Trailers of the Week: ‘On the Rocks,’ ‘Time,’ ‘Utopia,’ and More
All In: The Fight for Democracy
In the new documentary, Stacey Abrams examines rampant voter suppression across the United States. Referring to voter suppression as the new “Jim Crowe 2.0,” the documentary focuses on Abrams’ 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race, where voters were faced with five-hour lines, mismanagement, and gerrymandering. Abrams says in a clip, “Thousands of people were told, ‘No,’ and didn’t have the authority to demand better.” Now, the people are making demands. (September 18th)
Blackbird
Susan Sarandon’s character – a family matriarch – asks her family to behave as normally as they possibly can. Even in good times, that can be an impossible request to adhere to. But the occasion for which they are all gathered makes it even more difficult to do so. After battling ALS, Sanderson’s character has decided to end her life. The date has been set, and though she’s made her peace with it, the rest of the family is still working on it. (September 18th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE2lCR9bRiw&feature=emb_title
Coastal Elites
This new HBO film is the first of its kind – a socially distanced satire. Sarah Paulson, Bette Midler, Issa Rae, Kaitlyn Dever, and Dan Levy all-star as the so-called “coastal elites,” as they go through living in isolation in either Los Angeles or New York City. Filmed remotely, the characters divulge their lives in largely “confessional” styled-shots. As Paulson’s character suggests, “Take a deep healing breath and imagine that you’re not even on Twitter or Facebook or Xanax.” (September 12th)
Death on the Nile
Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) returns – this time, to investigate a murder that’s taken place during a picture-perfect Egyptian steam-boat vacation. “I ask you,” he says in a voiceover, “have you ever loved so much, been so possessed by jealousy, that you might kill?” Based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, the film is Branagh’s follow up to Murder on the Orient Express. (October 23rd)
On the Rocks
For her latest feature, director Sofia Coppola focuses on Laura (Rashida Jones), who thinks her marriage is in a rut. Her husband’s job is demanding more trips away, and she’s starting to feel like a living daily planner. It isn’t until her father Felix (Bill Murray) comes back to town that she starts to suspect the worst from her husband. After all, over drinks her father tells her that infidelity is part of a man’s very nature: “Males are forced to fight, to dominate and to impregnate the female.” Felix, a womanizer himself, feels sure that he knows all the tricks Laura’s husband could be pulling. Together, they set out to catch him in the act. (October)
Time
Twenty years into her husband’s six-decade-long prison sentence, Fox Rich relentlessly campaigns for his release. The mother, entrepreneur, and abolitionist’s ongoing video diaries craft a portrait of perseverance and fierce love as she tries to keep her family intact while having to navigate through the United States’ prison industrial-complex system. (October 23rd)
Utopia
Set to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” a group of comic book fans realize that the plots they’ve read over and over are actually coming true in the real world. Dismissed as fanatic fans, their warnings are mocked. However, as a deadly pandemic takes hold, they mobilize to take action. Expect bio-warfare, a seemingly sinister corporation, and a band of unlikely heroes. (September 25th)