Preview Review: The Best and Angstiest Trailers of the Week

Image via Complex Original

Genre: Investment banker has a mid-life crisis

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts

Release Date: April 8, 2016

Jake Gyllenhaal is a national treasure. Fresh off his greasy turn in Nightcrawler, the natural plays an depressed investment banker who writes a letter to a sub-par vending machine company that stiffed him some peanut M&Ms moments after the death of his wife, who he realizes he never really knew or loved. Lucky for him, the vending company employs Naomi Watts as their complaint letter-reader. She and her son form a quirky bond with Gyllenhaal as he smashes and disassembles a refrigerator, a bathroom stall and eventually his whole house in an attempt to bring some meaning into his life, which is still probably healthier than Zoloft. 

Genre: Caretaker Romantic Comedy

Director: Thea Sharrock

Stars: Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Sam Claflin (Winner of MTV’s 2014 Movie Award for Best Shirtless Performance) 

Release date: June 3, 2016

A hopelessly unemployable, but world-class sexy lady is sent to assist a paralyzed, but incredibly handsome man, who just so happens to live in a castle—because I guess people still do that. While chatting with her equally stunning sister, she frets over the impression she’s made after dribbling a bit of tomato soup on his trousers. But after a few heart-to-hearts about her floral shoes, he starts to exchange long gazes with her that contain gooey intentions and endless flattery. But, when his health condition deteriorates and his will to live wanes, she must convince him to live—mostly using tender in-bed kisses as motivation. *Runs to nearest trash can and vomits for fifteen minutes straight*

Genre: “Super-relatable” jobless Millennial coming-of-age tale

Director: Dylan Kid

Stars: Anna Kendrick, Miles Teller, Alison Brie, Bryan Cranston

Release Date: March 25, 2016

Uber-successful, up-and-coming movie stars, Anna Kendrick and Miles Teller masquerade as poor normals who struggle to find steady post-grad employment. Teller falls victim to the death of print journalism, but eventually lands a job just at the moment when Kendrick—$90,000 in debt, yet living in a deluxe apartment with incredible views—gets fired. She moves in with McLovin who teaches her the joys of booing responsibility while taking bong rips and playing sci-fi video games. Then, at a ritzy ball, she makes the bold confession that she has no idea what she’s going to do with the rest of her life at 22. But judging from the upbeat acoustic strums that score this trailer—I bet she’ll be just fine. 

Genre: Divorced dad redemption 

Director: Bob Nelson (Writer of Nebraska)

Stars: Clive Owen, Maria Bello, Patton Oswalt, 

Release Date: March 18, 2016

A down-on-his luck carpenter gets to hang out with his boy against the better judgment of his remarried, turtleneck-wearing mother. The duo engage in some B & E before Dad realizes that his precious “wooden toolbox” has been nabbed from his truck. After joining forces with Patton Oswalt—a cheeky drywaller with a casual meth habit—and Tim Blake Nelson—infinitely unconvincing as an aging punk—they confront and scrap with various ne’er-do-wells in search of the box. Their frayed relationship begins to mend after some “nobody’s perfect” moans from grandpa. Then, Dad tousles junior’s hair while passing down some hard-won life lessons about being an independent man, even though that lifestyle seems not to have worked out super well for him. 

Genre: Norwegian tsunami thriller

Director: Dennis Gansel

Stars: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Thomas Bo Larsen 

Release Date: March 4, 2016

An idyllic Norwegian town sits in the shadow of a gargantuan, but unstable mountain held together with cables. When those cables snap, the mountain will plummet into the nearby lake and unleash a catastrophic wave that will bury the municipality in rubble, just as it did in 1905. This foreign thriller tracks the geologist who warns of the impending doom and then scampers to escape the indifferent might of the shifting earth. And before we get on our high horse about choosing a smarter place to live, just know that the exact same thing will happen to the Pacific Northwest—only it’s going to be a million times worse.