This week’s trailers offered a twist on the standard fare. We got new teasers for major upcoming releases that are finally doling out more in the way of plot and character details. And as far as being on the new, this edition of the roundup belongs to documentaries. The Sundance crop continues to bloom with Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, and fellow pop legends Iris Apfel and Back to the Future also get time in the sun. Finish it out with Steve Coogan and Nick Kroll bringing it in the funny department and you’ve got yourself a pleasant slate of on-screen entertainment to look forward to. Rev up your imagination engines, because we’ve got your Tomorrowland of trailers right here.
The One Everyone Is Talking About: Tomorrowland (Above)
Tomorrowland has been billed as a “mystery adventure” by Disney, and up until now the teasers have made good on that promise. We’ve seen brief glimpses of a futuristic utopia and heard voice-overs in the dulcet tones of George Clooney, but otherwise it’s all been very vague. This is the first trailer that really lets us sink our teeth into the movie, and it does have a story, after all! What we know so far is that Tomorrowland the place looks a lot more pristine and technologically advanced than the world as we know it today. And from what we see in this trailer, the world as we will eventually know it is beset with catastrophic weather, riots, looting, and devastation. Clooney’s character Frank knows this, and tells our young hero Casey (Britt Robertson) that he’s been waiting for someone like her, perhaps to build a bridge between Tomorrowland and the real world to stave off something like human extinction. Interestingly, we also see that Casey’s movements in the this world affect her movements in Tomorrowland, suggesting the two places aren’t so much dimensions apart as they are parallel realities—maybe. Everything looks beautiful, like a combination of art deco and steampunk and the Wizard of Oz and Disney World (surprise!), and it’s very exciting to see such an ambitious, live action original story coming from a major studio. The already stacked May release schedule just got even more enticing.
Pause at: 1:16. Possible Magic Mountain sighting in the background. Regular tub time (and space) machine at 1:36. A glimpse of apocalyptic things to come at 1:57.
Essential Quote: “What you saw was a place where the best and the brightest people in the world came together to actually change it.”—Frank (Clooney)
The Animated One: Inside Out
Apparently Disney decided this was the week its time-release trailer campaigns were set to go off, because in addition to Tomorrowland, we’ve now gotten our first in-depth look at the plot of its next Pixar feature, Inside Out—the animation house’s first original story since Brave in 2012. We’ve known that Riley is an 11-year-old girl adjusting to her new life in San Francisco after a being uprooted from her Midwest upbringing. And we’ve also known that Riley’s emotions are actual characters living inside her mental Headquarters, trying to keep the delicate balance of sanity in tact. But with this trailer we get to see more of the misadventures those emotions actually get up to. Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) get sucked out of HQ into a different sector of Riley’s consciousness, and must navigate their way back through her various mental compartments (e.g. Long Term Memory, Imagination Land, Dream Productions) to set things right with her Core Memories. Considering how effective the Emotional Manipulation team (aka the writing team) is at Pixar, we’re probably going to be two sad memories away from crying this entire movie.
Pause at: 0:36 for a charming San Francisco backdrop. Loving the maze of long term memories at 1:15. Too bad it’s not just normal for things to explode into glitter when they’re hit with wrecking balls, like at 1:45. LOL! Brainfreeze at 2:11.
Song: Boston, “More Than A Feeling”
Essential Quote: “Congratulations, San Francisco! You’ve ruined pizza!”—Anger (Lewis Black), disapproving of broccoli as a topping
The Small Screen Standout: Happyish
The notion of a man-of-a-certain-age out of touch with today’s fast-paced digital culture—who’s also suffering from erectile dysfunction—feels more tired than its protagonist. But the cast of Happyish is so good we’re ready to follow them blindly into Showtime’s new bittersweet comedy series. The role of Thom Payne (who actually says “fuck Thomas Jefferson!” in this trailer) is played by Steve Coogan, but was originally written for Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman was certainly adept at working comedy, but the idea of switching from one of the great dramatic actors of our time to one of our greatest comedic actors must have necessitated a big tone shift in writing the main character. But from his pursuits as Alan Patridge to Hamlet 2 to Philomena and everything in between, we know that Coogan is a formidable talent across the dramedic spectrum, and with Ellen Barkin, Kathryn Hahn, and Carrie Preston starring alongside him, we’re feeling really positive about Happyish.
Pause at: 1:32 for a … weird cardboard cutout?
