The Human Voice
Pedro Almodóvar is sadly one of those filmmakers that I kind of fell behind on. I’ve maybe only seen a couple of his films, one being his most recent Pain & Glory, which was very good. His filmography is rather extensive, which might be why I hesitate to throw myself in the deep end, but I do plan on catching up with his films. Now, it should be noted that this is actually a short film, apparently about half an hour, according to some research I did. I’m surprised the trailer doesn’t make this clear. It’s based on a play by Jean Cocteau. It’s certainly an interesting way to make Almodóvar’s English language debut, and I’m curious about how they plan on theatrically distributing this short. I probably wouldn’t have included this since I have never previously brought up short films, but there’s hardly any trailers at the end of 2020, and this seemed at least interesting to talk about.
The Human Voice has not announced a release date, but will likely hit theaters in early 2021.
Atlantis
This looks cool as hell. I’m getting a very 70s vibe from this, from some of its shot compositions to the Clockwork Orange-esque music, little Kubrick here, little Tarkovsky there. It looks very interesting. This is from Valentyn Vasyanovych, and the film is Ukraine’s Oscar entry, but since it’ll be releasing in January, if I end up liking this, I’ll probably end up counting it as a 2021 release. And I do hope I dig it because I’m loving the vibes this trailer is giving me. It’s not often we get dystopian films that are as grounded as this, but not without sacrificing a sense of style. Plus, Ukrainian cinema is not something I’m super familiar with, and if this gets me interested in that industry, that would be great too.
Atlantis will be released in Metrograph’s Virtual Cinema on January 22nd, and will expand in the coming weeks.
The Mimic
Gotta be honest, I was initially gonna write this off as some cheap indie, but this trailer sucked me in way more than I could have anticipated. Usually with films that are obviously low budget, they have this overly bright and flat look that really turns me off, and I figured that would be the case here, and while certain moments still have that, I was surprised to see the director, Thomas F. Mazziotti, actually make interesting choices with the look, from the split diopter shot to the more expressive moments like the bit on the motorcycle. Also, this story just seems really fun, and there were some amusing line deliveries. It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised like this. I might actually check this out when it’s out.
The Mimic opens in select theaters and VOD platforms on February 5th.
Film About A Father Who
This is definitely something that probably would have fallen under the radar, even as much as I try to include as many kinds of films as possible. This is a documentary from Lynne Sachs, which incorporates footage covering over three decades of her father’s life, and from the looks of it, she makes some discoveries in the process. I like how it seems to be about the idea of how a child recognizes a parent, how a child has to reckon with the fact that their parent would likely have two whole sides of them, one as a parent, and the other as a human, one that is flawed and more complicated than they might be willing to be open about to their offspring. I find that dynamic fascinating. I think about my own dad, who seemed to never run out of stories to tell, and yet I feel like I didn’t get the chance to really know him. Not sure if anyone else feels that way, but it’s nice to see something like that explored in this manner.
Film About A Father Who opens in virtual cinemas on January 15th.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!