I recently saw Motherless Brooklyn, Edward Norton’s adaptation of the two-decade-old Jonathan Lethem novel about a private investigator with Tourette syndrome. I’ve never read the book, but from what I gather, the movie is an almost complete departure from the text outside of its core conceit.
Departing from the book isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Norton’s instinct to play up the noir elements makes for a fun, slapstick twist on the genre at points, and 1950s New York is a lot of fun to explore.
But the movie also feels a little hollowed out. Norton basically jams a tour through The Power Broker (the famously thorough 1975 biography of Robert Moses, which has nothing to do with Motherless Brooklyn) into the core of his adaptation, without much to say about it. It’s great historical drama, but it’s mostly used here to give the characters something cool to see and do. That story deserves a whole lot more attention than what it’s given.
Check out eight trailers from this week below.
Wonder Woman 1984
The first trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 came out this week, and it’s really all about highlighting how stylized and 1980s this thing is going to be. Seriously, I have almost no idea of what’s happening in the movie after watching this — this trailer is all about the vibe, and it looks like a lot of fun. The film comes out June 5th.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
So listen, this looks like a perfectly nice movie. But I’m completely puzzled why this is what we’re getting after all the ridiculous hubbub over the last Ghostbusters. The last movie, from what I could tell, felt much like the original: four people, in New York, in a ludicrous comedy. This new movie is... weirdly serious? It feels like the Episode VII of Ghostbusters, ushering a new generation into a huge dramatic story. Except Ghostbusters is not a huge dramatic story, it’s a silly comedy! What is happening here? It comes out July 10th.
In the Heights
I’m not a huge fan of musicals, but even I have to admit this looks like a lot of fun. In the Heights is an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway play, and it’s directed by Jon M. Chu, who was recently behind a small romcom you may have heard of, Crazy Rich Asians. It comes out June 26th.
Promising Young Woman
Emerald Fennell, who took over as Killing Eve’s head writer in season 2, is coming out with her debut feature film next year. Promising Young Woman taps into some of those same tones for a scary drama about revenge, which has Carey Mulligan playing a woman who, in seemingly a variety of twisted ways, takes down would-be rapists. It comes out April 17th.
The Witcher
Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher arrives at the end of the month, when we’ll find out just how much of an epic, Game of Thrones-eseque event the streaming service can turn it into. At the very least, the show looks like it’s bound to be visually impressive with the budget to do things on an appropriately huge scale. It comes out December 20th.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
There are two types of Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons: ones where Larry obnoxiously breaks social norms and we watch the fallout, and ones where Larry bumps up against norms in unexpected ways, highlighting just how weird they can be. I really think only one of these, the latter, makes for good seasons of the show — and there have been some excellent seasons. But I thought season 9 went too far in the “obnoxious Larry” direction, and it seems like season 10 is headed that way, too. I hope not, because Curb can be such a fun show to watch when it’s at its best. The new season starts January 19th.
Antlers
I didn’t include an earlier trailer for Antlers because the movie seems to be hitting a lot of very familiar horror beats. But you know, it seems to be doing a good job of it, too. The movie looks quiet and creepy, and who doesn’t love seeing a pained Jesse Plemons say something that he obviously knows more about than he’s letting on. The movie comes out April 17th.
Free Guy
I didn’t think this was a real movie when I first started seeing trailers floating around for it, because it just seems so much like a weird little joke Ryan Reynolds would make. But no... this is a movie. A real, complete movie about, basically, an NPC in a video game who becomes a real player, or something like that. The premise is strange and a little nonsensical. The entire thing is weird, really. I’m mostly sharing this out of morbid fascination. It’s coming to theaters? I don’t believe it. Supposedly it’s happening on July 3rd.
Comments
WONDER WOMAN 2! Enough said.
By MorbidGod on 12.14.19 10:30am
It looks super cringe to be copying Thor Ragnarok. Like they can’t do their own thing. Or am I just completely jaded by the DC universe?
At least they got "cool woman" going for it. But can’t even lose the guy.
I’m sorry, I’m so jaded. I hope it sells gangbusters, but it looks like a movie that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
By Samuel Hauptmann van Dam on 12.14.19 2:02pm
I didn’t get a Ragnarok vibe at all.
By jtfields on 12.15.19 1:18pm
Seems nothing like Ragnarok. I give DC shit every chance I get, but I thought that trailer looks good.
