Back of the Trailer

Let's just see if we can help you remember what happened

"This is Mr. Anderson’s fifth feature and it proves a breakthrough for him as a filmmaker. Although there are more differences than similarities between it and the Sinclair book, the novel has provided him with something he has lacked in the past, a great theme. It may also help explain the new film’s narrative coherence. His first feature, “Sydney” (also known as “Hard Eight”), showed Mr. Anderson to be an intuitively gifted filmmaker, someone who was born to make images with a camera. His subsequent features — “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia” and “Punch-Drunk Love” — have ambition and flair, though to increasingly diminished ends. Elliptical, self-conscious, at times multithreaded, they contain passages of clarity and brilliance. But in their escalating stylization you feel the burdens of virtuosity, originality, independence. “There Will Be Blood” exhibits much the same qualities as Mr. Anderson’s previous work — every shot seems exactly right — but its narrative form is more classical and less weighted down by the pressures of self-aware auteurism." - Manohla Dargis, NYTimes

I wasn't a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson until Punch Drunk Love. I never saw Hard Eight, but thought Boogie Nights and Magnolia were trying too hard to be Robert Altman. When he stopped multitasking characters running around in a mad world was when his films got interesting. Slowing down to focus on one or two people settled his hyperactivity and showed his gifts of exploring the psychic depths of living in our reality.

And he drilled really deep into the character of Daniel Plainview with There Will Be Blood. When I walked out of the theater, I felt like I had watched the start of 2001, the middle was Days of Heaven, and it ended like Citizen Kane. These aren't bad inspirations, but again, I thought it was a smart film school thesis. But I was wrong. I bought the movie out of impulse and I haven't stopped watching it since. There is dialogue and shots that are just mesmerizing in their strangeness. Its reputation will grow, it's ahead of its time, it's a masterpiece.

And as Dargis points out, the movie was a turning point for Anderson, a breakthrough to being an artist. His new movie, The Master, is coming later this year, and the teaser, edited by him, conveys the singular power of his mature sensibility. It's unlike other trailers, because it plays out long scenes, never conveys plot, no quick editing, just a spellbinding mystery.

The hype for this has been great, and rumors abound that it's about a cult leader similar to the biography of L. Ron Hubbard and scientology. Maybe it is, but this trailer doesn't reveal that. It's just a character study, a conversation about something that Joaquin Phoenix (glad he's back) should never had done. Only Anderson knows what this is about. What a tease.

Note: The presentation of this teaser's website is wonderful in its simplicity. I feel the web still doesn't know how to present video: it takes too long to download, I hate the frozen boxes with the ugly start buttons, and they often stutter. It's why this site isn't embedded with YouTube videos. Less is more.

Teaser Buzz: Apocalypto - Running from the End

The title to Mel Gibson's next movie suggests he's continuing his religious preoccupation with events from the Bible, but the teaser dispells that idea showing scenes of Mayan ruins. "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within," a quote from the historian, Will Durant, is shown on the screen. A great transition is the camera focusing on the detail of Mayan paintings, then cutting to a scene of living characters with their painted faces. The middle of the teaser shows a chase intercut with titles saying "when the end comes not everyone is willing to go." Everyone - I think no one. The one being chased is a young man being pursued by others in his tribe with torches. Teaser then cuts to him running through the jungle in the day as the drums beat louder. A shot of a black panther runs at the camera which makes you think it's not just man he's running from, but nature. Then the answer comes clear: a woman under the rays of the sun caresses her pregnant belly. Is he running from her or to save her? The final sequence is an eclipse in the sky that pans down to a tribal leader atop a pyramid looking out on the ancient Mayan kingdom. It's an effects shot that doesn't look convincing and neither does this first look at the movie.

Opening December 8, 2006, Buzz: What's Next

Teaser Buzz: Spider-Man 3 - From Red to Black

The teaser for "Spider-Man 3" is designed to quench the fan's thirst to see that the next film will star one of the hero's most popular villians. Although never said by name, the villian's appearence is associated with a color so starting with the camera flying over the detailed patterns of Spider-Man's red suit is a fitting introduction. Titles fly over in the silver stylized font unique to the film franchise asking "How long can any man fight the darkness before he finds it in himself." A black oil begins to crawl over the surface of the suit and as the camera pulls away we see Spider-Man now in a dark negative of his bright comic colors sitting on the edge of a gothic cornice in the rain. The villian's name is Venom and is a creature in liquid form that covers and controls Spider-Man. There are quick clips of the returning characters and action sequences showing Peter Parker, the hero's regular persona, struggling with the body snatcher that has taken him over. The teaser ends with a memorable image of Spider-Man hanging by a thread looking into a window and sees his darker reflection.

The "Spider-Man" franchise has been enjoyable because it has managed to play up an innocent tone compared to other brooding superheroes. The teaser gives the impression that this sequel will be more serious and grim. The change in color may take some of the fun out of it even though the darker sensibility is in fashion.

Opening Summer 2007, Buzz: Can't Wait

Teaser Buzz: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Getting the award for the movie with the longest name of the year should not be the most memorable quality of a teaser. But watching this brief introduction to a film about the outlaw Jesse James, the name is what I tried to remember.

With its opening shot of a wooded landscape under a time-lapse sky then Brad Pitt's silhouette walking out from the steam of a train engine with gun in hand we get the voice over of Casey Affleck saying, "Jesse James is bigger than you can imagine." No doubt. The lilting yet spare piano keys on the score sets a contemplative tone that this is the memory of a character rather than about the robberies of an action figure. The camera fades in to show Affleck looking out a window. As he continues his soliloquy, the camera shows titles of the studio and names of Brad Pitt with a close-up of his face in the golden light of a dawn or sunset looking off camera. We return to Affleck giving his speech in front of the camera as if he's in an interview. He confesses that he's prepared for this job and promises he won't let us down. The long title of the movie comes on the screen in the style of a most wanted poster. The final scene is Pitt leaning over to blow out a candle. The shots are handsome and have a clean look that reminded me of the visual style of the director Sam Mendes. He's not the director, but the teaser gives off the quality of a prestige picture and with it's September release, I'm sure it's looking for Oscar contention.

Opening in September, 2006, Buzz: What's Next