10. “The Lighthouse”
About two idiosyncratic lighthouse keepers trapped together and go nuts in the 1800s, “The Lighthouse” is a movie that casts its very own distinctive spell, and it’s a testament to the trailer that it captures that spell, if only for a few moments. Full of the movie’s haunting, boxy black-and-white imagery (mermaids! tentacles! storms!) and framed around Willem Dafoe repeatedly asking Robert Pattinson‘s “Why’d ye spill yer beans?” interspersed with gushing critical praise, it’s probably the greatest clip you could ever produce in an attempt to sell a movie as singularly weird as “The Lighthouse.” God knows if it actually got anybody to go see the movie, but it’s a beautiful companion artifact nonetheless, you filthy, scurvy-laden bilge rat. – DT
9. “Ema”
The only words spoken in the trailer for “Ema” are in Spanish, but the pulsating feeling is universal. A man and a woman sit in an embrace in a kid’s bed shaped like a car before centrally framed shots picture them confronting each other. The beats of Nicolas Jaar’s infectious score, making hips swirl and scenes crash against each other. Pablo Larrain’s new film finds an electric performer in Mariana Di Girolamo, as the pyromaniac eponymous woman who just wants to feel intimacy without destroying it. Fire burns away preconceived ideas of what love is, as Gael Garcia Bernal looks like a bruised puppy and troupes of dancers move in unison to the ominous sounds of desire. The trailer teases the film’s dangerous spirit, setting fire to expectations, raising them beyond belief. – EK
8. “Waves”
Trey Edward Shults makes no secret of the fact that he loves Frank Ocean. “Seigfreid” underscores the trailer for his sweeping emotional drama “Waves” from start to finish, intersecting with whispered lines of dialogue about love and forgiveness from members of his onscreen family. The film has a unique structure, splitting itself in two – but the trailer feels whole, generous and empathetic towards all the different relationships making up the shape of this world. Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Alexa Demie, and Sterling K. Brown lead the proceedings and play outlines of immense, world-shaking drama with sensitivity. It’s a stylish picture of families in pain, with emotions lived out in full and neon lights that save and end lives. The trailer is just as high-stakes as the end product. – EK
7. “Parasite”
The masterful under-the-skin Palme d’Or winner from Bong Joon-ho resists categorization – satire, horror, drama, thriller, gross-out comedy. It does it all. And so does the trailer – a cacophonous pressure cooker, building tension, peppering jokes, marching to a beat that stops itself to make way for ominous double bass chords. The visuals flash to key moments of the film, lights flickering, water splashing, blood splattering on soft white bread. Plot details limit themselves to one group of people stepping in to take the jobs of another – and they’re best left scant. The genius is in the detail, in the layers of wickedly intelligent social awareness and karmic retribution. The font work in the trailer, opting for a slant but also two-part delivery, mimics the film’s ease with the idea of levels – one always conceals another. If you push someone down, they’ll always come back up to tower over you. – EK
6. “Monos”
Mica Levi’s unsettling, somehow almost optimistic score opens the trailer for Alejandro Landes’ hallucinatory “Monos” with a sweet whistle. Images of peacefulness follow each other – two young girls braiding a woman’s hair, a couple of teenage boys laughing under the spell of magic mushrooms, a mud fight, a fire dance. But the tone and speed then entirely changes, as does the music – rest gives way to chaos, as these teenage soldiers taking care of a hostage must always be ready for war. Ease is replaced with endurance – a kiss is stolen in the shadows while bodies quiver with adrenaline. The editing speeds up and it becomes a montage of flashing images – but rather than it being a broad look at the film, in its showstopping moments as well as its quiet ones, every single frame is shocking, every one urgent and unique. A body is chained underwater, soldiers are painted, children are shooting. There is no respite, until the very last frame. The music has calmed, and one of the young girls is looking straight to camera, laughing. She raises her eyebrow as a drum rumbles. – EK
