Trailer Review: The Hunger Games

Release Date: March 23, 2012

Website: Official The Hunger Games site

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley

My Review: I admit it: I am an adult with no children who is totally in love with the young adult novel series, The Hunger Games. I would take this time to apologize to all the Twilight fans I’ve mocked over the past couple of years, except for one important thing: The Hunger Games is awesome, and Twilight is stupid.

The first story in a series of three, The Hunger Games takes place in a dystopian near future where what remains of the U.S. is divided into separate Districts that are ruled over with an iron fist by the oppressive Capital. At one time in the past, the Districts banded together in an attempt to overthrow the Capital, and when they lost, unlucky District 13 was obliterated as a warning of what the Capital was capable of. As further punishment for the Districts’ insubordination, every year the Capital hosts the Hunger Games; a televised survival game where a randomly selected male and female child from each District is thrown into an arena and forced to fight to the death.

From District 12, 16-year-old Katniss takes the place of her selected younger sister, and enters the arena with fellow District member Peeta, the charming son of the District baker. Luckily, Katniss isn’t your average teenager; she’s an experienced hunter, smart and resourceful enough to live off the land, and willing to fight as hard as she has to in order to survive. She’s even smart enough to let the inevitable love triangle between her, Peeta, and her back-home hunting buddy Gale run a distant second to everything else she has going on (take that, Bella!).

The recently released trailer for The Hunger Games is really just a teaser, and doesn’t reveal much other than Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss running through a forest being bombarded by fireballs. But it’s enough to make me hopeful that the movie adaptation will capture the same suspenseful energy the book has, though I’m still concerned about how much Hollywood will sanitize the story and glamorize the lead players. In any case, it’s bound to be better than Twilight.

Would I Pay For It?: I knew as soon as I finished reading the book that I would pay to see the unavoidable movie that would come from it, though it’s going to be hard seeing anyone other than the version in my imagination playing Katniss. Because the version in my head is completely badass.

Trailer Review: The Tree of Life

Release Date: May 27, 2011

Website: Official The Tree of Life site

Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw

My Review: I first saw the trailer for The Tree of Life when it played in the theater before Black Swan. When it was done, I leaned over to my friend and whispered, “I have no idea what that movie is supposed to be about.” After watching the trailer a second time, I still have no idea.

Here’s what I know for sure: It stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

Here’s what I can infer: Pitt plays the father to a brood of boys in the 1950s. He’s extremely hard on his children, thinking the only way they’ll grow up to be real men is to be emotionally abusive, and as a result, as his kids grow up they distance themselves from him. Penn plays the adult version of one of the boys, and as a result of his harsh upbringing, he’s an emotionally crippled person.

Here’s what I wildly assume: Penn is haunted by some traumatic childhood incident that he blames his father for. He will spend his adult life coming to terms with it. Tears will be shed, lessons will be learned, and emotional growth will occur. Hugging, no doubt, will be involved.

Would I Pay For It?: No. I mean, I do enjoy a good drama, but I don’t enjoy having it rammed down my throat.

Trailer Review: Tiny Furniture

Release Date: Now playing in select theaters in the U.S.

Website: Official Tiny Furniture site

Starring: Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Alex Karpovsky, David Call

My Review: No movie genre does quirky families and general life ennui better than small indie films created on a shoestring budget by little-known artists, so Tiny Furniture is definitely on the right track.

Written, directed, and starring comic writer Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture tells the story of Aura, a recent college grad with little ambition and no direction in life, who moves back home to Manhattan to live with her mother and teenage sister. And that is apparently the entire plot of the movie. Her family (played by Dunham’s real-life mother and sister) is weird—naturally—so they get in each other’s faces and bicker over ridiculous things, like Aura’s post-collegiate malaise making her sound like “the epilogue to Felicity.” And since Aura is single, she gets introduced to a possible new boyfriend (who is also—naturally—weird), who she invites to move in with her and her family. How can one New York apartment contain all this quirkiness?

While I have nothing against small movies that focus more on interesting characters than intricate plots, I hope there’s something more to Tiny Furniture than a showcase for the bizarre family that Dunham obviously adores. Everybody thinks their family is crazy and hilarious, but if we all made movies about them, we’d soon learn that they’re only crazy and funny after spending a lifetime with them. There are few things more potentially annoying to an audience than being presented with someone’s scripted home movie and told to find the subjects charming.