By Stone Cold Dan Quinn on 12.15.19 3:57pm
Well yeah Ragnarok took 80’s styling and WW 2 is set in the 80’s so of course you’re going to see some small resemblance.
By Series on 12.15.19 8:27pm
I didn’t get a Ragnarok vibe at all.
I did get a big time Stranger Things vibe… mainly cause of the mall scene.. I’m also now missing malls more..
By TK-093 on 12.15.19 8:47pm
Same.
By Nefrarya on 12.16.19 3:23am
I don’t know what the hell all that is, but it looks fun so I’m in.
Steve Trevor is Steve Rogers then?
By nerdrage on 12.14.19 2:34pm
I didn’t get a Ragnarok vibe at all
By chad crisford on 12.16.19 3:17am
Blue Monday didn’t come out until 1986. Need to rewrite history to make those nostalgia dollars.
By udenjoe on 12.17.19 10:15am
It look crap and super cringy.
By redeo on 12.20.19 10:41am
2 Things:
1)Take the cars out and nothing about Wonder Woman remotely says 1980s.
2) Listen to The Antlers’ Hospice is literally 1000x more terrifying than that trailer.
By gilamonster on 12.14.19 11:06am
Except for the music, the colors, the clothing, the physical settings (a giant ass mall?), and the feel. But yes, outside of all those things it totally could be literally any other time ever.
By LouisPiper on 12.14.19 11:21am
Odd non sequitur.
By fragilities on 12.14.19 11:22am
It’s not a non sequitur:
The last Ghostbusters movie was by and large a Ghostbusters movie on paper with a slightly more modern comedy sense.
There was a hubbub about that that fell into two primary camps: 1) it’s woke pandering nonsense to put in all women as the leads (also known as, the bad take) and 2) why make a Ghostbusters movie that pretends the other movies never existed (the much sounder critique)?
The creative people behind this movie have been promising something that is more directly reflective of and tied to the original movies but then they go and release a first look trailer that completely misses the tone of its predecessors and also makes weird choices when it comes to things like not using the original music for an obvious applause line at an obvious point in the trailer.
The point being: if it was a mistake to make a Ghostbusters movie that ignores the earlier movies it’s just as weird to course correct by embracing the earlier movies while ignoring the genre those movies existed in.
By brianericford on 12.14.19 9:25pm
There’s only one joke in the first trailer for the original Ghostbusters. They were being far more serious than most people today seem to acknowledge.
By iamnotafilmmaker on 12.14.19 10:54pm
The fact that you don’t understand that many comedies from the era of the original ghostbusters aren’t like comedies from 2019 doesn’t mean ghostbusters was intended to be a "serious" movie.
It’s is utterly bizarre to me that people are dying on the hill of defending the tone of this trailer as some sort of pure homage to the original movies.
By brianericford on 12.15.19 4:42pm
Oh please tell us more facts about things we don’t understand.
By Series on 12.15.19 8:33pm
I’d be happy to if you’re going to seriously maintain that Ghostbusters wasn’t a comedy.
By brianericford on 12.17.19 1:54am
I was around at the time and remember it clearly. It was a huge summer blockbuster action movie. Think Beverly Hills cop or Lethal Weapon.
By Captain Megaton on 12.16.19 3:44am
You think Beverly Hills Cop wasn’t a comedy?
By brianericford on 12.17.19 1:54am
So which one do you think the writer was referring to as "all the ridiculous hubbub"?
By fragilities on 12.15.19 11:31am
So all the people who were upset about either of those issues are going to be perfectly fine with Ghostbusters that invokes Stranger Things more than the Ghostbusters movies — so long as the original cast has a few cameos?
Not sure why that’s a weird thing to point out as curious.
(And, for the record: I don’t deny that the movie itself may play like a direct tonal homage – I dispute that this trailer gives any indication that it will.)
By brianericford on 12.15.19 4:46pm
No idea what you’re trying to say. My point is that it’s odd to bring up the wokeness angle but then chicken out of actually talking about it.
By fragilities on 12.15.19 7:20pm
For me or the author? If the author this isn’t where that sort of discussion would happen — it’s a short list of trailers for the week with his off-the-cuff reactions.
If me, I’ll discuss anything you want to discuss probably in greater detail than you’d like.
Anyway, you sound like you meant "odd aside" rather than "odd non sequitur" because what you quoted isn’t a non sequitur at all. THAT was my point.
By brianericford on 12.15.19 8:38pm