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Posts Tagged ‘drama’

 

Trailer Watch: Belle, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw

This trailer for Amma Asante’s Belle looks really good, for those (like me) who enjoy historical period dramas. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as Dido Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Navy Admiral raised by her great uncle (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson). How “based on a true story” the film is, I don’t really know, but Wilkinson’s William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, made slavery unlawful in England (though it was not completely abolished until 1834), so there’s a pretty interesting narrative arc for the film right there.

The film opens on May 2, 2014, which is a shame, only because it looks perfect for Oscarbait season.

Trailer Watch: C.O.G. (based on a story by David Sedaris)

This first film adaptation of a David Sedaris story stars Jonathan Groff as Sedaris, “a young man who plans a summer in the Northwest with his friend Jennifer (Troian Bellisario), working on a farm. But when Jennifer unexpectedly bails on him, David is left to dirty his hands alone and jump into a series of misadventures that will take him to unfamiliar — and hilariously uncomfortable — places.”

The dialogue sounds smart, and the depiction of the yokels looks like it’s steering clear of both making fun of cliché dumb hicks and mythologizing rural America. The film is out now in (very) limited release; no idea when or if it will expand.

Trailer Watch: James Franco and Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto

Vulture has the trailer for Gia Coppola’s adaptation of James Franco’s short story collection, Palo Alto (This is a separate project from his recent Indiegogo crowdfunding thing.) It’s young, white teens/coming-of-age stuff — rather well-worn territory — but visually it’s pretty remarkable.

One of the story threads involves Franco as a creeper soccer coach with designs on Emma Roberts. The cast is rounded out by Jack Kilmer (Val’s kid), Val Kilmer (in a cameo) and Nat Wolff as a couple of trouble-making boys.

The film opened at Telluride last night; no theatrical distribution has been set, but with the Coppola family name behind it and images this pretty, it’s pretty much guaranteed to get snapped up by an indie distributor sooner or later.

Trailer Watch: Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises TIFF trailer

From the Toronto International Film Festival YouTube comes a trailer for Hayao Miyazaki’s next, The Wind Rises, a “decade-spanning epic… inspired by the true stories of Jiro Horikoshi, visionary designer of one the most beautiful airplanes in history—the famed Zero fighter—and the poet Tatsuo Hori, whose verses are brought to life by the vivid animation of Studio Ghibli.”

The trailer is a thing of beauty, and while it’s been online for a little while, this one has subtitles for those of us who don’t know Japanese.

The film premieres at TIFF next month, naturally. There is no regular theatrical release date yet, and with the subject matter, I wouldn’t hold my breath unless an Academy Award nomination gets it some attention. But who knows?