Beautiful Teasing: "Fences" and "20th Century Women"
Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 12:50PM 
The latest potentially rich films to tease are two of our most anticipated 2016 features. They aren't coming out until the last week of December. We worry for 20th Century Women that it will be lost in the shuffle (why oh why this release date?) but Fences at least will win attention due to the combined starpower at its center and the event prestige of the August Wilson award-winner making it to the big screen. The terrific teaser trailers are after the jump with a few notes on each.
FENCES TEASER
Beautifully coherent trailer with the father/son discussion seguewaying to the broader themes and family joys and pain. Cross all your fingers that this lives up to the hype. It's so hard to pull off that stage-to-screen transition as history is littered with exciting plays that fell flat on film including, recently, Doubt and August Osage County. But back to the teaser: how perfect is it that It's perfect that Viola Davis gets the last word? And it's good to see Jovan Apedo get a prime movie gig after his fine work on The Leftovers (s2).
Intimate character dramas can sometimes struggle in Oscar's craft categories but it's probably worth noting that Denzel assembled quite a team for this film - Sharen Davis on costumes, David Gropman on production design, Hughes Winborne editing. They've all been in the Oscar race before. He went with a fairly new name for his DP though. It's Danish cinematographer Charlotte Brus Christensen. She's only done a handful of features (including The Hunt, Girl on the Train, and Far From the Madding Crowd).
20TH CENTURY WOMEN
How interesting to watch these teases back to back and consider their similar smart construction - open with a speech and the mother's reaction to it. Explode into montage of scenes from the film and watch the humanity blossom. This looks just delicious and we know from Beginners (2011) that Mike Mills can make masterful family dramas with great humor to them. What's your primary takeaway? Mine is this: There are few sounds in the world as pleasurable as The Bening's voice. It's possibly the best vocal instrument in the movies, so light and sparkly on top with a deep resonant undertow.
On a scale of 1 to 10 how in love with both of these teases are you? We'll do Yes No Maybe So when we get full trailers.
Reader Comments (55)
Fences would've been a great November/Thanksgiving release, I think. But either way... VIOLA FOR THE OSCAR
Just remember Ulrich - irony is at the heart of great storytelling.
I think the love for LaLa Land and the awe for Natalie's transformation will cause Emma and Natalie to cancel each other out, thus give it to an actress that is very well respected in the industry- Viola. A powerhouse performance further amplified by the overdue-status of its performer.
Critics Groups- Natalie
GG (Drama)- Natalie
GG (Comedy/Musical)- Emma
Critics Choice- Viola
SAG- Viola
OSCARS- Viola
No woman has EVER been nominated for Cinematography. Let that sink in for a second. I'm all for seeing what Charlotte Brus Christensen does here and hope that it's worthy to make some Oscar history.
FENCES: Trailer teaser was excellent! This is going to be Denzel's "Lincoln." It's starting, people. Viola's snot acting really bothers me like it did in "Doubt," but no doubt there's a power to her that can't be denied. You in danger, Natalie.
20TH CENTURY WOMEN: Perfectly fine, but it looked like one of those Sundance quirkfests that the Academy normally doesn't bother with when various heavyhitters are available to nominate instead. But all bets are off with THE BENING around, so yeah, good teaser and I'm hoping for the best.
Dorian:
I'm all for a woman to be nominated for an Academy Award, but it shouldn't be Charlotte Bruus Christensen - I find her work to be so overrated.
The Hunt was really boring-looking, so was Submarino.
Far From The Madding Crowd looked very nice but, like I said, anybody could make beautiful images out of those settings and those landscapes.
And FENCES; very ordinary looking, judging from the teaser.
I say nominate Natasha Braier for Neon Demon - even though I thought her work on The Rover was even more spectacular.