Would I Pay For It?: I’ll probably just wait for it to show up on the IFC Channel in a month or two.

Trailer Review: Jane Eyre

Release Date: March 11, 2011

Website: Official Jane Eyre site

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins, Jamie Bell, Imogen Poots

My Review: It’s no secret that I love a good literary adaptation period drama. So it is with nerd girl pride that I look forward to the release of the umpteenth incarnation of Charlotte Brontë’s gothic love story, Jane Eyre.

Much like any of the novels by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre is a story that has been turned into more movies and TV miniseries than I can count (including one featuring a young Anna Paquin as Young Jane). Each version presents the material in varying degrees of depth, but at its core, the story is always the same: See Jane have horrible childhood. See Jane finally find happiness as a governess. See Jane fall in love with the broody and mysterious Mr. Rochester. See everything go spectacularly insane.

The trailer for this new telling of Jane Eyre hits all the right notes in setting the tone for the movie: dark, morose, and…foggy. However, there are a couple of things that make me raise an eyebrow; specifically, Mia Wasikowska (playing Jane) isn’t British and Michael Fassbender (also not British, but at least European) is way too handsome to play the “not beautiful, according to rule” Mr. Rochester. But Judi Dench is there, too, which sort of evens everything out.

Would I Pay For It?: Well, I would, but the bigger question is, would anyone else?

Trailer Review: The Zookeeper

Release Date: July 8, 2011

Website: Official The Zookeeper site

Starring: Kevin James, voices of Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone, Cher

My Review: If you count Doctor Doolittle, Stuart Little, Cats & Dogs, and Garfield among your favorite movies of all time, then you’re in for a treat with The Zookeeper. If, however, you don’t have an affinity for talking animal movies and are over the age of four, then you already know you’ll be sitting this one out.

The Zookeeper stars the recently busy (or maybe “slumming” is a better word) Kevin James as the titular zookeeper who works at a zoo where—you guessed it—the animals talk to him. Crazy! And it just wouldn’t be a talking animal movie without a bevy of middling to popular movie stars voicing the chatty critters. This time around you can enjoy the vocal works of Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone, and Cher.

While my kneejerk reaction (a hearty eye roll) to The Zookeeper may be a bit unfair since I—being neither a child nor the parent of one—am not its target audience, I think I’m still justified in being annoyed with the general state of family films that are made these days. I know not all family fare can offer the brilliance of the Pixar movies, for example, but is it really necessary to resort to old, tired movie tropes that haven’t been inventive or entertaining since the 1960s when someone figured out that giving animals peanut butter makes it look like they’re talking? Kids are just young humans, not brainless morons, so it would be nice to see some family-friendly flicks that engage and inspire them, rather than rehashing what’s been done (mostly poorly) time and time again.

Jason Segel and your upcoming Muppet movie, I’m looking at you.

Would I Pay For It?: No, I don’t hate myself nearly enough to see this.

Trailer Review: How Do You Know

Release Date: December 17, 2010

Website: Official How Do You Know site

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson

My Review: I like Reese Witherspoon. I adore Paul Rudd. I…don’t actively dislike Owen Wilson. Yet I can’t seem to make myself give a flying you-know-what about their newest movie.

How Do You Know looks to be no different than a hundred other love triangle-themed romantic comedies, though it does have the good fortune to star some quality talent. Witherspoon is Lisa, a woman who is content enough in her relationship with a sensitive, new-age kind of guy (Wilson), though she has doubts about taking the next steps with him. Specifically, do the marriage and kids thing. Then she bumps into an old friend (Rudd) who is in the midst of some serious professional and financial troubles, and her attraction to him brings up a whole new set of questions and doubts.

While I can appreciate any attempt to tell a story about a person struggling between doing what’s right for them and what others expect of them, it’s the “choose the stable partner you know or the crazy newcomer” angle I’m tired of. No matter who gets chosen in the end, it’s all been done before. How do I know? Trust me, I just do.

Would I Pay For It?: No, but I’ll watch it when it appears on basic cable in six months. 

