Image via Lionsgate
As the festival circuit draws to a close and Oscar talk builds up, the trailer game continues to fall off. This week brings us another hodge-podge of the best and worst of all categories. Whether animation, drama, or epic blockbuster, there’s something here for everyone. Also, hey JLaw.
Triple 9
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet, Casey Affleck
Release Date: February 19, 2016
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Triple 9 brings us a violent drama about the nature of crime and policing. Career criminals team up with dirty cops to pull off their biggest theft yet. But in order to carry out their plan, they’ll have to kill the clean cops that stand in their way. It’s unclear whether we’re supposed to be siding with the cops or the robbers, but that just might be what makes this movie worth seeing. Although it might not be the best choice for date night, the star studded cast and complicated plot put it on our must-watch list. One last warning: the trailer also boasts the most nightmare-inducing rendition of the childhood rhyme “This Little Piggy.” Watch with caution.
Asthma
Director: Jake Hoffman
Starring: Benedict Samuel, Krysten Ritter, Nick Nolte
Release Date: October 23
The creepy music and car crash that open the Asthma trailer will make you think this is another horror movie, just in time for Halloween. But the cabal of yoga practitioners in face paint huddled around a tricked-out trailer make it clear that this is a hipster romance, not a slasher movie. Drugs and drama dominate Asthma’s plot. With a lot of artfully unkempt hair and a jailhouse appearance by Iggy Pop, it’s clear this film is going for the indie darling gold.
Bone Tomahawk
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Sean Young
Release Date: October 23
The film quality isn’t the only thing that Bone Tomahawk borrowed from John Wayne-era westerns. The writers also seem to have taken a cue from 1950s race relations when coming up with the story. After a beautiful young white woman is abducted by what the movie characters call “savages,” Kurt Russell and a rag-tag band of old cowboys band together to rescue her. Facing terrifying dangers like Mexicans and Native Americans, the Bone Tomahawk crew must sleep with one eye open out there on the prairie. The final scene shows what I can only guess is the fabled bone tomahawk being shoved into Kurt Russell’s mouth. Glad to see they ended the trailer on a high note. Here’s hoping that’s where the actual film ends too.
The Good Dinosaur
Director: Peter Sohn
Starring: Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Steve Zahn, Anna Paquin
Release Date: November 25
After Jurassic World came out this summer, it’s hard to imagine any scenario in which carnivorous dinosaurs work together with their herbivore brothers instead of destroying them in 3-D. The Good Dinosaur wants us to imagine such an alternate universe though, one that could have been if the meteor that wiped out the dinosaur population had missed Earth. An orphaned dinosaur (whose father dies early, Lion King-style) finds and befriends a feral human child, who has the intelligence level of a golden retriever. Animated antics ensue as the pair try to find their families.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
Release Date: November 20
Opening with a touching scene of Katniss and her sister, the new Hunger Games trailer quickly moves into badass territory. Although the trailer tells us that “Nothing can prepare [us] for the end,” I’m pretty sure the 18,000 trailers that have previously been released for Mockingjay—Part 2 have left us equipped to handle the 76th Hunger Games. Just saying.