I watched this trailer three times, trying to figure out what exactly was happening in it. A wealthy, happy, and well-liked French man has either a stroke or a heart attack in his fancy car, then appears to enter some sort of fantasy world while he lays paralyzed in the hospital. Or at least that’s what I got out of the trailer. Confusing, sure, but I was still intrigued enough to watch it three times.

Upon further research, I learned that the man is the editor of the French edition of Elle Magazine, and the movie is based on the true story of his life. He suffered a stroke in 1995 that paralyzed his entire body, except for his left eye. With that eye, he managed to blink his memoir and describe the worlds that he was seeing inside his mind. This sounds like fascinating material for a fictional movie, but the fact that it’s based on true story makes it even more compelling, so I’m definitely intrigued enough to RENT IT.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is rated PG-13 and opens in limited release November 30. (Official site It’s in French, you’ve been warned)

I like movies about writers. Maybe it’s because of the English major blood in my veins, or maybe it’s because writers are some of the most fascinating people out there (let’s face it, most writers are bat shit insane, and we love them for it). So I’m predisposed to want to see Starting Out in the Evening.

Frank Langella is Leonard Schiller, an aging writer who is quickly fading out of sight as his books go out of print and he dawdles in finishing his latest novel. Enter Lauren Ambrose, as a graduate student doing her thesis on Schiller and eager to help him resurrect his writing career. But it seems he might not be all that interested in working with her as he’s preoccupied with his creative well drying up and his middle-aged daughter, played by Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under reunion alert!), entering a relationship with a man he feels is far beneath her.

Since I prefer watching small, quiet films at home, I’ll wait and RENT IT. And hopefully it’ll join Shakespeare in Love, The Hours, and Adaptation as one of my favorite movies about a writer.

Starting Out in the Evening is rated PG-13 and opens in limited release November 23.

Everybody has a select set of words or phrases that they find unsettling. A sampling from my list is ‘baby mama’, ‘body soil’, and ‘recreational gynecologist’. And after viewing the trailer for The Amateurs I have a new one to add: ‘amateur pornographer’. Luckily, this looks to be unsettling in the funniest way.

Jeff Bridges (evoking the same frustrated stoner demeanor he perfected in The Big Lebowski) leads a clan of lovable small-town losers who believe that the key to their collective happiness and success lies in making an adult film. Of course none of them are filmmakers, nor do they know any filmmakers, nor do they have the funds to hire actual filmmakers…but they refuse to let such trivial details deter them. Local spots (like a mattress showroom) become the setting, local losers (like Joe Pantoliano, who’s played some of the best losers ever) become the scriptwriters, and local hotties (like Judy Greer and Lauren Graham) are recruited to be the stars. Rounding out this eclectic cast are Ted Danson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Patrick Fugit, and Glenne Headly.

Perhaps the most unsettling thing about The Amateurs is its back story. The movie was filmed in 2005 with the name The Moguls and played in a few film festivals, then disappeared. Now it’s resurfaced again with a release date in December, to be quickly followed by a DVD release in February 2008. Why all the drama? I certainly don’t know. Perhaps it didn’t perform well at the film festivals and its release was pushed back for some final tweaking. Perhaps it took this long to finally find a distributor. Whatever the reason, I think it looks entertaining enough to RENT IT. But you know, that’s just like, my opinion, man.

The Amateurs is rated R and opens December 7. (IMDB page)

It’s such a strange world that we’re living in right now. There are wars going on in the middle east, and genocide in Africa, and yet, I feel so removed from all of it. I mean, I watch the news, and I know the issues, but none of it seems to hit me on a deeper level.

And here’s the saddest part: the only way that I feel like I can connect to it all is by watching movies about it.

I’m not saying this to make a point or to bring everyone down. I’m just stating a fact. The only reason most people are conscious about Global Warming now is because of An Inconvenient Truth. And the only reason most people are conscious about genocide in Africa now is because of Hotel Rwanda.

It’s a shame that people need movies to get them outraged about the things that they should just inherently be outraged about, but I guess that’s the world we’re living in now. And with that in mind, I say we should start making a whole lot more movies about the shitty things that are happening around the globe. If that’s the only thing that can move people anymore, then filmmakers have a responsibility to move as many people as possible about as many important causes as possible.

Darfur Now is probably the biggest movie to date about the genocide going on in Darfur, and hopefully it will have the same effect on people that An Inconvenient Truth had. And if nothing else, hopefully it will at least give people like me a way to connect to something that I should already be deeply connected to, but for some reason am not.

That’s why Darfur Now is a SEE IT for me. I need to care more than I do, and $11 is a small price for a much needed kick in the ass.