Trailer Review: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

Release Date: Limited release in New York starting November 5, 2010

Website: Official Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench site

Starring: Jason Palmer, Desiree Garcia, Sandha Khin, Bernard Chazelle, Anna Chazelle

My Review: With movie trailers constantly giving away major plot points and, in some cases, the movie in its entirety, it’s usually refreshing to come across a minimalist trailer that reveals next to nothing. But this sort of tactic tends to only work for movies with familiar elements to them, so you’ll know what’s coming in that movie without the trailer having to really tell you anything.

If you see, “From the director of Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds” flash across the screen, you already know whether you would pay to see that movie or not. Just like if you see, “Based on the beloved novel by Nicholas Sparks,” you know that unless you are an emotionally unstable teenaged girl, you’ll be skipping that flick. But with a movie like Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, the trailer needs to reveal a bit more if it’s hoping to fill theater seats.

Here’s what I can gather from the trailer for Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench: It’s a musical, it’s set in a city that may or may not be New York, it’s filmed in black and white, and some of the action takes place in a diner or restaurant of some sort. Oh, and apparently some of the few people who have already seen totally dig it, since the bulk of the trailer is made of quotes pulled from various reviews that sing the movie’s praises.

I’m not saying Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench looks like a bad movie. I really have no feelings about it one way or another since the trailer reveals so little. But I do know that movie musicals are a hard sell to most audiences at any given time, and one that isn’t based on an already established musical, stars people no one’s heard of, and is shot in grainy black and white is going to have a hard time getting viewers to blindly attend a screening.

Would I Pay For It?: I doubt that would even be an option due to its limited release, but I may eventually rent it, due to that whole musical geek thing I have going on. 

Trailer Review: Hereafter

Release Date: October 22, 2010

Website: Official Hereafter site

Starring: Matt Damon, Bryce Dallas Howard, Richard Kind, Jenifer Lewis, Cécile De France

My Review: I know this statement will likely lead to me being torn apart by various people, but so be it: I find Clint Eastwood as a director to be overrated. Yes, the movies he directs are generally good and they certainly bring in the A-list actors, but I have yet to find them as worthy of all the accolades bestowed upon them. They’re usually very emotional dramas delivered in a very heavy-handed way, and while they are good movies in the moment, I rarely want to revisit them later like I do with movies by more subtle directors.

In his latest work, Hereafter uses Matt Damon as the thread that ties the lives of three very different people together. Damon is George, a man able to communicate with the dead, and for years he used his gift for profit by hiring himself out to the bereaved to give them one last bit of contact with their deceased loved ones. But this kind of work has taken its toll on him, so he’s decided to retire from the psychic medium business.

Unfortunately, having such an extraordinary talent makes walking away a bit harder than quitting most jobs. George is sought after by three people—a French journalist, a British schoolboy, and a working class American—who have all experienced death and desperately need his help. Will George give in to them? And more importantly, when he inevitably does (I hope stating the obvious isn’t considered a spoiler), will what he has to share with them actually be anything they want to hear?

True to form, Hereafter looks like another classic Eastwood-helmed dramatic drama with a side order of extra drama; probably tasty enough, but few would want to go back for seconds.

Would I Pay For It?: No, and I’ll probably only rent it if I’m in the mood to be horribly depressed, which isn’t likely, but never say never.

Trailer Review: The Nutcracker in 3D

Release Date: November 24, 2010

Website: Official The Nutcracker in 3D site

Starring: Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane, John Turturro, Charlie Rowe

My Review: When I first read there was a movie version of The Nutcracker being made in 3D, my initial response was to snipe, like the frustrated theater geek I am, “If you want to see The Nutcracker in 3D, why don’t you see it how it’s meant to be seen: At the ballet, you cultureless philistines.” Then I took a step back and had to admit that yes, ballet isn’t for everyone, not to mention it’s expensive to attend, so maybe making a movie version would be a good way to introduce the younger generation to the beautiful story and music of The Nutcracker. Then I saw the trailer and got pissed off all over again.

It looks like The Nutcracker on steroids. Or The Nutcracker for Dummies. Or The Nutcracker directed by Michael Bay. Ever ounce of subtlety and nuance have been sucked out of it and what’s left if an overblown CGI-filled mess that’s a jumbled chaos of action-packed sequences that attempts to do little else than keep a crowd of short attention span-addled people distracted for a couple of hours.

