I've thoroughly enjoyed all the "Best of" lists celebrating the superlatives of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. And I'm going to be fashionably late to the party and make some of my own lists this year, looking at media from 2001 to 2025. However, I'm not going to make "Best Movie" or "Best Show" lists. No, I'm going to do the fun stuff. This month, I'm spotlighting my favorite movie trailers.
Each list will get 25 entries, but only the top ten will get write-ups.
Comedian (2002) - Let's start with the meta. The "Comedian" trailer is listed on IMDB as a short, because though it's supposed to be a trailer for a Jerry Seinfeld documentary about comedians, it also functions as a funny stand-alone sketch making fun of movie trailers and their tropes, especially the deep-voiced narrator, performed here by the legendary Hal Douglas. "In a world…" style trailers have largely gone out of style, and I like to think this trailer had something to do with it.
Kill Bill (2004) - Music choices have a massive impact on how well a trailer works. Tomoyasu Hotel's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" instrumental plays a big part in setting the tone here, for our first look at "The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino." It becomes clear that the movie is going to take no prisoners, as the action and the characters keep getting wilder and more over-the top as it goes. The instrumental got a lot of play after this, becoming cultural shorthand for incoming badassery
Sin City (2005) - A prime example of a trailer that's better than the movie it's promoting. The big selling point of "Sin City" was translating comic book visuals to the screen in a novel way. This novelty wears off quickly over the length of a whole movie, particularly one that's not very well written or well put together. However, a two-minute trailer is the perfect length to show off some of the creative applications of this very specific aesthetic, based on Frank Miller's grimly beautiful artwork.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - Then you have the trailers that are selling you on a premise, and it was a tall order to sell "Benjamin Button," the tale of a man who ages in reverse. The trick here is that you think you see the whole movie, but it's only giving you the broadest outlines - the love story and the peculiar circumstances of the title character. Crucially, it also provides confirmation that Fincher and crew nailed the special effects wizardry to do all the aging effects right.
A Serious Man (2009) - I love this movie, and this is the perfect trailer for it - a trailer that asks a lot of questions and throws a lot of balls in the air, and offers absolutely no answers or guarantees, except that the characters will be Coen brothers characters. It establishes a very specific tone and type of humor, full of anxiety and middle-aged neurosis, and does it perfectly. I also like to think that the rhythmic thwacking of Michael Stuhlbarg's head against the wall is a tribute to the "Point Blank" trailer.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) - Some trailers are vital for setting expectations. You'd think that an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are would be a typical children's adventure picture. Instead, the trailer immediately shows us that we're in for something much more thoughtful, poignant, melancholy, and strange. It's absolutely a children's film, but one that is likely to hit the adults much harder. I still tear up watching this sometimes, and I can never quite say why.
Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019) - Here's my token representation of the big blockbusters. What I like about these trailers for movies from the "Godzilla" franchise is that they're so good at conveying a sense of scale. You've got the immersive halo jump from the first "Godzilla" trailer, and then all the reveals of the new kaiju designs in "King of Monsters," presented in the most epic way possible. It's an absolute delight to see these familiar monsters fill our screens once more.
Barbie (2023) - I can't resist a "2001: A Space Odyssey" reference.
28 Years Later (2025) - This is the first trailer in ages that I've seen that feels like it's willing to experiment with the format. In this case, the long-anticipated horror movie set its images of a dystopia and zombie carnage to an evocative reading of a Rudyard Kipling poem about WWI, written more than a century ago. It's a piece that's absolutely lousy with historical significance, sounding a dire warning against the worst sins of man - which are of course the really scary parts of "28 Years Later."
The Next Fifteen:
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Shining (parody trailer) (2005)
The Fountain (2006)
Little Children (2006)
Be Kind Rewind (2008) (sweded version)
Cloverfield (2008)
The Social Network (2010)
Inception (2010)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
One Battle After Another (2025)
---
No comments:
Post a Comment