Sweetheart's Script Can't Quite Balance Monster Mayhem With Human Drama

We get about five or six Blumhouse Productions movies a year that get major theatrical releases, the likes of Get Out, The Purge and Halloween (2018) but what about the rest of Blumhouse's annual output? The Jason Blum-run production outfit actually releases more films annually than you might realize, they just end up getting way less prolific direct-to-video bows after brief film festival runs. Such a fate is the one seen by their 2019 feature Sweetheart, a new directorial effort hailing from J.D. Dillard, the filmmaker behind the 2017 film Sleight. After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, Sweetheart basically vanished before getting dropped on digital retailers in October (currently, there is no physical home video release for the title).

Cleo from 5 to 7 Is Yet Another Quietly Powerful Triumph For Director Agnes Varda

If Spike Lee's 25th Hour was about peoples present being impacted by events from one person's past, Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7 is a story about how the uncertain future of one individual impacts the present-day lives of other individuals. Whose future turns out to have such an immense ripple effect? That would be Cleo (Corrine Marchand), a woman who we are introduced to as getting her future getting told to her by way of a fortune teller and her tarot cards. What kind of future do these objects foretell for Cleo? Not a good one, which, despite attempts by the fortune teller to twist what the cards have said into something more positive, sends Cleo into a spiral of despair.

Water You Waiting For? Go See The Thoughtful And Engrossing Romantic Monster Movie Drama The Shape of Water

Fairy tales have always been used to impart larger ideas regarding the societies they originated in within the confines of something palatable to the general public and Guillermo Del Toro, a fellow whose filmography clearly indicates a love for fairy tales, has used his movies that are heavily informed by fairy tales of old as ways to explore all kinds of weighty ideas or societally relevant concepts. The Devil's Backbone is ostensibly a ghost story but it's also a tale of how people show off their true selves in times of war while his project most explicitly evocative of fairy tales, Pan's Labyrinth, is set in the real world conflict of the Spanish Civil War. Even his movies about robot and monsters punching each other takes time to demonstrate how walls dividing countries only create more problems, a concept that's become all the more relevant as the years go by.

Tommy Wiseau, Sea Monsters, Chilly Murderers And Madea Abound In A Bunch Of New Movie Trailers

OK, so, the last 53-ish hours have unleashed a deluge of new movie trailers that have each generated a lot of individual thoughts from yours truly. How about we take a gander at some of these various movie trailers, many of which give us our very first glimpses at highly anticipated titles, on this fine afternoon, shall we?

First up, the movie that became a sensation at SXSW this past March that finally has a movie trailer...

THE DISASTER ARTIST
I haven't seen The Room yet (I know, the prospect of me not having seen a culturally impactful movie is shocking) but that didn't stop me from loving this teaser trailer for this raved about James Franco directorial effort. Franco seems to be acing the tiniest bit of physical behavior of Tommy Wiseau here and the scene itself is actually quite funny and well-timed. Not giving too much away while letting one get a clear idea for the tone and atmosphere of what's to come, that's the very idea of a great teaser trailer and that's very much an accurate description of this awesome first look at The Disaster Artist.

THE SNOWMAN
Michael Fassbender's been on a rough patch lately with X-Men: Apocalypse, Assassin's Creed and Alien Covenant but at least his next movie, The Snowman, looks incredibly promising. This is one eerie trailer using a nicely chosen song and effectively done wide shots to convey the sense of dread that this snow-fixated killer is creating for the lead characters of this movie. The brief snippet of J.K. Simmons European accent was unexpected for me at least and the entire trailers effective sense of creeping terror took me by surprise as a matter of fact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIxnTi4GmCo
ALPHA
Now where did this one come from? I'd barely heard anything about this one before its trailer premiered yesterday morning but it totally got put on my radar with a well-made trailer like this one. The trailers heavy use of voice-over and title cards suggests they're trying to cover up the fact that it's likely heavily free of dialogue, which is fine by me since the bits of non-speaking action (like the main character trying to give his wolf companion some water) come off really well. It also looks great too and it's no wonder Alpha is immediately on my radar when its trailer has so much epic imagery.

PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN
We finally got ourselves a live-action Wonder Woman movie this summer but how about now we do a movie all about the three folks behind Wonder Woman? The unconventional in its era (and even still unorthodox today) polygamous relationship Professor Marston, Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne looks like it's being set up as the crux for an intriguing looking forbidden romance thriller, one that offers Rebecca Hall a woefully rare chance to headline a major motion picture while Luke Evans also looks promising in the lead role, so yes, I'm very much interested in seeing this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSHk_BHQxp0&t=17s
ONLY THE BRAVE
Lots of macho masculinity in here (I've seen repeated comparisons between this trailer and Peter Berg's work and that feels super accurate), but overall, this first trailer for Only The Brave makes the movie itself look kind of generic but there could be some excitement to be found in this premise in feature-length form, especially with the super talented cast they've assembled. Nice to see Miles Teller is headlining multiple dramas this Fall while more Jeff Bridges is always good (as long as it doesn't involve R.I.P.D.). The trailer for Only The Brave came off as so-so to me but here's to hoping the actual movie turns out better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA5MHLL5dwk&t=2s
BOO 2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN
The first Boo! A Madea Halloween was my first Madea movie and it was bland and poorly made enough to not make me want to check out further entries in the series. This teaser for further Halloween-tinged Madea antics just looks like more unfunny and forgettable cinema, especially with a weird explicit reference to Get Out that closes the trailer. This October, I think I'll just stay home and munch on some Milky Ways instead of giving this one a watch.

THE SHAPE OF WATER
I got to see the trailer for The Shape Of Water on my theatrical screening of War For The Planet Of The Apes last Thursday and found it to be an outstanding trailer then. Rewatching it this morning, I was even more moved by this particular viewing of the trailer, to the point that the moment the French music kicked in I began to get misty-eyed. God, this is an amazing trailer, showing off the kind of glorious sets and camerawork we've all come to expect from Guillermo Del Toro's work, but the way it lays out the relationship between Sally Hawkins and the sea beast she discovers  really is incredible. In the span of two-and-a-half minutes, both of these individuals are painted with tender humanity that left me emotionally moved. Outstanding trailer, likely one of the best movie trailers we'll see all year and I can't wait to see the super promising looking movie itself this December.