If this collection of trailers could be summed up in one word, that word would be "Sundance": four of our featured clips this week debuted at the 2015 festival. But our headliner actually dates back to last year's Fantastic Fest, and it looks grisly. If pure escapism is more your bag, though, we’ve also got the Point Break re-up, and an R-rated movie version of the show Chuck (sort of). There’s also plenty of Tobey Maguire yelling and Johnny Depp killing people. Just another day at the movies!
This movie is so intense and so specific, we’re just going to give you the official description: “Struggling to cope with past sexual trauma and the daily aggressions of a male-dominated society, she creates grotesquely costumed alter egos that re-appropriate the male form. While giving her the sense of power she craves, acting as these characters pushes her further into a world of her own making. When she begins a new relationship with a seemingly good guy, she opens herself up to him---but that vulnerability comes at a dangerous cost, and her alter egos threaten to lash out in explosive violence.” In laypeople's terms, she dresses up as creepy dudes, complete with dongs. Yeah. Wow. And on top of everything, it is based on the experiences of its star, Amy Everson. Felt was highly acclaimed when it premiered at Fantastic Fest last year, and we can’t wait to check it out.
Pause at: 0:49, 0:51, 0:54, 0:57, 1:07, 1:11, and 1:22 for Amy’s nightmare.
Song: Viet Cong, "Newspaper Spoons"
Essential Quote: “My life is a fucking nightmare. You’re constantly objectified, discredited for anything you do because you’re female.” ---Amy (Amy Everson)
Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart reunite six years after their co-starring vehicle, Adventureland, and if we think of Ultra as what happened to their characters after the theme park summer romance, it makes this new movie all the more zany. Eisenberg plays...well, Eisenberg, even though his character is named Mike Howell, and Stewart is bringing that special blend of stiff-haired, sexually ambiguous Stewart charm (or maybe that’s just us), as his paramour, Phoebe. It seems that Mike is a secret agent so secret that he didn’t even know he was a secret agent until Connie Britton (CONNIE BRITTON) shows up at his dead-end convenience store job to activate him. Then he just starts killing fools. The whole thing has that Kick-Ass-y, Kingsman-style action comedy feel---okay, maybe just a general Matthew Vaughn vibe----and we’re all about seeing two angst-forward actors get their guns-and-laughs on. It’s also got Topher Grace, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman and Tony Hale. What’s not to love?
Pause at: 0:56 for Action Jesse!
Song: “Hey Mama” by David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj & Bebe Rexha
Essential Quote: “Something very weird is happening to me. I keep killing people. And I might be a robot.” ---Mike Howell (Eisenberg)
You know what we don’t get enough of in movies? Liev Schreiber with a Russian accent. The good people who made Pawn Sacrifice understood this was a void waiting to be filled, and so cast Schreiber to play Soviet chess grandmaster Boris Spassky to play opposite Tobey Maguire’s Bobby Fischer. As can be the case with geniuses, Fischer was a bit of a time bomb, and so his Cold War head-to-head with the Russian champion is the stuff high cinematic drama is made of. This movie follows Fisher from humble Brooklyn beginnings up through his rise as chess juggernaut/unwitting Cold War pawn, and then back down through his mental unraveling later in life (including becoming vocally anti-Semitic, despite his Jewish heritage). Maguire has one of the best hate faces in the business, so we suspect the tortured story of Bobby Fischer will wear well on him.
Pause at: 0:54 if you want to see Tobey Maguire talk to Dick Cavett! Catch that Maguire hate-face at 2:21.
Essential Quote: “Bobby won’t crack. He will explode.”
This is a movie about David Foster Wallace, but it does not have the blessing of the Wallace family. Nor does it have footnotes. It is, however, a product of a five-day period the late novelist spent with writer David Lipsky back in 1996, shortly after Infinite Jest was published and shoved the troubled author into the national spotlight. Lipsky was interviewing Wallace on assignment for Rolling Stone, but nothing from the experience was published until after his suicide in 2008. Lipsky wrote a memoir about the days-long interview, and now that memoir has become a movie. Tour got very strong reviews coming out of Sundance, where it premiered in January, with praise for both Jesse Eisenberg (as Lipsky) and especially Jason Segel's turn as Wallace. Segel certainly looks the part, and it’s always fun to see a traditionally comic actor exercise his dramatic muscle.