The basic premise of the movie seems to be loosely the same as the ballet: A melancholy young girl is given a nutcracker as a Christmas gift who reveals himself to be a prince under a spell. His kingdom has been taken over by the evil Rat King, and he needs her help to lift the spell and battle the Rat King for what is rightfully his. She agrees and ludicrously high-octane adventure ensues, and the story takes a turn for the absurd.

The most alarming thing about this mess of a trailer is the dearth of Tchaikovsky’s music. The Nutcracker is all about the score—even if you think you know nothing about the ballet, I guarantee you would recognize at least one of the tunes when you heard it—so the fact that the trailer uses stock “lighthearted adventure movie” music is upsetting. Then there are the shots of structures crashing up from underground and fiery explosions that make me wonder if Optimus Prime makes a cameo appearance. And then the nutcracker is referred to as NC (edgy!) and I die a little inside.

Would I Pay To See It?: Not even if a band of sugar plum fairies held me at knifepoint. 

Trailer Review: Tamara Drewe

Release Date: October 8, 2010

Website: Official Tamara Drewe site

Starring: Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Bill Camp, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig

My Review: Ah, the English countryside. It’s so peaceful and serene; the perfect place to get away, relax, and be free of distractions. Until the local ugly duckling-turned sex goddess arrives, of course.

In Tamara Drewe, a collection of pompous and stodgy artists travel to an isolated country town that promises peace and quiet, looking forward to being able to let their creative juices flow. Unfortunately, with all this peace and quiet comes a lack of inspiration, and the problems they tried to leave at home refuse to go away.

Enter Tamara to shake things up. Ms. Drewe—once plain and homely—spent her childhood in this town, and she returns—now sexy and desirable—to see her old home being prepared for sale. From the moment she appears, the town comes to life thanks to her youthful vibrancy and overt sexuality. Floundering relationships find new life, creative blocks are freed, and a fresh appreciation for life is born.

Does Tamara Drewe appear to be anything but a bit of fluffy British fun? Not really. But when it comes to pastoral whimsy, no one does it better than the Brits.

Would I Pay For It?: No, but I’d rent it to giddily enjoy in my own home, like I do whenever Calendar Girls or The Full Monty is on.

Trailer Review: Black Swan

Release Date: December 1, 2010

Website: Official Black Swan site

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey

My Review: After watching the trailer for Black Swan, I had a reaction similar to the one I had to the trailer for Never Let Me Go: “I have to know what’s going on in this crazy movie!” Which, in a nutshell, is exactly the reaction a movie trailer is meant to elicit, so, well done, Black Swan movie trailer editors!

When I first heard that director Darren Aronofsky was setting a thriller in the world of professional ballet, I was a bit perplexed. I enjoy movies about the performing arts, but I realize that I’m in the minority with that opinion. And ballet isn’t really what I would consider prime thriller fodder. So how was he going to make a movie like this and have it be appealing to anyone?

By getting two young, talented, and gorgeous actresses to star, and have a whole bunch of crazy crap happen, that’s how.

Natalie Portman is Nina, a hardworking veteran dancer in a professional ballet company in NYC who is looking forward to finally being featured in some more prominent roles; specifically, the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. Enter Mila Kunis as Lilly, a newcomer who catches the eye of the company’s director (Vincent Cassel), who notes her natural and seemingly effortless talent. Nina is shaken to her core as she sees what she’s been working toward for years slipping away, and her panicked paranoia is helped along by her overbearing stage mother (Barbara Hershey) and some bizarrely sinister, Single White Female-esque behavior from Lilly. As Nina’s fears of losing her roles to Lilly escalate, her whole world starts to fall apart, from losing her footing in rehearsal to mysterious changes in her physical appearance.

Creating a captivating psychological thriller is never an easy task, and creating one in the world of ballet even more so. But if done well, this could be a fascinating movie. Professional dancers put themselves through inordinate amounts of stress, both mentally and physically, and there is a relatively small window of time that one can actually work as a dancer, so I can see how even the slightest notion of a threat could cause a dancer to go a little insane. And seeing how in The Wrestler Aronofsky managed to both create a touching drama about professional wrestling and re-launch Mickey Rourke’s acting career, I have to assume that if anyone can make a crazed ballerina movie compelling, it would be him.

Would I Pay For It?: Black Swan will most likely be a rental, unless I hear fantastic reports about it. Or I find that I really can’t wait to find out what’s going on in this crazy movie.

