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New trailers: Us, Stranger Things, The Punisher, and more

New trailers: Us, Stranger Things, The Punisher, and more

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Photo: Cara Howe / Netflix

I saw a whole bunch of movies over holidays, and the one I was by far the most excited for was Vice. I had, no joke, probably watched the trailer for it a dozen times, which is something I never do. (After watching through two dozen trailers for this column every week, I’m hardly going to watch any trailer more than I have to).

Vice was immensely entertaining and very funny. The thing that really stood out to me was just how comfortable director Adam McKay is in toying around with the medium. Much like the explanatory interruptions in The Big Short, the edit of Vice is constantly used to address the viewer directly, explaining things to them, making jokes or excuses, even transporting them into essentially a different timeline.

It’s the kind of thing that could easily feel really jarring or tiring if done wrong. But somehow, McKay does it in a way that feels like you’re all in on the joke — perhaps it’s just that, realistically, if you’ve come to see Vice or The Big Short, you probably are in on the joke.

Check out nine trailers from the last week or two below.

Us

Here’s the trailer for Jordan Peele’s next horror film, and it looks like the movie is going to be a far scarier one than Get Out. It stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke as parents whose family is suddenly haunted by evil duplicates of themselves, who seem to be inescapable. It looks great, but also like it might be pushing things well beyond my (very low) personal tolerance for scary stuff. It comes out March 15th.

Stranger Things

It would hardly make sense to tease Stranger Things with a video any less cryptic than this. As best I can tell, New Year’s Eve and Independence Day are connected, there’s a hip new mall, and presumably a lot of things are going wrong. The new season debuts July 4th.

Teen Spirit

I mean, it’s Elle Fanning singing Robyn. The film has Fanning playing a teenager who enters a singing competition packed with covers of pop songs, including pieces from Tegan and Sara and Carly Rae Jepsen. It seems like a very fun approach to a story we’ve seen a few times recently. The film comes out April 5th.

The Punisher

Netflix may have canceled most of its Marvel shows, but it isn’t done with them all. The Punisher is returning for a second season, and a short teaser released this week reveals it’ll be coming back very soon — on January 18th.

Close

Noomi Rapace stars as a highly trained bodyguard tasked with protecting a wealthy businesswoman in Close, a thriller that seems to be all about women fighting greedy, dangerous men. The film comes out January 18th.

Miracle Workers

TBS has a goofy new sitcom coming up that has Steve Buscemi playing a burnt-out God and Daniel Radcliffe playing a member of a small team trying to turn things around with a few good miracles. I’m not convinced this is going to be the funniest show in the world, but it does look pretty charming. It debuts February 12th.

Carmen Sandiego

Netflix has picked up a kids show that reimagines Carmen Sandiego as a thief who steals for good, to return treasures taken by others. It’s a cute premise, and it’s kind of neat to see such an old and memorable character brought to a new medium — though I do wonder how much familiarity kids will have with the name. The show comes out January 18th.

The ABC Murders

After airing on the BBC, Amazon will debut this three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel. It doesn’t look like the most exciting Christie adaptation, but it’s always fun seeing great actors like John Malkovich take on the role of detective Hercule Poirot. The show debuts February 1st.

Arctic

This looks like it could be a fun thriller. Arctic basically just stars one explorer, played by Mads Mikkelsen, as he tries to survive in the Arctic after a crash. That lonesome element seems like it’ll be a good mix with the puzzle-like survival moments we’ve seen in similar films. It comes out February 1st.