The Deuce wrapped up a couple weeks ago with one of the all-time weirdest final episodes. Part of me loves it: the show jumped decades into the future to show just how much New York has changed, which has really been the story of the show all along. It also felt like fan service, letting people see how these characters and events turned out down the road.
Jumping from a very stylized 1970s / 80s to a sort of stylized 2019 is extremely weird, though. It’s like seeing a character from a Western pop up on a space ship — just completely and utterly out of place.
I’m sure that was part of the point, but combined with James Franco in old man makeup, the whole thing felt uproariously goofy. The Deuce has always tried to be so much bigger than it can handle (e.g. the final episode’s emotional climax took place during a surprise wedding for a couple who are at best tertiary characters), and jumping ahead to the present day was kind of the ultimate demonstration of that.
Check out nine trailers from this week below.
Bad Boys For Life
I think motorcycle chases are probably just inherently cooler than car chases because the vehicles are more nimble and you can see the rider. At least, that is my takeaway from the end of this trailer, where there are a bunch of motorcycles and one definitely blows up. The movie comes out January 17th.
Soul
Oh no, this trailer is only a minute long and I’m already borderline crying. Point being, Pixar’s latest looks like it’s going to be good. It comes out next year on June 19th.
Wendy
Wendy is the first film from director Benh Zeitlin since Beasts of the Southern Wild, and the two movies seem to share a lot of wonderful things in common. This reimagining of Peter Pan from Wendy’s perspective looks utterly magical and charming. It comes out February 28th.
Servant
With Apple TV Plus live and the first set of shows available, Apple is now starting to preview what comes next. One of those is as trailer for a series from M. Night Shyamalan about a fake baby, or a creepy nanny, or... some combination of very eerie-looking things. It comes out November 28th.
The Banker
Apple is also getting a film starring Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie about two men in 1950s California who buy a bank to help black residents get homes in white neighborhoods. It’s based on a real story — and prosecution — and comes out December 6th.
Hala
Of the three Apple TV Plus trailers this week, Hala is absolutely the standout. It’s about a Pakistani American teenager figuring out how to straddle two worlds — the adventures of high school, and the locked-down world of overprotective parents. It comes out December 6th.
The New Pope
Having not seen The Young Pope, I am truly confused by what to expect from The New Pope. But I like that John Malkovich is in it, I like that there are neon lights, and I like that there appears to be a pope showdown in the cards. The season starts in January.
The Two Popes
Okay, it has happened twice now that Netflix and HBO released trailers for their upcoming pope titles during the same week. Both involve two popes. Both somehow look really good. But like, what? How is this happening? This one comes out December 20th.
Color Out of Space
It’s been far too long since we got a bonkers Nic Cage movie, but thankfully Color Out of Space has come along. Just gonna quote Nic here: “Then everything just blew up. Big flash. Like a pink light. Or actually, I don’t even know what color it was. It wasn’t like any color I’d ever seen before.”