Pause at: 0:14 for Segel’s Oscar-bait transformation (or, dunno, maybe it's just a bandana).
Song: R.E.M. "Strange Currencies"
Essential Quote: “I think if the book is about anything, it’s the question of why. Why am I doing it? And what’s so American about what I’m doing?” ---David Foster Wallace (Segal)
EXTREME ATHLETES RAWR.
Pause at: 1:15 for your new Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez). Stop at 1:21 for not-Kristen Stewart (Teresa Palmer). Perhaps an homage to the final ride at 1:22? Or 1:59? Well, yeah, that looks super-dangerous at 2:15.
Essential Quote: “I’m thinking these aren’t normal people, sir. I believe that, like me, the people behind these robberies are extreme athletes, using their skills to disrupt the international financial markets.” ---Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey)
Fresh Dressed is another fruit of the Sundance 2015 tree. It’s from ego trip cofounder Sacha Jenkins, and is a delightful, respectful examination of “hip-hop, urban fashion, and the hustle that brought oversized pants and graffiti-drenched jackets from Orchard Street to high fashion’s catwalks and Middle America shopping malls.” Jenkins sits down with Pharrell Williams, Damon Dash, Karl Kani, Kanye West, Nas Jones, Andre Leon Talley, famed Harlem apparel designer Dapper Dan, and many others, giving the picture an intimate feel while still covering decades of fashion and cultural history. Jenkins brings the chronicle to life with love, and in doing so makes a nice little Valentine to a subject clearly close to his heart.
Pause at: 0:12, 0:38, 0:40, and 0:45 and so on for so much freshness.
Song: "Let Me Love You" by Force M.D.’s, “212 (The Ways Furk)” by Bronx Dogs, “Fresh Wild Fly and Bold” by The Cold Crush Brothers, “I Look Good” by Trinti and “Here We Go” by KB feat. PK
Essential Quote: “Being fresh is more important than having money.” ---Kanye West
Just to be clear: We’re all super excited to see Johnny Depp acting again, yes?
Pause at: 0:10 for Dakota Johnson not as Anastasia Steele. Stop at 0:59, 1:00 and 1:25 for bad, bad things.
Song: Rick Ross feat. Jay Z, "The Devil Is A Lie"
Essential Quote: “It’s not what you do. It’s when and where you do it. And who you do it to or with. If nobody sees it, it didn’t happen.” ---Whitey Bulger (Depp), being an involved parent.
It's entry numero tres from Hollywood’s wintry celebration of mid-market indies! Teenage Girl was one of Sundance’s much-talked-about sex comedies, and its star, Bel Powley, was one of its breakouts. It’s also another entry this year in the Kristen Wiig files, which is always exciting. Powley plays Minnie, a child of the ’70s in San Francisco who is having her sexual awakening. She is obsessed with sex, which, among other things, will lead her into the arms of her mom’s boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgard). The movie is based on the graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, and in maintaining the spirit of the source material, includes animated accompaniments as Minnie explores her burgeoning desires. It’s also got Chris Meloni as a character named “Pascal”, and that guy is great at being weird, so we’re really looking forward to this whole thing.
Pause at: 0:37, 0:44, 0:48, 1:14, 1:26, and 1:30 for the animated touches.
Essential Quote: “I get distracted sometimes. I’m overwhelmed by my all-consuming thoughts about sex and men.” ---Minnie (Bel Powley)
Sundance part four! Kevin Bacon has a capacity to be more ominous and unsettling on screen than almost anyone else in Hollywood, and this looks like one of those classically icky Bacon turns. He plays a country sheriff with a lot to, and when two rowdy young boys hijack his seemingly abandoned police cruiser for some good time grand theft auto, they do so without realizing he’s got a big, bad secret in the trunk. The movie promises “brutal consequences” for the boys’ actions, which freaks us out, but with Bacon’s intensity on offer, we don’t know if we’ll be able to look away.
Pause at: 0:48 for a really bad idea. Kids will be kids at 0:56! We’re getting really nervous about 1:25. Sheriff has a lot to hide at 1:37. Scary Bacon at 1:54.
Essential Quote: “You don’t. Steal. A COP CAR!” ---Sheriff Kretzer (Bacon)
