1. “Burning”
South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong‘s masterful, mysterious “Burning” simmers with loneliness and rage and an evocative poster befitting of its genius was paramount. “Burning” is a kind of “Talented Mr. Ripley” love triangle born from strange coincidences. A young man (Yoo Ah-in) bumps into and becomes reacquainted with an old friend (Jong-seo Jun), but as soon as their relationship starts to flourish, possibly into something romantic, a new wealthier suitor (Steven Yeun) arrives and destabilizes the mood and even poisons the well of mood. Each character in their own sense is full of longing and desperate for connection—maybe some longings are more sinister than others—and the poster is a snapshot of the movie’s most enigmatic and striking moment: Haemi, the girl, stoned, dancing at dusk with abandon topless, the wind caressing her skin, flowing through her hair, her hands reaching for the unattainable sky. What Haemi wants, her desires and needs are a mystery, perhaps even to herself and this unknowable moment strikes at the film’s core. Is there burning fury, even craziness in wanting a kind of freedom and absolution, but not knowing how to attain it? “Burning” is a mysterious movie of plot, emotion, psychology, and narrative. Maybe it’s a murder mystery, maybe it’s about a sociopath, but maybe there are just layers you still haven’t unpacked. This “Burning poster perfectly depicts the allure of the am inscrutable, but magnetic movie that will remain seared into your unconscious long after it’s over (big shout out to one of the early international Cannes posters below too). – AJ
Best/Worst Poster
“Speed Kills”
There’s a lot one can say about “Speed Kills,” the VR-focused mafia thriller which is under a delusional mentality that you can essentially be as good as “Goodfellas” if you have crime, speedboats and John Travolta trying to look 20 years younger at the center of your film. As you would imagine, it’s a total and complete disaster — but like a speedboat crash in high-speed waters, you simply can’t look away. It’s a wretched movie, one that’s horribly edited, horrendously ill-conceived and filled with jaw-droppingly piss-poor decisions fueling its choppy execution. And yet, it is truly a sight to behold. Its convictions are bold, its ambitions oversized, and it makes the most of its sheer, unphased wackiness. If you have food, a fair amount of alcohol, a desire to watch something that should never exist, and a couple good friends nearby to laugh with you, relish it the madness that is “Speed Kills.” If you need any more convincing, check out its spectacularly terrible poster. Featuring terrible photoshop that would make sixth grade graphic designers blush, a gleefully generic tagline (“Speed. Money. Murder.”), an oversaturation of the cliched orange-and-blue backdrop, and a visually uncomfortable John Travolta farting out flying money, it is a truly terrible depiction of a truly terrible movie, and it tells you everything you need to know about this wondrously atrocious slice of splashy cinematic fun. When it comes to “Speed Kills,” overkill is key. – WA
Honorable Mention
As always, there’s good stuff left on the cutting room floor, you have to kill those babies. But there’s a lot of posters we liked that we considered. All of the “Blindspotting” posters were pretty good, particularly this colorful, reflective one; Lucasfilm‘s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” might have been a dud, but the movie’s ’70s aesthetics, some cribbed right from jazz records from that era, were pretty nice, even if allegedly plagiarized (though we’re sure meant to be homage); Drake Doremus is really into the eye-popping color these days and that’s the underseen “Zoe” to a tee; “Disobedience” featured some nice effective minimalism as did the documentary for Hal Ashby, “Hal“; “Halloween” had some great creepy photos, but some of the international offerings were best designed. Other one-sheets we dug include the Wes Anderson-y Wes Anderson poster from “Isle Of Dogs,” the comic book-y “I Think We’re Alone Now,” the splashes of colors in the amusing “Incredibles 2” posters, the simple authenticity of Jonah Hill’s “Mid90s,” “Outside In,” the odd cartoonishness of “Piercing,” the throwback-ness of “Prospect,” straight simplicity of “RBG,” “Skate Kitchen,” the playful, bubblegum-ness of “The Spy Who Dumped Me” the provocative melodrama of “The Girl In The Spider’s Web” and the meta-referencing “Ready Player One” which many may love and shout out for their pop-culture references, but in a way they’re also kind of pretty fug, we’re on the fence.
Dishonorable mention goes to the aforementioned “Speed Kills, some of the garish “Venom” posters and the absolutely best/worst, irredeemable character posters go to none other than “The Nutcracker And The Four Realms” (someone, please tell us that Morgan Freeman has this hanging up at home somewhere).
That’s all for now. Lots more features tomorrow and the coming weeks.
Click here for our complete coverage of the best and worst of 2018.
