Trailer Talk: If, The Kitchen, and more!

Just FYI, this will be the final Trailer Talk of 2023. Need to focus more time on catching up on movies, I will start posting some End Of The Year Catch-Ups like I usually do starting next week and into early January. There’s gonna be a slight change to how they’re constructed, so keep an eye out when those are posted.

If

Well, John Krasinski is moving into totally different territory than what we’ve seen him do before. And it looks…pretty fine for the most part. There’s some interesting stuff here, the effects are quite fun, thought I am still a little confused as to what the premise of the story is aside from imaginary friends being real, and seemingly abandoned by the children they helped. I don’t know how metaphorical they’re gonna take this, but there is potential for something compelling here. We’ll see when it comes out.

If hits theaters May 17th, 2024.

The Kitchen

The second trailer in a row that shows some promise, but I don’t really have an idea of what the actual hook and premise is. Though, I am super intrigued by this because Daniel Kaluuya co-directed this. I really enjoy his work as an actor, so I am definitely excited to see what he is able to pull off when behind the camera. It certainly looks cool and the world they’re setting up certainly has its roots in a lot of things happening to day, which is a classic move in science fiction, so I’m curious to see what this has to say.

The Kitchen hits Netflix on January 19th, 2024.

Love Lies Bleeding

I love this trailer. It’s such a vibe. I wasn’t particularly big on Saint Maud, but I admired a lot about it. This is definitely not what I would have considered for the director’s follow-up, and I think it’s really cool and stylish and interesting. This 100% looks more like my cup of tea, plus the cast is quite stacked. I like these kind of movies in general, so I’m very excited to check this out when it comes out.

Love Lies Bleeding opens in theaters on March 8th, 2024.

He Went That Way

Kind of resisting the urge to chuckle at the inclusion of a chimp in all this mayhem. It doesn’t look half bad, to be honest. I have never heard of this story before, but it seems interesting enough. The sad thing is the director, who is making his debut here, died in March of 2022, so he won’t even be around to see the release of his first movie. That’s sad to think about. But I hope he leaves something cool behind for us to enjoy.

He Went That Way will be released in select theaters on January 5th before hitting VOD platforms on January 12th, 2024.

Housekeeping For Beginners

This is from Goran Stolevski, of You Won’t Be Alone and Of An Age fame. I haven’t seen Of An Age just yet, but I loved You Won’t Be Alone. I did enjoy this trailer quite a bit. Stores about found families are very emotionally involved for me, and this looks like it will hit a lot of those buttons for me. It definitely has my attention, that’s for sure. Consider me intrigued.

Housekeeping For Beginners opens in select theaters on January 26th, 2024.

The American Society Of Magical Negroes

OK. Now I see why folks are upset. Well, why Black people are upset, specifically. I was actually with this for the first half, I think there is a fun comedy to be made that explores the “magical negro” trope, but the way this just goes into pure rom-com territory – with a white woman no less – makes it feel so out of touch with what the audience would want out of something like this. So, your target audience isn’t happy, and the people who were never going to like this is already getting their pitchforks out even though many of them fundamentally misunderstand what the movie is doing, judging by a lot of the comments under the trailer. So…yeah, talk about a fumble. I’ll give it a fair shake when it’s out, I do like the cast here, but I’ll keep expectations in check.

The American Society Of Magical Negroes will be released in theaters on March 22nd, 2024.

Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!