This Is 40
Based on Judd Apatow’s recent projects (well, Girls mostly) and the frankness of this trailer, it seems like This Is 40 is going to take a real-life view of marriage that will draw its comedy from real-life discomfort. Having never been married, I can’t say for sure is this trailer is offering an accurate depiction of marriage. I certainly hope it is though, because it will be a weird film otherwise. Even though this is a pseudo-sequel to Knocked Up, it doesn’t appear have the same comedic sensibility. This trailer leans heavily towards dramedy, it looks more like it will be a good movie than it will be a good comedy. This may be because of a concerted effort from Apatow to move away from the kind of movies that he hung his hat on for so many years. What other explanation could there be for Paul Rudd’s outright repudiation of Chris O’Dowd’s bachelorific behavior? If that is the direction this film is going, it will be interesting for reasons that have nothing to do with comedy. On top of that, how could Paul’s character possibly not know who Tom Petty is? If he is in fact forty, Petty should be in his wheelhouse.
Zero Dark Thirty
This trailer has the appropriate tone for a film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. It’s dark, foreboding, and constantly feels like it’s on the edge of breaking down. It also has a fantastic cast (Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong), although they are largely obscured from this trailer. From a technical standpoint, it really works. Do we need to keep making movies about the War on Terror though? They feel divisive at best, and jingoistic at worst. I’m cool with The Newsroom having a triumphant episode about killing Bin Laden, because no one takes The Newsroom seriously. This looks like an awfully serious film though, and I can’t imagine it will be a positive contribution to what we already know about May 1, 2011
Antiviral
This is a disgusting, possibly nausea-inducing trailer. It is a mess, both in terms of content and organization. As if the concept of intentionally acquiring diseases isn’t bad enough, the trailer also ventures into cannibalism, and it appears to depict a character dining on brains. This would not be appealing if it was in service of a story that made sense or tried to make a worthwhile statement about society. Instead, it trots out a tired criticism of celebrity obsession and then draws a connection that simply isn’t there. I would agree that people want to achieve the faux-perfection celebrities convey. That’s not what happens here though. Diseases are in many ways the antithesis of human perfection, so acquiring the same diseases as celebrities obscures any sort of statement to the point that it doesn’t make sense. It’s really just a gross-out film, I can’t imagine I’ll ever watch it.
Dan Spritz / Cherry On Top / @DanSpritz
