Apologies for not getting one of these out last week, been dealing with a some personal things, but I’m back on schedule.
The Last Son
This is the new flick from Tim Sutton, who has largely been one of those filmmakers who I admired, but found his work hard to connect with. The exception being his most recent film, Funny Face, which I feel utilizes his atmospheric filmmaking while still bringing a human connection. This trailer, on the surface, looks like a step further into something more conventional, certainly more propulsion. I dig westerns, so I feel like I might really dig this, and the actors here all look pretty good, even Sam Worthington. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this.
The Last Son hits select theaters and VOD platforms on December 10th.
A Journal For Jordan
Between this and The Tragedy Of Macbeth, Denzel Washington has his work cut out for him this holiday season. I’m honestly not super into this, though. It just looks like a glorified Hallmark movie, which could be enjoyable in its own right, but I would for something more meaty given the talent involved. Also, I find it weird that this trailer says it’s “Introducing Chanté Adams” when she’s been around and doing good work for the past couple years, I recall singing her praises with Roxanne Roxanne, her actual debut. But anyway, this doesn’t look bad, just not my cup of tea.
A Journal For Jordan will be released in theaters on December 25th.
Swan Song
Not to be confused with the Udo Kier film that also came out this year with the exact same name. Anyways, this looks really cool, and I’m surprised it’s taken this long to see a premise like this, on the big screen at least. Plus, when you have a guy like Mahershala Ali taking the lead, you know it’s gonna be hard hitting and engaging. I like what I see here, I think it’s super interesting, between something like this and the awesome Tom Hanks movie Finch, I like that Apple is providing a platform for these smaller movies.
Swan Song hits select theaters and Apple TV+ on December 17th.
Drive My Car
Not a ton to dig into with this trailer, but this is one I am looking forward to because the word-of-mouth is so good. This is from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, whose only work I’ve seen is Asako I & II, which I really loved. I’ve been meaning to see more of his stuff, so I’m definitely hoping this plays near me, or I can get a screener, cause this looks wonderful.
Drive My Car opens in select theaters on November 24th.
8-Bit Christmas
This looks cute, I guess. Harmless fluff. It does have a solid collection of actors involved, so maybe that and Michael Dowse being at the helm will bring some edge to this kind of material. It’s really hard to say with these kinds of movie trailers, it could go either way. If the word on this film is solid, I might give it a shot, but otherwise it just looks like HBO Max being in desperate need of content for their holiday programming.
8-Bit Christmas will be available to stream on HBO Max on November 24th.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!