Trailers of the Week: ‘Lost’ Aretha Franklin Movie, New Coens, ‘True Detective’
It was a really light week for trailers last week (the main event, i.e. an official full trailer for True Detective‘s Season Three, did not drop until late on Friday) — then, starting last Monday, came the deluge. Prepare to catch up on: a sneak peek at the now-in-theaters, soon-to-be-streaming-on-Netflix Coen brothers Western anthology; a doc on the late, not-great-at-all Fox News head Roger Ailes; peeks at some 2019 sci-fi for both the big and the small screen; a new live-action take on The Jungle Book from Gollum himself, Andy Serkis; and the trailer for a long-awaited, much-sought-after “lost” Aretha Franklin concert film. Check ’em out.
Amazing Grace
Once upon a time, Aretha Franklin recorded a double album from two shows she did at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in 1972. Sydney Pollack happened to capture the concerts for posterity; for a variety of reasons, the film was kept from seeing the light of day. Now, four decades and some change later, we’ll finally get to see the Queen of Soul making what is routinely considered to be one of the greatest live recordings ever. It world-premieres at the Doc NYC Film Festival on Nov. 12th. We’re praying for word on a proper theatrical run.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Six stories, two brothers, one genre — Joel and Ethan Coen’s Western anthology hit theaters on Friday and will start streaming on Netflix on Nov. 16th. (See it in theaters if you can; it works wonders on the big screen.) You get everything from Tim Blake Nelson as a singing gunfighter to Tom Waits as a literal gold digger on the cusp of finding the mother lode — as well as laughs, poetry, blood, sweat, tears, thrills, spills, chills, movie stars and death. [Spoiler: Lots of death.] It’s most definitely a Coen brothers joint, trust us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YES0lLXIIz4
Captive State
This second teaser for the new movie from Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt starts out like a conspiracy thriller: propaganda about a brave new world, men in ski masks taking whisking an innocent bystander away, shots of an urban city in ruins, a massive pageant in a football stadium, furtive glances between folks, some rioting and a voiceover that promises that we will rise up, etc. It’s all very standard paranoia, Big-Brother-is-out-to-get-you stuff, until … wait, what the fuck is that thing that’s standing there, sort of click-growling and causing people to scream?! Ok, you have our attention. This hits theaters on Mar. 29th, 2019.
Deadly Class
“At this academy, no one survives alone.” Welcome to Kings Dominion, an elite school for what a professor (Benedict Wong) calls “creative problem solvers.” What he means, essentially, is they train future killers. And in addition to the usual stuff that a teen in the late ’80s would have to put up with in high school, there also seems to be a slay-or-get-slayed competitive mentality in effect on campus. In other words: Get ready for The Breakfast Club meets Battle Royale, the TV show. Bonus points for setting this clip to New Order’s “Age of Consent.” This Syfy series hits the airwaves on Jan. 16, 2019.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes
He started as a producer on The Mike Douglas Show; he eventually moved on to politics, media management for Presidents and running a news network that’s helped turn our country into the divisive, partisan-to-a-fault mess it is today. Don’t even get us started about the sex scandals. If you can stomach watching the story of a man who changed the world and not for the better, we strongly advise you to check out Alexis Bloom’s doc on the life and times of this media bigwig. It’s both eye-opening and stomach-turning. It opens Dec. 7th.
Missing Link
From Laika, the animation company that brought you the phenomenal Kubo and the Two Strings, comes the story of a good ol’ Sasquatch (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) who decides he’s sick and tired of hiding out in the forest, only making his presence known via the occasional blurry photo. When he meets professional adventurer Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman), our bigfooted friend decides to enter the world of “modern” civilization circa the early 20th century. Why, yes, family-friendly shenanigans do happen! See it in theaters starting April 12th, 2019.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Andy Serkis dons his motion-capture suit and steps behind the camera for this live-action take on Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale of a man-cub, some animals and those good ol’ bear necessities of life. Serkis himself is “playing” Baloo; a who’s who of famous folks lend their voices, including Cate Blanchett (Kaa), Benedict Cumberbatch (Shere Khan) and Christian Bale (Bagheera); young Rohan Chand plays Mowgli. It hits select theaters and Netflix on Dec. 7th.
True Detective, Season 3
Come back with us to 1980, when Detective Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali) catches a missing-kids case in the Ozarks. It seems like it should be an open-and-shut deal, right? Given that it’s the narrative of Nic Pizzolatto’s latest crime-anthology installment, we’re assuming that answer is a very solid nope. The trailer for the HBO show’s third season looks like the new season is juggling three different timelines, serious racial tension, creepy looking stoner dudes, angry parents and some pulpy ennui. It premieres on Jan. 19th. Fingers crossed that a) it’s not as bad as Season 2 and b) this one wins Ali an Emmy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btoZfxs0pE0