Article originally appears at The Verge
I finally got around to watching one of the movies I’d been most interested in seeing last year: Columbus, the debut feature from the film essayist Kogonada. It’s a deliberately slow, gentle movie that’s largely about two people talking through their problems while stuck together in a slow-moving town.
What’s really neat about the film is how deeply integrated its plot and dialogue are with its locations. The film is set in Columbus, Indiana, a city filled with modernist architecture. It provides a really strong visual backdrop, but it’s also the subject of so many of the characters’ conversations, since both have deep relationships with architectural studies.
Having the setting so deeply integrated gives a purpose and a drama to each scene. It’s the subject of discussion; it’s the looming issue. It’s a really smart way to frame a relatively simple story that could have otherwise taken place in nondescript bars and parking lots.
Check out 11 trailers from this week below.
ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL
The conceit behind Once Upon a Deadpool — the reworked, PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2,peppered with frame story intermissions starring Fred Savage — is perhaps just so stupid that it works. Is this whole bit actually in the movie? It is so long and so dumb. But it’s also so pleased with itself, and I’m kind of all for it. The recut film came out this week.
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS
I thought the 2014 Godzilla was a major letdown. (There’s a reason the main character isn’t returning for the sequel, and it isn’t that he’s dead!) But I guess this is too big of a series to give up on. Naturally, the solution for making Godzilla 2 more engaging is adding in even more monsters. At least we get a starring role for Millie Bobby Brown. It comes out on May 31st.
TRUE DETECTIVE
Here’s the most straightforward trailer yet for True Detective season 3, which is highlighted by Mahershala Ali starring as a detective at multiple points in his career, from a young man to a much older one, who is still trying to figure out the same cases and problems. For as rough as season 2 was, it’s hard not to be interested in a return that looks like this. The new season starts on January 13th.
HOTEL MUMBAI
Dev Patel and Armie Hammer star as two people who are caught in a hotel during the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. It’s a deeply serious subject to build a thriller around, and for the time being, that’s what this looks like: a star-studded formula masked in real and recent history. It comes out on March 29th.
TRIGGER WARNING
Giving Killer Mike a TV show is such an obvious move that I don’t know why it took someone this long to do it. Killer Mike has been a powerful, compelling, and often controversial political voice over the past few years. Like his talk show appearances, whichever way this show goes, it’s likely to be worth tuning into. The show’s six episodes debut on January 18th.
PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE
This 100 percent only exists because of the immense success of The Lego Movie. What’s nice about these totally unnecessary adaptations is that they essentially start with a blank slate, and the film’s creators are left to figure out any kind of tone, story, and universe that they want to explore. Playmobil is using that freedom to likewise head all over the place, but it seems to be going for something closer to the easy, kid-safe content of a DreamWorks movie than the crossover humor that the Lego series has tapped into. The film comes out next summer.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
With the premiere date for season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery closing in, CBS has put out a new trailer that plays its biggest card: Spock is coming to the show. Fans were already aware of this after it was confirmed back at Comic-Con, but this is the first trailer in which he’s more than just a passing glimpse. The new season starts on January 17th.
TRIPLE FRONTIER
Netflix’s next big movie is a heist film starring Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac as former military operatives who take their training and use it to attempt a major robbery, where things, naturally, go awry. Netflix is also releasing this film in theaters, so clearly the company has big hopes for its success. It comes out in March.
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
Netflix may be bored with its Marvel heroes, but it clearly isn’t done with superheroes altogether. The Umbrella Academy is a quirky, stylized series with a really eclectic cast, and it looks like it could be a ton of fun. The show is based on Dark Horse Comics series that got its start a decade ago. The series debuts on February 15th.
BRIGHTBURN
I’m not sure I actually like this trailer, but it is definitely an interesting one. Brightburn is a small-scale “superhero” movie that takes the Superman origin in a very different direction. Instead of growing up to be a hero, the alien boy who crashes to Earth turns out to be… something much worse. It comes out on May 27th.
TIDYING UP WITH MARIE KONDO
I am at once amazed that this is a TV series and aware that this is probably going to be the biggest show on Netflix next month. It comes out on January 1st.