Trailer Review: Little Fockers

Release Date: December 22, 2010

Website: Official Little Fockers site

Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Teri Polo, Owen Wilson, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner

My Review: Just when you thought you were free from unnecessary movie sequels, they pull you back in!

Hey, if the trailer for Little Fockers can rip off The Godfather, then so can I.

I know I saw both Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers at some point in my life, but I can barely remember anything that happened in either of them. I remember that Robert De Niro hates Ben Stiller, and Stiller’s parents are new age-y free spirits of some sort. And I think Stiller sets a house on fire in one of them, but I’m not sure.

Clearly I don’t really care about this movie franchise, and now there’s a whole new addition for me to not care about! Little Fockers continues the story of this mismatched blended family, and this time there are kids involved. (Did they have kids in the second movie?) De Niro’s patriarch is apparently looking for his successor as head of the family (do any families that aren’t mafia families actually do this?), and after two movies together, he still doesn’t think Stiller is man enough for the job. So the two grown men have to slap each other around a bit to prove…something. What it is, I certainly don’t know.

The trailer is full of the typical movie nonsense that makes me concerned for the future of the craft: projectile vomiting, a dismemberment gag, rip-offs of better movies, and groan-inducing word play (do you know what word “Fockers” sounds like???). And perhaps most upsetting of all is the cast. Ben Stiller has proven time and again that he’ll do nearly anything for a paycheck (with various degrees of success), but what are Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner and Laura Dern doing? Other than making me weep for humanity, that is.

Would I Pay For It?: *Snort* Would you?!

Trailer Review: Who Killed Nancy?

Release Date: Available on DVD August 24, 2010

Website: Official Who Killed Nancy? Site

Starring: A whole bunch of people (it’s a documentary)

My Review: Confession: I know next to nothing about Sid and Nancy; I’ve never even seen the Gary Oldman-starring movie about them. I know they are two people who were once alive, but now are dead, and that’s it.

OK, maybe I know a bit more about them than that (you can’t live in NYC and not hear stories about the Chelsea Hotel), but the documentary Who Killed Nancy? is aiming to know more about this crazy couple than anyone, as it tries to uncover new information about Nancy’s untimely death.

Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen had a unique relationship (to put it delicately), that seemed to be fueled by intense passion, lots of anger, and heavy drug use. On October 12, 1978, Nancy was found stabbed to death in a room at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Sid was arrested and charged for her murder, but never stood trial as he died from a heroin overdose just a couple of months later.

The story of Sid and Nancy’s manic relationship, and tragic deaths, has been a mysterious point of fascination for many people in the 30+ years since it happened. Some see it as an open-and-shut case: Sid killed Nancy, then committed suicide before he could be convicted. Some claim that there’s no way Sid was responsible for her death, and his overdose was an accident. Some say Sid and Nancy had a suicide pact and it was all planned out. And some say that there were so many people in the hotel room the night of Nancy’s death that any number of things could have happened. Who Killed Nancy? attempts to uncover new information that has been long buried and shed some light on what may, or may not, have happened that night in 1978.

Would I Pay For It?: Well, no, since it’s coming out on DVD soon. But I doubt I’ll even rent this. For those who are fascinated by this story, I’m sure it’s a must-see; for the rest of us, there are so many other things to watch.

Trailer Review: Heartbreaker

Release Date: September 10, 2010 (limited)

Website: Official Heartbreaker site

Starring: Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Julie Ferrier, Andrew Lincoln, Jacques Frantz

My Review: Considering how much respect Americans tend to give French cinema, I was surprised at how formulaic and predictable this French romantic comedy comes across. Then I remembered that France was the country that still adored Jerry Lewis long after the rest of the world was so over him, and I felt slightly less surprised, but still a bit disappointed.

The titular Heartbreaker here is Alex, a suave Frenchman who makes his living breaking up couples. Yes, people pay him (handsomely) to cause rifts in the relationships they disapprove of. His latest job is to break up the impending marriage between Juliette, a wealthy businessman’s daughter, and her British fiancée. And the wedding is only 10 days away, so he better get to work!

