trailer reminds me of the one for The Duchess, which featured Keira Knightly adorned in 18th century finery in a spectacular shot with hundreds of candles – and made me want to gag.  No The Duchess for me.

Speaking of trailers, I really enjoy another (even more irreverent) WordPress blog, The Trailer Trashers. Their tag line is “The only critics who dare review movies BEFORE we see them”.  Yes, they review the trailers.  Give them a look see.