Too Spoilery, Too Soon?

How soon is too soon for spoilers?

It's hard to keep the lid on plot details of any film with instant reactions available on Twitter and spreading rapidly. You can try to avoid reading reviews and recaps, but what about the times that a film's marketing campaign gives away too much? It's frustrating to see any new trailer that foretells too much plot, but is it okay to be open with story beats if we've already had time to experience the film?

Recently, 10 Cloverfield Lane has been among the best at teasing us with what it had in store. It's very title alone suggests something more than meets the eye, but it's minimal trailers and posters never dipped more than a toe into the plot elements or scares in this pop-up mini-event movie. Announcing its presence a mere two months before release and never revealing much more was a bold and brave marketing risk that hopefully more studios will be willing to take in the future, for it paid off in spades for the viewing experience.

Less elusive, but still similarly slim on the plot, The Witch came out in February after a year on the festival circuit and a solid block of enticing pre-release materials. General audiences were only promised a chilling horror and remained unspoiled about how it would conclude. The film is getting another push this weekend (to 666 theatres) in the hopes of passing Ex Machina as distributor a24's highest grosser. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing one of the best of the year thus far!

But to coincide with 10 Cloverfield Lane's international rollout and this final expansion for The Witch, there are a new poster and trailer that kick the bucket into full spoiler territory. If you haven't seen either yet and want to remain unspoiled, stop right here. MAJOR SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP...

Click to read more ...

First Bite. Will "The Founder" Serve Tasty Drama?

As iconic logos go, it's impossible to beat those golden arches. Smart teaser work, then, to instantly brand your movie. On the other hand...

Does McDonalds really scream "Major Motion Picture" or will it have people thinking i saw a doc about that once. 

The presence of the newly dazzling Michael Keaton (quite a comeback these past two years!) should help win the film attention. Keaton is the businessman who wrestled away control of McDonalds in the 1950s and made it into an empire... but not without a lot of behind the scenes drama apparently. The supporting cast includes John Carrol Lynch and Nick Offerman as the actual McDonald brothers, and Laura Dern as Keaton's wife. Patrick Wilson and Linda Cardellini play another couple though we're not sure how they fit into the story. The film opens on August 5th from the Weinstein Co who keep claiming they're determined to make the summer work for Oscar launches (after having helped making the last quarter mandatory over the last 20+ years).

The screenplay is by Robert Seigel (who wrote The Wrestler and Big Fan). Director John Lee Hancock has directed one Best Picture nominee to date (The Blind Side) and one intended Oscar player that didn't get invited to the playground (Saving Mr Banks) but his best film remains The Rookie (2002) don't you think? Part of the one-two punch (with Far From Heaven -- odd bedfellows!) that should have been the great sticky comeback for Dennis Quaid a dozen plus years back. (We're distracted by comeback stories of late thanks to Kyle's Easter post.)

Do you have high hopes for The Founder, Oscar-related or otherwise?

The One Thought I Had While Staring At The Nice Guys Poster

Manuel here. I was making my way through recent casting news, and trailers dropped, and posters revealed to see what I should share with you all this morning when I found the new poster for the Russell Crowe/Ryan Gosling buddy action comedy The Nice Guys and well… I was hypnotized by one specific detail about it.

Did you spot it? I can’t unsee it and I keep going back and forth on whether it’s an intentional flourish on the part of the marketing team (if so, thank you Concept Arts, you know your Gosling audience well!) or just an inadvertent consequence of the period-appropriate attire the Shane Black flick is going for (it would also mesh well with the cheeky tone of the film's very funny trailer). Either way, I had to open it up to the TFE readership at large: will you be watching the film to see if this VPL is a key plot point in the film?

Oh, yeah, I guess we should talk more about the film's plot which pairs a bumbling private eye (Gosling) with a no-nonsense er, "enforcer" (Crowe) to solve a missing person's case (Kim Bassinger's daughter in the film; oh, did I bury the lede that Bassinger is in this? Wait til you hear Matt Bomer is in it too!). The film definitely feels well within the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wheelhouse but that's not a complaint since I very much enjoyed that 2005 film which, we have to admit, paved the way for the Robert Downey Jr. renaissance we all thought might never come to pass. Pre-Iron Man RDJ—remember that? Seems like a lifetime ago. And yes, that's also a reminder that Black is fresh off directing Iron Man 3 which makes his return to more off-kilter filmmaking a welcome change (oftentimes you just lose directors to the sequel/blockbuster-making machine, you know?)

Feel free to watch the trailer and let us know which way you’re leaning.

Posterized: Saoirse Ronan

Since we forgot to celebrate Saint Patricks Day and since Brooklyn is fresh on DVD, let's talk everyone's favorite current Irish lass! Saoirse Ronan is only 21 years old (she turns 22 next month) but she's already logged over a decade of work having started as a child in a Irish television series called "The Clinic". Her first movie role was as Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter in the romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman shot in 2005 though it took along time to emerge due to behind the scenes studio and distribution dramas. Her breakthrough Oscar-nominated performance in Atonement (2007) quickly followed. She's now ascended to a real movie star with her warm engaging film-carrying work in Brooklyn (2015).

Let's repeat a bit of Oscar trivia since it's quite impressive and important: Saoirse Ronan (nominated at 13 and 21) is only the 4th child star in history to received an Oscar nomination before and after turning 18. The very short list includes only the icons Jodie Foster (first nominated at 14), Natalie Wood (first nominated at 17) and Sal Mineo. (first nominated at 17) so that's astonishingly good company for Saoirse! (If you count "special" non competitive Oscars you can include Judy Garland, too, who received a "juvenile" statue for The Wizard of Oz when she was 17.) Most child stars peak when they're children, you see, but Saoirse is surely just getting started. 

How many of her films have you seen? (all posters after the jump)

Click to read more ...

Thoughts I Had While Looking at the Miss Peregrine... Poster

Just in time for the kiddies' spring break movie fever, we've started to see teases for the new teen-targeted Tim Burton feature Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Based on the young adult book series by Ransom Riggs, there's a feast of spooky oddities that fit right into Burton's sensibilities. However, the first looks suggest that he's playing into his current era's weaknesses. The trailer and some thoughts I had staring at the new poster after the jump...

Click to read more ...