Darfur Now is rated PG and opens November 2. (MySpace Page)

If, like me, you were wondering what was up with Jack Nicholson’s bald head at last year’s Academy Awards, the answer is The Bucket List; where he plays a cancer patient who buddies up with Morgan Freeman. Both men are terminal cancer patients sharing a hospital room and behaving like typically grumpy old men, until Freeman introduces his “bucket list”: a list of things he wants to do before he kicks the bucket. “Cutesy,” is Nicholson’s snide reply, and I’m inclined to agree.

The two men decide to do the bucket list, which includes such madcap adventures as skydiving, racing cars, and riding a motorcycle on top of The Great Wall of China. Then things take a somber turn when they discover what should actually be on the bucket list: reconnecting with their estranged loved ones. Nicholson eventually gets angry at Freeman for butting into his life; Freeman calms him down with his gentle, no-nonsense demeanor (how I wish he’d tell Nicholson to “get busy living, or get busy dying”, but I don’t see that happening). I would imagine they then kiss (or at least buddy hug) and make up, then eventually die.

So the feeling I’m left with from the trailer for The Bucket List is how I feel about most Rob Reiner films: that I’ll wait for it to show up on TNT or TBS one Sunday afternoon and I’ll watch it then. But since there is no “wait for TV” option here at Trailer Spy, I’ll say RENT IT, out of respect for film veterans Nicholson and Freeman. This movie with any lesser actors would be an automatic skip it for me.

The Bucket List is rated PG-13 and opens December 25. (Official site)

This trailer hit the internet a few days ago, and I have to say, it’s one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a while.

I’m always curious about how much input a filmmaker gets into designing the trailer for their movie. I know that most trailers are made by big marketing firms like Trailer Park, but when I see a gutsy trailer like this one for Slipstream, I just can’t imagine that the director (in this case Anthony Hopkins) had no creative input into how it got made.

Judging from the plot description (and from the trailer!), Slipstream seems like it’ll be an interesting movie. It’s about a screenwriter whose mind goes haywire, causing him to slip into his movie and his characters to slip into his real life.

That plot reminds me a bit of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, where Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time. I loved that book, and it seems like that sort of a trippy, disjointed story could play really well on film. Unfortunately, such a story would have to be directed exceptionally well to pull it off, and as much as I like Anthony Hopkins, he’s just too inexperienced of a director to make me believe that he’ll succeed.

If this thing was directed by David Fincher, I’d be all over it, but seeing how Hopkins has only directed two previous movies, I’m going to have to wait and RENT IT. But if it’s any consolation to Sir Anthony, I’m going to watch the trailer a few more times, perhaps with some popcorn and a large soda.

Slipstream is rated R and opens in limited release on October 26. (Official Site)

Julie and Tal have been kind enough to allow me to be the default reviewer of any movie musical trailers, which is both a good and a bad idea. On the one hand, I am a musical theater freak (geek, nerd, loser, etc.) so I definitely have a passion for any movie musical coming out. On the other hand, I’m liable to give every one a SEE IT review without even caring how good the trailer actually looks.

Luckily, the trailer for Sweeney Todd looks absolutely fantastic, so my SEE IT review is completely justified. My only complaint about it is the very thing I’m looking forward to the most…the fact that it’s a musical. There isn’t a whole lot of singing going on in the trailer, so I have to wonder if someone who knew nothing about this show would even be aware of all the singing they’re in store for. A big concern for many of the fans of the stage production has been the casting. Sure, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are amazing, but can they sing? I’m still not sure. But I’m sure as hell going to be at the movie theater opening weekend to find out.

For the uninitiated, Sweeney Todd is indeed a musical, composed by Stephen Sondheim, and it was originally staged on Broadway in 1979. It tells the tale of Benjamin Barker, a well-liked London-based barber whose life is destroyed by the corrupt magistrate, Judge Turpin, who lusts after Barker’s wife. Barker is arrested under false pretenses and exiled for 15 years. Upon his return, he learns that his wife is dead and Turpin has named himself the adoptive father of Barker’s daughter (and would prefer to be more than a father to her, if you know what I mean). Hell-bent on getting the revenge he deserves, Barker adopts a dark and sinister alternate persona; Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. He opens up a barber shop above the pie shop of the questionable baker, Mrs. Lovett, where he offers “the closest shave in town”. So close, in fact, that you may wind up with your throat slit and your body disposed of in a most unusual way. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett become partners in crime and eagerly await the day when Judge Turpin will cross their murderous path.