Essential Quote: “You hit your joy ceiling and you’re done. That’s why Jesus wept! Low joy ceiling. Richard Simmons? High joy ceiling.”—Dani Kirschenbloom (Barkin)
The Documentary: Back In Time
This October will obviously be October 2015—the same month Marty McFly landed in 2015 in Back to the Future Part II, and—appropriately—the month this documentary about the whole trilogy is scheduled for release. Perhaps director Jason Aron knows how to find time-hopping Marty and how to get him to the premiere! If you’re a fan of BTTF, this movie has a lot to offer. The roster of contributors is a Future fans dream, including Robert Zemeckis, Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Bob Gale, Dean Cundey, Kevin Pike, Alan Silvestri, and famous mega-fans like Community’s Dan Harmon and creator of The Goldbergs Adam Goldberg. It talks about how the movies got made, but also examines their impact and enduring significance for so many even 30 years down the road. Fox says at one point “it’s great to have a bunch of lunatics on your side.” Well, if loving Back to the Future is crazy, then we don’t want to be sane.
Pause at: 0:07. Heads up for the hoverboard! Still amazing after all these years at 0:29. This guy’s BTTF game is better than your BTTF game at 1:01.
Essential Quote: “We maxed out that card on a DeLorean, and made it into a time machine.
The Alterna-Screen One: Daredevil
Continuing the week of big reveals in known properties, Netflix is following Disney’s lead by giving us a juiced-up new Daredevil trailer that showcases the hero/villain relationship between Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). Kingpin gives a brief explanation of his Hell’s Kitchen origins and tries to tell the Daredevil he’s the yin to his yang—you know, standard villainy mind games stuff. We also get to see the first actual connection between Murdock and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), the lawyer’s long running love interest in the Daredevil comic series, and his best friend and partner in legal practice, Foggy Nelson (who also happens to be into Karen). So, it looks like we’ve got our antagonist, our love triangle, and our conflicted vigilante hero. Bring on that binge watch, Netflix!
Pause at: 0:41 for sweet Foggy Nelson. A hard night’s work for the Daredevil at 1:33.
Essential Quote: “Sometimes you have to do things outside the law.”—Matt Murdock (Cox)
The Sleeper Documentary: Iris
Even if you don’t care about fashion icon Iris Apfel (and really who are you to think she isn’t worth your time?) you should at least respect entirely self-made legendary status. “The Rare Bird,” they call her, a singular entity in the fashion industry who thinks rules and conventions are BS. One might even dare to call her … disruptive! The 93-year-old Apfel is captured here by the great documentarian Albert Maysles, who passed away on March 5 at 88. Maysles directed such renowned projects as Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter and it’s fitting that his final project would focus on someone who is nearly a century old, but still as vibrant and sharp as ever, proving that true genius and star power has no expiration date, a quality shared by Apfel and Maysles till his last days.
Pause at: 0:11, 0:27, 0:56, 1:53, 1:56, and 2:17 for a bird in the wild.
Essential Quote: “I didn’t give a damn about going to the party or being at the party. It was getting dressed for the party. And there’s truth and poetry in that.”—Iris Apfel
The Music Documentary: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
If you’re a music fan, Montage of Heck might feel a bit like porn. Brett Morgan, the director of this Sundance favorite, got unbelievable access to the real life of Kurt Cobain for this documentary, talking to the artist’s family members and close friends and getting access to personal art works, video footage from his childhood, and old journals. Much has been written and discussed about Cobain, but Morgan really gets in there with first-hand accounts about the embattled rock icon from the people who actually knew him and shaped his life—even Courtney Love!
Pause at: 0:15 for baby Kurt! Assuming this is a clip of Cobain’s artwork at 0:52. The little Bean Cobain at 1:35. Dorothy, we’re not in Aberdeen, Washington anymore at 2:07.
Essential Quote: “He was searching for whatever made him feel like he wasn’t alone.”
The Funny One: Adult Beginners
The Kroll Show may be going the way of the Dodo, but maybe that just means Nick Kroll will have more time for projects like this. If you’re going to make another “Help me! I’m an adult!” coming-of-middle-age style movie (Kroll isn’t quite at the middle-age threshold, but the spirit remains the same), you might as well stack it with an outstanding comedic cast. We know the comedian can do absurd and outlandish (see “The Douche” from Parks and Recreation or any number of his Kroll Show alter egos), but the toned down, earnest approach to funny is something we haven’t seen yet. Additionally, Bobby Moynihan, Jane Krakowski, Joel McHale, and Jason Mantzoukas appear in bitsy roles, at the very least, with Rose Byrne and Bobby Canavale as his co-stars. (Rose Byrne and Bobby Canavale!) So even if Beginners veers into annoyingly whiny self-discovery territory, all the principals should at least be very fun to watch. Oh yeah, and Kroll plays Jake, an entrepreneur type who failed miserably and lost a lot of people’s money in the process, which forces him to move out of Manhattan and into the Burbs with his sister and brother-in-law. So, that’s the actual story here.
Pause at: 1:09. Who doesn’t want this face babysitting their kids? Excellent nanny work at 1:11. A FaceTime-with-parents’-worst-nightmare scenario at 1:52. Yes at 1:54.
Song: Dominant Legs, “Hoop Of Love” and Winterbourne, “Sunrise”
Essential Quote: “You can basically take the last three years of my life and light them on fire.”—Jake (Kroll)
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