Image via Complex Original
Things are looking up, people. Gone are the movies based on smartphone games. No more are we beholden to the whims of Oscar judges. This week we’re finally back to the best of the week. Here’s to hoping our optimism about these trailers is justified.
By The Sea
Director: Angelina Jolie
Stars: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
Release date: November 13
By the Sea is basically an authorized version of the Unauthorized Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Story, coming soon to Lifetime. Set in 1970s France, probably not far from their real-life French villa, Pitt and Jolie play a tortured couple that thrives on lounging around looking like extras in a Lana Del Rey video. After Jolie discovers what looks like a glory hole in their wall, things go from stoic to violent. Jolie does her best Valley of the Dolls impression by swallowing handfuls of pills, and Pitt continues to look exasperated about everything. Between Angie’s excellent wig choices and Pitt’s 1970s style, By the Sea is going to be a must-watch.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Director: Burr Steers
Stars: Lily James, Lena Headey, Douglas Booth
Release date: February 5, 2016
Those of us who went straight to CliffsNotes in high school instead of snoring our way through Pride and Prejudice are really wishing that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had come out when we were still in school. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the plot is pretty similar to the Jane Austen classic. But instead of lots of hemming and hawing over marriage proposals, zombies and ninjas save us from the tedium of the Victorian era. Because of a plague of zombies, the Bennet sisters have been trained since birth to be zombie killing machines. Although their mother still harbors hopes to marry them off, these women have bigger undead fish to fry.
Band of Robbers
Director: Aaron and Adam Nee
Stars: Kyle Gallner, Adam Nee, Matthew Gray Gubler, Hannibal Buress
Release date: January 15, 2016
Band of Robbers is a modern-day reimagining of the story of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Now grown adults, Finn is an ex-con hoping to escape his life of crime. But Sawyer, a dirty cop (who has the mustache of a stripper cop), ropes Finn and two of their friends into hunting for the treasure they’ve been looking for since they were kids. Band of Robbers looks like it could have been a lost Wes Anderson film and seems like an excellently quirky dark comedy to get us out of the post-holiday slump. For those of us who went straight to SparkNotes instead of reading these Mark Twain classics, hopefully the movie will show us what we were missing.
Don Verdean
Director: Jared Hess
Stars: Sam Rockwell, Will Forte, Amy Ryan
Release date: December 11
It’s surprising that there aren’t more comedies centered around megachurches and their outreach tactics. They put out terribly produced videos, find the devil in everything from women’s breasts to turkey sandwiches, and believe ancient stories that have been proven impossible. Don Verdean sets out to satirize these groups by following a religious archeologist who has been sent to Israel to dig up biblical artifacts. When he fails to find any, he steals a skull to pass off as the head of Goliath, the mythical giant. Although director Jared Hess was also responsible for Napoleon Dynamite and all the horribly overused catch-phrases it inspired, hopefully Don Verdean won’t be quoted on t-shirts for years to come.
The Night Before
Director: Jonathan Levine
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie
Release date: November 20
Even though there are already more than enough movies set in New York (Home Alone, Elf), The Night Before is a welcome addition to the genre. After spending every Christmas together for the past decade, three friends decide to spend their last holiday together by searching out the hottest Christmas party in New York. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie all bring their unique personalities to their bromantic triangle, making sure that it won’t be a one-note buddy comedy. Jillian Bell, Mindy Kaling, and Lizzy Caplan add to the excellence of the trailer, but we’re more interested in how Miley Cyrus and Kanye West, both listed as cast members, will figure into the movie.