Clearly, this is not your typical musical. There are no gangs dancing in the streets and the hills are definitely not alive with the sound of music. Sweeney Todd is probably one of the blackest and goriest musicals ever created. Which is why I think Tim Burton was a perfect choice to direct the film version. Johnny Depp was an interesting choice for Sweeney, but his collaborations with Burton have never let me down before. I think Helena Bonham Carter looks a bit too young to be Mrs. Lovett (whose supposed to be middle-aged, and not a pretty middle-aged), but again, her work with Burton has yet to disappoint. Alan Rickman is Judge Turpin, and has he ever been a wrong choice in anything he’s done? No, he hasn’t. Don’t even try to argue with me, I’ll just stick my fingers in my ears and pretend I can’t hear you.

I said it before, but here it is again. SEE IT. Even if you’re a musicals-hater, give it a chance. This is definitely not your grandmother’s kind of musical (it got an ‘R’ rating, after all).

Oh, and for the record, there’s a movie version of Mamma Mia! being filmed now for release next summer, and I’m going to tell you now to go see that one, too.

Sweeney Todd is rated R and opens December 21 (Official site)

Riddle me this: Why is it that a trailer featuring a young couple in love, whose time together is cut short by his death, leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling?

No, it’s not because of my schadenfreudic nature, but rather from a rather eclectic and promising cast. There’s Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler as the young couple in question (you know him from 300, I know him from The Phantom of the Opera. Let’s just agree to disagree). He’s a goofy Irishman, she’s a somewhat uptight American; naturally they’re going to make an adorable pair. Then, after he’s dead, a series of letters he prearranged are delivered to her that instruct her to go on crazy adventures, thus helping her to start her life anew without him. (Methinks this means he was aware of his imminent doom for awhile, though the trailer makes no indication of what sort of tragedy ended his short life.)

And who better to grieve and have crazy adventures with than Gina Gershon and Phoebe, I mean, Lisa Kudrow? And what better eye candy to make you get over your dead husband than Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Denny!) and Harry Connick, Jr.? And the icing on the cake: your mom is Kathy Bates!

P.S., I Love You is definitely not going to shake the foundation of modern cinema, but it certainly looks charming enough for my Netflix queue, so I’m going to RENT IT.

P.S., I Love You is rated PG-13 and opens December 21. (Official site)

Well, the bad news is that our offer to host people’s indie trailers hasn’t quite taken off yet. As of today, we only have one independent filmmaker who has uploaded his trailer to the site. However, the good news is that there are a slew of other good independent movies whose marketing campaigns seem to be reaching a national audience, even without the help of TrailerSpy.

Of those, I am particularly interested in the movie Wristcutters: A Love Story. In addition to having a really great title, Wristcutters also has a really interesting story line. In a nutshell, the story is about a guy who commits suicide and soon finds out that the afterlife is just as depressing as his normal life (not to mention the fact that you keep the scars from your suicide when you cross over).

This story excites me for a variety of reasons. Not only is it really creative and unique, it also proves that just because a filmmaker has a low budget, that doesn’t mean they can’t make a movie with a high concept. Also, I love the idea of a movie reinventing our concept of the afterlife. It reminds me a lot of Defending Your Life, which I really loved (and I don’t say that about many Albert Brooks movies).

Although I’m probably going to wait and RENT IT, I am definitely excited to do so. I definitely need more independent film in my life (and more independent film trailers on our site!)

Wristcutters: A Love Story is rated R and opens October 19. (Official Site)

I only had to hear one thing to make Juno a SEE IT for me: that it re-teams Arrested Development alums Jason Bateman and Michael Cera. Granted, going by the trailer it looks like their characters don’t really have any interactions, but who cares?

Ellen Page (who in Hard Candy managed to scare men everywhere in ways a bunny boiling Glenn Close only wishes she could) is Juno, a teenage girl who finds herself pregnant after a misguided attempt at first-time sex with her awkward male friend (Cera). Rather than terminate the pregnancy, she decides to have the baby and then give it to a couple unable to have children. And what better place to find such a couple than in the local Penny Saver?! It’s there that she finds her ideal couple, played by Bateman and Jennifer Garner, who she attempts to build a friendship with before giving birth to her/their child.

The trailer for Juno gives off a very Little Miss Sunshine vibe in that it looks to be a mixture of quirkiness, bizarre charm, and a little bit of melancholy. The combination definitely worked for Sunshine, and with a cast like this being directed by the Thank You For Smoking director, Jason Reitman, I definitely think that Juno has more than a good chance of making the formula work for itself.

Juno is rated PG-13 and opens in limited release December 14. (Official site)