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.