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kottke.org posts about trailers

Room 237, a documentary about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

The trailer doesn’t reveal much:

But from everything that I have heard, this movie is a must-see for Kubrick fans. In US theaters (and available online, I think) on March 29th.


Trailer for Finding Vivian Maier

The documentary about recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier that was funded via Kickstarter almost two years ago is finally getting somewhere. Here’s the trailer for the film, which appears to involve a crazy twist in Maier’s story.


Ed Koch, RIP

Former three-term mayor of NYC Ed Koch died this morning at 88. Worth reading are obituaries by Robert McFadden in the NY Times:

Mr. Koch’s 12-year mayoralty encompassed the fiscal austerity of the late 1970s and the racial conflicts and municipal corruption scandals of the 1980s, an era of almost continuous discord that found Mr. Koch at the vortex of a maelstrom day after day.

But out among the people or facing a news media circus in the Blue Room at City Hall, he was a feisty, slippery egoist who could not be pinned down by questioners and who could outtalk anybody in the authentic voice of New York: as opinionated as a Flatbush cabby, as loud as the scrums on 42nd Street, as pugnacious as a West Side reform Democrat mother.

“I’m the sort of person who will never get ulcers,” the mayor - eyebrows devilishly up, grinning wickedly at his own wit - enlightened the reporters at his $475 rent-controlled apartment in Greenwich Village on Inauguration Day in 1978. “Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I’m the sort of person who might give other people ulcers.”

and Ben Smith at Buzzfeed:

Koch, New York City’s dominant political figure of the 1980s and the architect of what remains its governing political coalition, stayed politically relevant through his long political twilight, courted aggressively by figures including Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama for his role as a proxy for pro-Israel Democrats willing, but not eager, to cross party lines.

But Koch’s later years of quips, movie reviews, and presidential politics remain secondary to his central legacy, which is in New York’s City Hall. Tall and gangly with a domed, bald head and a knowing smile, Koch was New York’s mayor and its mascot from 1978 to 1989. Through three terms, he repeated one question like a mantra: “How’m I doing?” At first, the answer was clear to observers who had watched the city slide toward bankruptcy: exceptionally well. Koch managed New York back from the brink, drove hard bargains with municipal unions, cut jobs where he had to and reduced taxes where he could. He presided over a boom in Manhattan, and spent his new revenues on renewing the south Bronx.

But as the Koch administration moved its third term, the mayor lost his momentum. As Wall Street boomed in the 1980s, Koch took advantage of the new revenues to double New York City’s budget and offer tax breaks to real estate developers. But the largesse couldn’t buy him friends: he clashed with black leaders and his old allies among Manhattan’s liberal democrats. New York became famous for its racial tensions and rising crime. He courted the Democratic Party bosses of Queens and the Bronx only to be tarnished by the corruption scandals that surrounded them.

Here’s the trailer for Koch, a documentary on the former mayor that coincidentally opens today in limited release:


Inside Llewyn Davis

Here’s the trailer for the new Coen brothers movie, Inside Llewyn Davis.

The film stars relative newcomer Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman and according to IMDB, will be out in February. (via viewsource)


Full trailer for Upstream Color

Shane Carruth’s followup to Primer is set to be seen next week at Sundance and a full-length trailer has been released:

And it won’t be long before the rest of us will be able to see it as well. Ain’t It Cool notes that Carruth will be distributing the film himself.

Carruth isn’t waiting around for a big distributor or even a small, boutique distributor. He’s putting the film out himself, booking it in New York at the IFC Center on April 5th, then expanding theatrically to LA, Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and other big markets.

Around that time he’ll also have a digital distribution option, which will lead to Blu-Ray/DVD. You know, the standard Magnolia/IFC style release, but instead of being spearheaded by a distribution company, Carruth is doing it via his own company, erbp.

(via @mylesnyc)


New trailer for the new Superman movie

So this is the new trailer for the new Superman movie (Man of Steel), which should not be confused with the old trailer for the new Superman movie or with a trailer from the old new Superman movie or with a trailer from the old Superman movie.

What I am confused about is whether this trailer is any good. On one hand, it seems really really good but also really crappy at the same time. Tell me what to feel, Superman!


Teaser trailer for Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color

Just the other day, the news broke that Primer’s Shane Carruth had made a new movie and it was premiering at Sundance in January. Now there’s a teaser trailer.


Final trailer for the Arrested Development documentary

In production for the past twenty-four years, it looks as though the documentary about Arrested Development might be nearing its release. Here’s the final trailer:

Update: You can watch the documentary on Amazon. (via @mcnees)


Trailer for Cloud Atlas

The Wachowskis (The Matrix movies) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) are teaming up to bring David Mitchell’s award-winning novel, Cloud Atlas, to the big screen. It’s an ambitious effort given the plot of the book:

The novel consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or observed) by the main character in the next. All stories but the last are interrupted at some moment, and after the sixth story concludes at the center of the book, the novel “goes back” in time, “closing” each story as the book progresses in terms of pages but regresses in terms of the historical period in which the action takes place. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the Pacific Ocean, circa 1850.

Here’s an extended trailer of the film:

The trailer is also on Apple’s site along with a short commentary by the directors. BTW, the Wachowskis are no longer brothers because Larry had sexual reassignment surgery and is now Lana…the directors’ commentary is the first I’ve seen of her since the switch.


Robot and Frank: a heist movie with a robot sidekick

Well, this is something…an ex-jewel thief decides to unretire and rob people with help from his robot butler. I had to look this up on IMDB to make sure it wasn’t something from Funny or Die or College Humor.

