Peppermint
Having Pierre Morel direct this is a good move, since he made the one good Taken film and District B13 (he was also the cinematographer for the first Transporter), he has a knack for well staged action. Granted, we don’t see a lot of action shots from Jennifer Garner here, instead filling the latter half of the trailer with shots of her reloading and getting ready for action, which I’m hoping is just to save the good stuff either for the film or the next trailer.
The film is written by Chad St. John, whose only notable credits include London Has Fallen and that Punisher short, Dirty Laundry. I’m hoping this is more Dirty Laundry, less London Has Fallen. I do have a slight concern about some of the racial politics here, since it looks like it hits the same sort of notes that Death Wish did recently. It’s kind of the only thing that prevents me from being totally on board with this. It could be fun, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Peppermint will hit theaters on September 7th.
Christopher Robin
I will not be emotionally prepared for this. I’m just not. One of my earliest movie memories involve wearing out the VHS tape for The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, a film that has managed to remain my favorite Disney movie over all these years, and of course, as a child I read the books, and all that, but it was the movie that had a big impact on me.
Now, this is a Marc Forster film, so I’m keeping my expectations at bay, but man, whoever put this trailer together deserves a raise (even if it does seem to give a lot of plot info). I don’t think there’s ever been a trailer that makes me an emotional wreck. It’s so good that it even had the hacky “hand running through wheat” shot and it didn’t make me wanna roll my eyes. I’m not sure how this will go, but it seems like it’s not messing around given the other people involved. I’m not ready for it, but I am hoping for the best.
Christopher Robin will be released on August 3rd.
Let The Corpses Tan
This looks so cool. Like an old Peckinpah film or something, but made entirely out of insert shots, or so it seems. This has been a film that’s been going around in the festival circuits for a while, so I’m glad that it’s finally getting a stateside release courtesy of the good folks at Kino Lorber. I don’t know much else about the film or what the filmmakers have done before, but I’m very curious about this one since I’ve heard nothing but great things about it.
Let The Corpses Tan will be released in select theaters on August 31st.
OK, so there weren’t many trailers released the past week, so I’m including some trailers for films that just played at the Cannes Film Festival.
Burning
This is the latest film from South Korean filmmaker, Lee Chang-dong, which just recently played at Cannes, getting rave reviews. The trailer isn’t particularly informative, but it looks very interesting. What I’m most excited about is seeing Steven Yeun here. I think he was one of the best parts of The Walking Dead (at least until the writers couldn’t come up with anything for him to do after the first few seasons), and with films like Okja, and Mayhem in particular, he clearly has a quality screen presence that has yet to be fully utilized, and I’m thinking he finally gets a chance to shine here.
Burning hasn’t been picked up for U.S. distribution yet.
Fugue
This is another film that played at Cannes. It’s from Polish filmmaker, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, who directed a pretty awesome movie called The Lure, which got its stateside release last year. It was a strange film, but one made with a lot of confidence, and genre savviness, and it was unlike anything I’ve really seen before. I hope to see more of that here.
From the looks of it, it’s a far less playful film than The Lure, but still containing her skills at crafting visual wonders. I love the use of color here, and the moodiness of it all is really effective. If she continues to bring the special touch that made The Lure so special, I can see her becoming one of the more unique filmmakers out there.
Fugue also hasn’t been picked up for U.S. distribution.
Climax
Gaspar Noé gotta do Gaspar Noé, and from the way people reacted to this, it might actually be his best work. It does seem to lack the, I suppose, unpleasantness (?) of some of his other work. I’m curious what the film will be like. I usually like his movies fine, but I don’t love any of them, but I do very much admire the craft that goes into it.
As far as Climax is concerned, it looks interesting. I like Sofia Boutella. It looks like a satanic Step Up, which is kind of awesome, so I’m definitely curious to see how this turns out.
A24 has picked up Climax, but hasn’t issued a release date.
Three Faces
Jafar Panahi is a terrific filmmaker, and his last several films have been amongst my favorites for the years they came out. Apparently, being banned from making films really brings out the best in an artist. If you didn’t know, in 2010, he was convicted of making propaganda against the government so he was given the sentence of six years imprisonment and a 20 year ban from filmmaking. The following year, the courts decided to put him in house arrest, and still holding the ban, and since then he has been allowed to move freely, except he cannot leave Iran.
He has been making works that blend reality and fiction in fascinating ways in secret and with many collaborators. I kinda simplified it, but that’s the basics of it. So, of course, I’m delighted at a new film from him. This looks much lighter compared to his last few, and that’s a nice change of pace. I don’t have a lot else to say except, this looks wonderful, and I can’t wait.
Three Faces hasn’t been picked up for U.S. distribution.
Cold War
I’ve been meaning to get around to checking out the filmography of Polish filmmaker, Paweł Pawlikowski, ever since I saw Ida, which was fantastic. This looks like it’s going to be in the same vein, like some sort of spiritual sequel. I think it looks exquisite. And one nice thing I appreciate about him is that he seems to keep things tight. Ida was 82 minutes long, this is 85, and his other three films are also under 90 minutes. I can appreciate someone who knows how to get in and out without sacrificing the meat of the story. That’s about all I got, this looks good.
Cold War has been picked up by Amazon Studios, but hasn’t issued a release date.
The Wild Pear Tree
I haven’t seen everything from Turkish filmmaker, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, but the couple that I have seen (Once Upon A Time in Anatolia and Winter Sleep) were stellar. But they were also not for everybody. They’re very quiet, very long, very slow dramas. Winter Sleep clocked it at a whopping three hours and 16 minutes and that was just about a hotel owner in a small village dealing with some of the problems from the locals. It’s mundane as hell, but still very compelling. The Wild Pear Tree also runs just over three hours, but from what I hear, it’s quite good. So, I’m glad to see more from this guy.
The Wild Pear Tree hasn’t been picked up for U.S. distribution.
Ash Is Purest White
Yeah, I know there aren’t any subtitles here, but I thought the trailer looked really cool. It’s from the Chinese filmmaker, Jia Zhangke, who I’m honestly not totally familiar with, though I know I should be considering what I hear about some of his work. The IMDb plot synopsis for this reads: “A story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.” That sounds awesome, and it looks like the film will have a wicked sense of humor. I think it looks neat, and if it looks like you’re cup of tea, I suggest keeping it in your radar.
Ash Is Purest White has been picked up by Cohen Media Group, but hasn’t issued a release date.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!