Preview Review: The Best and Most Bizarre Movie Trailers of the Week

Image via Complex Original

Genre: Bewildering historical fiction

Director: Liza Johnson

Stars (for some reason): Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey  

Release Date: April 2016

I’ll be honest, I have no idea what this movie is or why it got made. Back in 2011, Eric Bana and Danny Huston signed up to portray the King and Nixon, respectively. Which, makes sense, because they sorta look like those pillars of American culture. But now, for whatever reason, two former Superman villains, Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey, have taken on the roles instead. In the confounding trailer, Spacey does a flabbier Frank Underwood and Shannon is as convincing as that body-infiltrating alien from Men in Black. The SNL-sketch plot is just bananas. During their famed meeting, a well-armed Presley eats the President’s M&Ms, drinks his coveted bottle of Dr. Pepper and requests to become a secret agent that will bring down the Communists. So, that.

Genre: Coming-of-age rock comedy

Director: John Carney

Stars: Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jack Reynor

Release Date: March 18, 2016 

In middle school, I joined a play because I liked a theatre girl. Backfired. She ended up making out with the basketball captain while I played a tree. So I feel the young angst of Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), who starts a band with no experience to attract the glamorously edgy lady of his dreams (Lucy Boynton). Renaming himself Cosmo, the Dubliner enlists the aid of his dropout, but musically sage older brother and a crew of just-post-pubescent dweebs. They book the school dance, but he’ll have to win her affections away from her—of course—beyond-douchey, convertible-driving, Genesis-loving boyfriend. Gonna guess that the soundtrack should be heat. 

Genre: French crime drama

Director: Jacques Audiard

Starring: Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby

American Release: April 2016

The French invented cinema, so they got to name it. And usually, they have pretty good taste—this “masterpiece” won the 2015 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The title character flees from Sri Lankan civil war to France where he must masquerade with two strangers as a family. At one point his “wife” prays, “Lord Ganesh, spare us misfortune, make things go well here.” Judging from this trailer’s operatic score and generally menacing tone, I’m going to guess that is the opposite of what happens. The film drips with authenticity as the Sri Lankan lead actor, Jesuthasan Antonythasan, spent his teenage years fighting with the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam before growing disillusioned with them.

Genre: Colombian adventure drama

Director: Ciro Guerra

Starring: Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolivar, Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis

Release: February 17, 2016

Most of the fucked up shit in the world ultimately has its roots in colonialism. Earning universal acclaim, this grayscale work examines the disintegration of indigenous culture when it comes into contact with enterprising white dudes. Based on the diaries of two foreign scientists, we follow Karamakate, the shamanic last member of an Amazonian tribe over the course of 40 years. The Oscar-nominated film offers a stunning portrayal of this character, exalting his humane wisdom as he leads the interloping explorers in a quest for the sacred and psychedelic Yakruna plant.  

Genre: Complicated kidnapping comedy

Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen

Stars: George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes and basically everyone else you like in Hollywood.

Release: February 5, 2016

The Coen Brothers don’t miss. If you don’t like their movies, your opinions don’t matter to me. In less than a month, this sumptuously-shot, nostalgic saga drops. As an appetizer, we get this quintessentially quirky clip. Ralph Fiennes gives his pretentious best as a British director of a dense, but handsome Texan actor bumbling the line, “Would that it ‘twere so simple.” Clearly, the Brothers’ repartee humor remains obsidian sharp. The general plot has to do with rescuing George Clooney—essentially playing a 1950s version of himself—from a shady organization named The Future. The stacked cast includes Tilda Swinton, ScarJo, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Josh Brolin, and Frances McDormand.