The rest of the movie’s plot is pretty much handed to you on a silver platter in the trailer, though anyone who’s ever seen a romantic comedy at any time in their life can see where it will go. Alex puts his patented moves on Juliette, but she won’t fall for them, so he has to find another route. They eventually bond over cheesy American ‘80s movies and pop music (complete with a car ride sing-along), and Juliette starts to have doubts about her wedding, while Alex starts to see her as more than just another job.

Will Juliette marry the Brit, or will Alex succeed in breaking them up? And how will Alex cope with having real feelings for another person? And will Juliette find out about his job and refuse to believe that he actually cares for her (until some grand gesture made in the eleventh hour)? And which hit of the ‘80s will choreograph the climatic final moment when they inevitably come together? Is it too much to hope for “Rock Me Amadeus”?

I admit that Heartbreaker doesn’t look completely awful—it at least looks more entertaining and charming than most American romantic comedies being released these days (though that’s not saying a whole lot). I just wonder if this is a sign that the world has run out of unique ways to tell a love story. Because if anyone could still do it, I would have guessed it would be the French.

Would I Pay For It?: Je suis désolé, mais non.

Trailer Review: The Town

Release Date: September 10, 2010

Website: Official The Town site

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper, Pete Postlethwaite, Blake Lively

My Review: Hey, Jon Hamm has a large role in a nationally released movie! Here’s my $12, and can you please direct me to the concession stand?

OK, fine. If Mr. Hamm’s chiseled chin isn’t enough to get you interested in a movie, The Town has a lot of other things going for it:

* It’s a twisty crime thriller, which is the best kind of crime thriller there is. There are bank robbers in nightmare-inducing nun costumes, there’s an FBI agent determined to catch them, and there’s a bank manager who is traumatized after being taken hostage. And when these three stories collide, it will be epic.

* It’s directed and co-written by Ben Affleck. Say what you will about Affleck’s acting skills, but he’s proven that he can more than deftly direct (Gone, Baby, Gone) and write (Good Will Hunting) a good movie.

* It stars actors who can act, rather than relying on big-name, but ultimately vapid, “stars.” Jon Hamm is famous for a TV series (Mad Men), Rebecca Hall does mostly indie flicks and smaller roles alongside bigger names (Please Give, Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and Jeremy Renner just became known last year when he appeared in a small war movie that happened to hit it big (The Hurt Locker). And yes, Ben Affleck is in it, too (doing his beloved working class Boston accent), but hopefully when working in a movie that’s obviously a passion project for him, he’ll bring his “A” game.

* The trailer reminds me of The Departed. That may sound like lazy filmmaking, but The Departed was excellent, and striving for excellence is never lazy.

Would I Pay For It?: Yes. I’m surprised I haven’t pre-ordered already.

Trailer Review: Never Let Me Go

Release Date: September 15, 2010

Website: Official Never Let Me Go site

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins

My Review: I watched the trailer for Never Let Me Go when it was first released a few weeks ago, and I immediately had to read the book that the movie is based on, because I had to know what was going on in that trailer and I wasn’t waiting until September (when the movie opens) to find out.

For the past few years I had seen stacks of the novel in book stores (it always seems to be on the ‘Recommended Fiction’ table at The Strand), but ignoring that sage bit of advice, I judged the book by its cover and always walked right past it. The cover, with its eerie child’s face, coupled with the sappy-sounding title let me to assume it was a story about having difficulties bearing children or about losing a child in some way, which—to put it simply—are not generally things I like to read about. So on the shelf the book remained.

Then I watched the movie trailer, and after those two and a half minutes I had a million questions. What was going on at that boarding school? Why aren’t the students familiar with the outside world? What are these “donations” that are mentioned? How can you tell if a person has a soul? Why is everything shrouded in mystery? These were all things I had to know, and I had to know now.

So I read the book, and of course it wasn’t about what I assumed it was about, because proverbs are always right (except that one about a watched pot; it WILL eventually boil, I promise). It’s hard to talk about Never Let Me Go without giving away major plot points, since everything is slowly revealed piece by piece throughout the story. But in a nutshell, it’s the story of Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, three friends who attend a mysterious boarding school together in the isolated English countryside, but whose education is a bit unorthodox, since they know from a very young age that they aren’t like other people in the world. As they grow older and leave school they experience many of the trying life events that everyone does—unrequited love, a longing for a sense of purpose—but they have a fate that’s already been determined for them, and nothing they do is going to change it.

