Chris here. As the upcoming fall festival and Oscar season looms, get ready for a steady stream of incoming footage for this year's hopefuls to start cropping up in the coming weeks. Today we have some peeks at a few weepies ready to work your tear ducts on their path to awards: Manchester By The Sea, A United Kingdom, and Lion. Take a look at the trailers (and a few quick thoughts) below:
Manchester By The Sea
• Kenneth Lonergan is definitely returning to You Can Count On Me territory after the intellectual meanderings of Margaret, with already raved about results.
• Isn't Kyle Chandler in this? Obviously new star Lucas Hedges will be the supporting Oscar play here, but when will the always strong Chandler finally get his due?
• I've read Michelle Williams performance compared to Beatrice Straight in Network several times. Looks like we'll have a brief spellbinder of a performance.
• A common complaint for trailers such as this, but that cliche uplifting rock tune seems extra tacked on here. Lonergan would never.
A United Kingdom
• This and Loving will no doubt face cheap comparisons to one another in the coming season. Kingdom looks to be playing to more broad, rousing emotions on a larger scale.
• The gorgeous coupling of Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo sends my heart all aflutter. That's a lot of pretty.
• While it doesn't look like the historical drama mold won't be broken here, the two stars ferocity might be what gives it some life.
• After Belle, this is an excited sep up in scale for director Amma Asante, who seems poised to give us a moving crowdpleaser.
Lion
• The trailer works just as hard to sell the plot as it does to establish Rooney Mara as Silent Supportive Girlfriend. She has more caring glances in the trailer than actual words.
• Dev Patel is charismatic if not always great, so his understated emoting here should at least shed some of his "aw shucks" persona.
• So little Nicole to be seen here that she's eclipsed by her unfortunate wig.
• Will the Weinstein Company financial woes hold this one back in the awards race? They have this and The Founder this year, and Michael Keaton might be the one Harvey throws his weight behind.
What are your thoughts on Manchester By The Sea, A United Kingdom, and Lion?