5. “Silence”
It has already screened for some critics, to predictable,and possibly overblown claims of its masterpiece status, but while we patiently wait our turn, the trailer for Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating passion project will more than tide us over. It’s simply one of the most beautiful trailers of the year, stark, austere, and forbidding in its elemental rugged control, but perhaps the most pleasant surprise we got from the spot is that it teases an involving human story amid the religiosity, rather than an abstract theological discussion. Just don’t let Oli Lyttelton tell you that he thinks Andrew Garfield looks a bit like Jean-Ralphio in it because you may never be able to unsee that.
4. “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
We were hard pushed to choose which ‘Rogue One’ trailer to put on the list – there have been quite a few, and by rights, for impact purposes, we could have picked the very first as that was the first taste we got of what we hope will be both ‘a Star Wars story’ and a relatively stand-alone film in the “Star Wars” universe. But then I got put in charge, and I’m obviously going to pick the trailer with maximum Mads Mikkelsen & Ben Mendelsohn. Also giving us a proper look at Riz Ahmed, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker and of course the always-great Felicity Jones, but without the “quick, cut all the jokes together!” hastiness of the later iteration, this trailer strikes, for us the perfect balance between scrappy, character-driven resistance movie and big budget epic sci-fi spectacle that we really, really hope it delivers.
3. “Jackie”
Again, we’re going with a teaser trailer, but here the decision is calculated: our issues with the main, admittedly beautiful “Jackie” trailer may seem a little arcane (it feels like it sells a more conventional biopic than Pablo Larraín‘s film delivers), but we can’t quite get beyond them. Instead, however there’s this teaser spot which to our minds is a much better reflection of the film’s idiosyncratic, non-traditional approach, and being as it features Natalie Portman, the immaculate work of the costume and period prop departments, and the stunning celluloid film photography of DP Stéphane Fontaine, it is also breathtakingly, breathily beautiful, and the way the cheesy song “Camelot” melts into the discordance of Mica Levi‘s remarkable score is perfectly resonant.
2. “Get Out”
We were always intrigued at the thought of Jordan Peele‘s directorial debut, but it was kind of an academic intrigue until we saw this scorcher of a trailer. Deceptively blithe at first, with its interracial relationship dramedy vibe, the trailer quickly moves into more sinister territory, before going all-out psychological horror by the end. It’s got the most awesome central cast anyway – Daniel Kaluuya, Alison Williams, Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford – and the spot does a good job of giving them all shine, but what’s really impressive is how you go into it idly thinking “huh, a genre movie exploring racism as a horror trope, that’s novel” and you come out wondering why on earth no one’s done it before. It’s possible that this cleverly cut, accelerating trailer perhaps shows a little too much (we won’t be able to say for sure before we see the film) but that would be an odd critique to offer consider how much more we want to see of this film – all of it, in fact – right now. And from pretty much a standing start too, nice work.
1. “Moonlight”
There are some trailers that whet your appetite for a property you already know about, others that introduce you to something new, but there’s always an element of doubt: it’s rare that any spot, or indeed any piece of marketing for a film, gives you a feeling of complete and utter confidence in the full-length version. But the trailer for Barry Jenkins‘ wondrous “Moonlight” is one such – before anyone had seen the whole film, when the spot was released prior to its Toronto premiere, there was already a solid belief that it was simply, inevitably going to be one of the best films of the year. And “simply” is key – the trailer gives us a sensitive and evocative taster of the film’s mood of muted melancholia without the need for extraneous trailer tricks above some clever cutting, and the inspired selection of that incredibly emotive classical track from Nicholas Britell‘s sublime score. They’re at an advantage in having some of the best films of the year on their books, but A24 are currently unmatchable in the trailer-cutting game, and this slice of “Moonlight” even now, after we’ve seen the movie, works like a charm – a kind of keepsake, or souvenir.
That’s just a small selection of the year’s best movie marketing, but if you’re hooked on watching 2-minute cutdowns of the year’s films and are jonesing for more, here are a few links to some that just missed the cut: On the big-budget side, the Comic-con trailer for “Wonder Woman” has loads going for it; whitewashing controversy aside, “Ghost In the Shell” at least looks pretty;and “Deepwater Horizon” though not exactly subtle, was a pretty effective spot. “Kong: Skull Island” slightly purged off its air of “do we have to?” with this teaser; the Comic-Con spot makes “Lego Batman“ look exactly as we’d hoped; and Eastwood-does-Eastwood and Hanks-does-Hanks (neither a bad thing) in the spot for “Sully.” Elsewhere other contenders included Jeff Nichols‘ “Loving“; Daniels‘ “Swiss Army Man“; the teaser for “Split“; Jim Jarmusch‘s “Paterson“; Lucile Hadzihalilovic‘s “Evolution; Ira Sachs‘ “Little Men“; Antonio Campos‘ “Christine“; Paul Verhoeven‘s “Elle; the transfixingly gross “Greasy Strangler“; Kenneth Lonergan‘s “Manchester By The Sea“; Kirsten Johnson‘s doc “Cameraperson“; Fede Alvarez‘ above-par horror “Don’t Breathe“; Mia Hansen-Love‘s perfect “Things To Come“; Andrew Dominik‘s heartrending Nick Cave doc “One More Time With Feeling“; Chad Hartigan‘s charming “Morris From America“; Todd Solondz‘s ultimately disappointing “Wiener-Dog“; and the enjoyable Blake Lively B-movie “The Shallows.” Let us the favorites of yours that we missed in the comments below.