When watching the trailer again, I was really impressed with how everything looked and felt like it did in the book. The school, the characters, the overall tone, everything rang true to me. Which makes me cautiously optimistic that Never Let Me Go may be one of those rare endangered animals: A movie adaptation that remains faithful to its source. I just hope I’m not as wrong about that as I was about the book cover.

Would I Pay For It?: While it’s probably not necessary to see Never Let Me Go on the big screen to feel its full impact, there’s a good chance I’ll actually pay to see it in the theater, if not just to see a movie I think I’ll enjoy, then to support the future creation of movies that are good, and not just big and loud.

Trailer Review: It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Release Date: September 24, 2010

Website: Official It’s Kind of a Funny Story site

Starring: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Viola David, Lauren Graham, Aasif Mandvi, Jeremy Davies

My Review: If you ever watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and thought to yourself, “this movie would be so much better if it were more lighthearted,” then It’s Kind of a Funny Story may be the movie for you.

Craig (Keir Gilchrist) is a depressed teen who checks himself into a psychiatric hospital in hopes that a brief stay there will help him get a grip on things. But he’s not hide-the-knives-depressed, he’s quirky-indie-movie-depressed, so don’t fear that this will be a total downer. When checking in, Craig is informed that the teen floor is under construction, so he’ll have to stay with all the adults, who are (naturally) an interesting band of merry misfits.

Leading the pack is Bobby (Zach Galifianakis in all his bearded glory), a man who on the surface appears to have nothing wrong with him, though he claims his children are better off without him. There’s also another teen staying there, Noelle (Emma Roberts), who catches Craig’s eye and starts to bring him out of his funk. Between forging friendships with the other patients and a budding new romance, Craig learns more about life and how to deal with it, hopefully in ways that will prevent any future self-imposed institutionalizations.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story looks like it could be a cute movie, though the blithe tone it seems to be taking with issues like teenage depression and psychiatric hospitals is a little…unsettling? Insulting? I’m not sure exactly, but for a movie that wants to be based in reality—and not a comical farce—it seems like it could touch on some of its themes with a bit more gravitas, rather then telling a coming-of-age story mental-ward style.

Would I Pay For It?: I’ll probably eventually rent it simply because Zach Galifianakis and Lauren Graham are in it, but the trailer left me with an overall feeling of ‘meh.’

Trailer Review: Conviction

Release Date: October 15, 2010

Website: Official Conviction site

Starring: Hillary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo, Juliette Lewis, Peter Gallagher

My Review: Oh man, can you smell the Oscar bait up in here? Based on a true story? Check. Starring multiple past nominees and winners? Check. Lead actor de-glamorizes to play a “real” person? Check. The drama centers around a legal and/or political problem? Check. If only Conviction was directed by Clint Eastwood; then it could be guaranteed a slew of nominations come next winter.

Based on the true story of siblings Betty Anne Waters and Kenneth Waters, Hillary Swank and Sam Rockwell play the sister and brother, both adopting the stereotypical blue-collar New England accent to drive the point home that they come from a lower class and poorly educated family. Kenneth is accused of murdering a local woman and sentenced to life in prison. Betty Anne is sure of his innocence, and when they’ve exhausted all of their legal options, she decides to put herself through law school so she can represent her brother.

Of course this will be no easy feat, seeing how Betty Anne is a single mother without even a high school diploma. But if the movies have taught us anything, we all know that no goal is too ambitious if you have guts, determination, and a sassy sidekick (Minnie Driver). So Kenneth cools his heels in jail for several years while Betty Anne toils away, determined to ultimately set him free. Will she succeed? Well, you can either Google “Betty Anne Waters” to find out, or wait until October to see Swank chew up some scenery and Rockwell go through various facial hair phases.

While I’ve got nothing against true crime dramas or stories about overcoming insurmountable odds, Conviction looks just a bit too formulaic, and the trailer just rubs me the wrong way. Is it the cloyingly dramatic prison visitation scenes? Is it that I have never really cared about Hillary Swank? Is it the overused ploy of throwing in the possibility of a corrupt police officer? Or is it those awful accents? Yeah, it’s probably just the accents.

Would I Pay For It?: No. I’ll save my movie ticket dollars and instead bet them on Swank already trying to get back into Million Dollar Baby shape for next year’s Academy Awards. A girl always wants to look her best when being interviewed on the red carpet.

