Encanto
This is a teaser, so obviously we’re only given a small taste of what this has to offer, but I do like what I’m seeing here. It looks fun and vibrant, and the story is certainly unique, particularly in where it draws its cultural inspirations from. I’m just hoping that I won’t be all Lin-Manuel Miranda’d out, between In The Heights, tick, tick…BOOM, Vivo, and this. I hope they don’t have a samey-ness to them, but that concern aside, this looks cool, and I’m curious to see how it turns out.
Encanto hits theaters on November 24th.
Val
Well, this brought a tear to my eye. Val Kilmer was an actor I enjoyed seeing since I was young, so he definitely holds a special place in my heart. It’s been rough seeing him these past few years, and it looks like he has done quite a bit of reflecting as well as you can see in the trailer for this documentary. Not much else to say really, it looks like a really well done piece, and I can’t wait to see it.
Val hits select theaters on July 23rd before releasing on Amazon Prime Video on August 6th.
Lorelei
This looks pretty straightforward as far as these kinds of dramas tend to go, but this trailer does a good job at really selling you on it. I’m a huge fan of Jena Malone’s work, I think she’s one of the more underrated actors out there, and it’s surprising to me that she hasn’t gotten more mainstream success. And while I’m not as familiar with Pablo Schreiber’s general body of work, the few things I’ve seen him in I enjoyed, and this feels like something different from what I’ve already seen from him. It just looks like a really nice, grounded story about everyday struggles, and when these movies come together well, they are quite the experience.
Lorelei will be released in select theaters and VOD platforms on July 30th.
The Evening Hour
I can’t help but watch this trailer and think to myself, “this is like if Hillbilly Elegy was good.” Somehow despite this seemingly having even more dramatic aspect with the crime elements, it still manages to be way more downplayed and understated than the Ron Howard movie. This does look pretty good, and it helps that it isn’t filled with movie stars, though there are a couple recognizable faces, most notably Stacy Martin, Cosmo Jarvis, and Lily Taylor, but I don’t get the impression that their presence will make things distracting. This is one I’ll keep my eye out for.
The Evening Hour opens in select theaters starting July 30th.
Beckett
Through the past year or so, I’ve come to realize that a lot of people don’t seem to care much for John David Washington, which I was initially surprised by because I thought he was fine in everything I’ve seen him in, but now that I saw this trailer, I think I get it. Previously, he’s had directors with strong visions to fall back on, his previous films didn’t rely on him being a great actor to work, but a film like this kind of requires you to have a strong personality at the center of it. It’s clearly trying to be the kind of “man caught in wrong place and wrong time” thriller that Hitchcock perfected, but a film like North By Northwest has Cary Grant, who brought so much character and humor, and I’m not getting much from Washington here at all. Now, I’m not tossing this film aside, the creative team here is really cool, it’s written and directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, who did second unit work on a lot of Luca Guadagnino’s recent work, it’s scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and shot by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. These are some cool names, so it’ll be interesting to see how this team handles a genre like this.
Beckett will hit Netflix on August 13th.
Swan Song
Udo Kier, man. What an absolute legend. He seems way overdue for an honorary Oscar at the very least. You don’t seen him as a lead very often, especially not these days. I was surprised to see Todd Stephens’ name here. Not only has he not directed anything since 2008, but the one feature that I know him for is Another Gay Movie, which was…not for me. The early 2000s were a weird time for comedy. Though I do hear that Gypsy 83 and Edge Of Seventeen, the 1998 film which he wrote, were pretty decent. I do think this trailer is quite endearing and fun, and Kier looks like he’s having a blast. I’m definitely excited to check this out.
Swan Song opens in select theaters on August 6th and on VOD platforms on August 13th.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!