Best robotic sidekick since Mr. Spock. Now reboot Lethal Weapon with Donald Glover and a robot playing the Mel Gibson role. (Yes, I meant Donald. Danny is clearly too old for that shit.)


Teaser trailer for Monsters University

The prequel to Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. is coming out next summer…here’s a little teaser for it.

(via devour)


First trailer for Tarantino’s Django Unchained

It’s a Western film about bounty hunting starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christoph Waltz.


The Impostor

The Nicholas Barclay/Frรฉdรฉric Bourdin case, which David Grann covered in a 2008 article for the New Yorker, has now inspired a documentary film coming out in July.

As I wrote about Grann’s piece:

At some point, Bourdin’s story gets intertwined with that of Nicholas Barclay, a teen who went missing in Texas in 1994. After that, the story proceeds like the craziest episode of Law and Order you’ve ever seen.

(via @aaroncoleman0)


Movie with Bill Murray as FDR?!

Saw this trailer in front of Moonrise Kingdom last night…Bill Murray plays Franklin Roosevelt in an upcoming movie called Hyde Park on Hudson.

I’m interested in seeing it, but Hyde Park on Hudson is a terrible name.


Teaser trailer for P.T. Anderson’s The Master

The teaser trailer for P.T. Anderson’s next film, The Master. Anderson himself cut the trailer โ€” why don’t more director/editors do this?

Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Thomas Anderson (the acclaimed director of, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia and Boogie Nights), this story stars Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Academy Award-nominee Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line). Set in America in the years following World War II, a charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a faith-based organization and taps a young drifter (Phoenix) as his right-hand man. But as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the onetime vagabond finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor. A truly one-of-a-kind drama, which promises magnetic virtuoso performances, the film marks the fifth collaboration between Anderson and Hoffman, following Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love.

As good as this looks, I’m a wee bit disappointed that this isn’t a PT Anderson-directed documentary style film about Doctor Who’s nemesis. Wouldn’t that be something? (via cigarettes & red vines)


Moonrise Kingdom trailer

We interrupt this internet to bring you the very first trailer for Wes Anderson’s new movie, Moonrise Kingdom.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, MOONRISE KINGDOM tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore โ€” and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

It’s Wes Andersonmas, y’all!


First trailer for The Hobbit

Apple’s got the exclusive first trailer for The Hobbit. I am irrationally excited about this movie!

Update: And here’s a YouTube embed…I’m sure this won’t last too long though.

(thx, david)


Girl Walk // All Day NYC premiere

Girl Walk // All Day is a feature-length dance music video set in NYC…the soundtrack is Girl Talk’s All Day. Kickstarter is hosting a premiere for the film (+ dance party) on December 8 at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple…and it’s free (you just need to RSVP). Here’s the trailer:


The Fantastic and Inglourious Mr. Fox

A trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox using dialogue from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

(via biancolo)


New Werner Herzog film on the death penalty

It’s called Into the Abyss and it opens today. Trailer is here:

There’s an interview with Herzog about the film on the Tribeca Film Festival site and Ebert gave it four stars.


Charles and Ray Eames documentary

Eames: The Architect and the Painter, a documentary on the husband and wife design duo, will be out in theaters in mid-November.

The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America’s most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products, from splints for wounded military during World War II, to photography, interiors, multi-media exhibits, graphics, games, films and toys. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life โ€” from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age โ€” has been less widely understood. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work.

The DVD is already available for pre-order on Amazon. (via @aaroncoleman0)


The Secret World of Arrietty

The Secret World of Arrietty, the latest film from Studio Ghibli (Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle), came out in Japan last year and will be in US theaters in February 2012. Here’s the English trailer:

The screenplay was adapted from Mary Norton’s The Borrowers. (thx, david)


Kids movie from Martin Scorsese?

Apparently so. It’s called Hugo:

I was going to make a joke about how this is Scorsese’s first movie without Leonardo DiCaprio in like 20 years, but it’s actually his first DiCaprio-free film in 12 years. (via stellar)


Being Elmo trailer

Being Elmo is a documentary about the puppeteer who performs Sesame Street’s Elmo. It looks fantastic.

(via unlikely words)


In Time trailer

Here’s a four-minute teaser trailer for In Time, a sci-fi action thriller directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) and starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.

In the late 21st century, time has replaced money as the unit of currency. At 25 years old, aging stops and each person is given one more year to live. Unless you replenish your clock, you die.

Nice to see someone taking the attention economy literally. (thx, david)


El Bulli documentary

A documentary about El Bulli offers “a rare inside look at some of the world’s most innovative and exciting cooking”.

(thx, aaron)


Moneyball movie trailer

Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill…I’m not so sure about this…


Planes, a “sequel” to Pixar’s Cars

Pixar’s not involved โ€” DisneyToon Studios is making it โ€” but a direct-to-video Cars spin-off that features airplanes will go direct-to-video in spring 2013.

This movie is mostly a commercial for the inevitable billion-dollar toy/theme park tie-ins, but in general I am in favor of any kids movie that features White Zombie in the trailer. (via devour)

ps #1: This is probably going to get yanked from YT pretty quick. Sorry.

ps #2: My 3-yo son calls the main character in Cars “Lightening the Queen”. That would be an interesting movie.


Trailer for Tabloid, Errol Morris’ new film

It’s a documentary about Joyce McKinney and the so-called Mormon sex in chains case.

Here it is on Apple Trailers in case the YouTube one gets yanked.


Trailer for Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Larsson? Fincher? Reznor? Rooney Mara’s brief NSFW nipple flash? What’s not to like?

I was skeptical about this (and The Social Network) but lesson learned: never doubt David Fincher.