Trailer Review: Waiting for ‘Superman’

Release Date: Fall 2010 (after a successful premiere at Sundance last January)

Website: Waiting for ‘Superman’ official site

Starring: A bunch of real people; this here’s a documentary, kids

My Review: What’s the scariest type of person in the world? No, not weird relatives who like to hug you for too long. The answer is confident morons. And according to the documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’, U.S. public schools are churning them out in droves.

The quality of public schools has been a morbidly running joke for decades. Teachers are rationed on the number of photocopies they can make. The cafeteria lunches are inedible. The band has to sell chocolate to survive the budget cuts. The pool hasn’t been cleaned since the Reagan administration. But the jokes stop being funny when it’s no longer the quality of the school, but the quality of the students, that is being called into question.

Director Davis Guggenheim—the same man behind An Inconvenient Truth—takes a look at five specific public school students who each show a lot of potential and crave a good education, but are being failed by a system that is stifling academic growth for a variety of reasons. By shedding light on several issues the education system experiences and putting faces to statistics—like how the U.S. students have fallen way behind other countries in math and science scores, but still rank #1 in confidence—he acknowledges problems that many are reluctant to see. I’m not sure what Superman has to do with these problems, unless he’s being called in to spin the Earth back in time, which would probably be the ideal solution.

Would I Pay For It?: No, but much like Spellbound and Supersize Me, this could be one of the few documentaries that intrigues me enough to be rented.

Trailer Review: You Again

Release Date: September 24, 2010

Website: You Again IMDB page

Starring: Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber, Betty White

My Review: I like Kristen Bell. Veronica Mars was one of the best television series I’ve ever seen, and Bell managed to make what could have been a one-note character (sassy teen detective!) into a very nuanced and complex person. I also enjoyed her performance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, because she’s set up to be the mean ex-girlfriend you’re supposed to hate, but she turns everything on its head when she lets you see her side of the story.

I like Jamie Lee Curtis. She seems really down-to-earth (which you’d have to be to do commercials for digestion-regulating yogurt), and A Fish Called Wanda and True Lies are both good times. She’s also the reason I’ve seen the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday several times (seriously, it’s actually highly entertaining). Plus she’s married to Christopher Guest, which is awesome.

I like Sigourney Weaver. Alien, Ghost Busters, Working Girl, The Ice Storm—she’s fantastic in all of them. And apparently audiences really love her in some little movie called Avatar. Weaver always plays tough, smart women with heart, and she proves that women can age gracefully (and naturally) in Hollywood.

So why are these three great actresses playing a bunch of catty, whiny, and immature women in You Again? Bell is Marni, a successful young executive who is looking forward to her brother’s upcoming wedding, despite the fact she hasn’t met his fiancé yet. Then her mom (Curtis) tells her that they went to high school together, and Marni realizes her brother is marrying the bitchy cheerleader who made her high school life a misery. Cue the embarrassing flashback that tries to convince us—by adding glasses and a spattering of fake acne—that Kristen Bell was ever a nerd. Sorry, Kristen, but you can never pull off a convincing “I was once a loser” act. Trust me, I’m an expert; I was in the marching band.

In about .5 seconds, Marni is spiraling off the high she got from a recent promotion and starts freaking out about the wedding, determined that she must expose the fiancé for the horrible person she is. Or was. But might still be. Because in the land of movies, high school is apparently for life, and no one ever gets over it.

Case in point: Marni’s mom starts out as the voice of reason, but then it turns out that the wicked fiancé’s aunt (Weaver) is the mean girl who made her high school life a misery, so she goes a little crazy, too. Wackiness, shenanigans, and general tomfoolery ensue.

Would I Pay For It?: While I have no doubt that Bell, Curtis, and Weaver could make a hilarious comedy together, I just wish they had collaborated for something a bit more female-empowering and less cliché than You Again. ‘Women being crazy over a wedding’ and ‘women being crazy over crap that happened ages ago’ has been done to death. We can be crazy over other things, too, you know. How about a ‘women being crazy over an awesome new job’ or a ‘women being crazy over anything that doesn’t involve getting a man’ movie? Just be sure to include a makeover montage. Women LOVE a good makeover montage.