It’s been a while since our last installment but there really hasn’t been that much stuff to talk about lately. I have, however, dug up a few overlooked videos some of which look good while others under-perform.

Pride and Glory

A movie starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight is supposed to excite but this trailer for Gavin O’Connor’s film is lame. Not only is it completely unappealing but it looks like it’s a few months too late, borrowing heavily from the story line from the surprisingly good We Own the Knight and the not so good Street Kings (our review).

I’m not quite sure what Norton was thinking taking this role, he’s better than this, and though Farrell doesn’t have much to say in the trailer, I get the sense there’s a reason for that - his accent here sounds atrocious. And here I thought he could actually take a step in the right direction after the surprise hit that was In Bruges (our review).

I’m not impressed.

Pride and Glory opens on October 24th.

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I.O.U.S.A.

There’s a lot of “From the producers of blah blah blah and the director of blah blah blah” in this trailer and I’m not quite sure how far it’s really going to go to make it’s point but I.O.U.S.A. has potential to be the most important film to come out of the US this year. I’m not sure director Patrick Creadon, who directed the mildly interesting Wordplay, succeeds but he gets a few credits for trying.

In a society where spending what you don’t have is OK and even encouraged, it’s not surprising that the US, a nation of consumers, may be “on the brink of a financial meltdown.” I’m not an economist nor do I follow economics all that closely but it doesn’t take a genious to figure out that something is going to have to break at some point. Apparently this documentary “explores the country’s shocking current fiscal condition and ways to avoid a national economic disaster.”

I.O.U.S.A. opens in limited release on August 21st.



More trailers tucked under the seat.

Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger

Awkward teen coming-of-age story. We’ve seen them before and they’re not likely to go away any time soon though for every 10 crappy ones, there’s a good on in the bunch and this one could, potentially, be that diamond in the rough.

Cathy Randall’s directorial debut stars new comer Danielle Catanzariti as an uncool 13 year old girl who’s trying to fit in. She somehow ends up transferring to a public school where she befriends a troublesome girl played by Oscar nominated turned teen pregnancy poster girl Keisha Castle-Hughes. They also have Toni Collette mixed in for good measure.

I’m not completely sold on this one but I do love some of the visuals in the trailer, particularly the girls sitting on the lawn having lunch, but they could be anomalies in an otherwise mediocre dramedy. Either way, it’s one I’m curious to see.

At the moment, it doesn’t look like Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger has a North American release date.

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Winged Creatures

This doesn’t just smell like Oscar bait - it reeks of it but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I was ready to pounce on this as one to skip, especially with the comparisons to Crash but I’m not sure I agree with those comparisons. This reminds me much more of The Sweet Hereafter.

Directed by Rowan Woods, who was also responsible for the little seen Australian indie Little Fish, Winged Creatures features an excellent ensemble cast which includes Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Jackie Earle Haley (looking eerily like Daniel Day-Lewis), Jennifer Hudson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Guy Pearce and Forest Whitaker, as a group of strangers brought together after surviving a random shooting in an LA diner.

I know, it sounds a little groan inducing and the trailer leaves a fair bit to be desired, like maybe a bit of emotion, but I’m really impressed by this cast so yes, I’ve nibbled on the bait and got caught.


Winged Creatures doesn’t have a release date but I expect we’ll be seeing it before the end of the year.

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The Fox & the Child

I’d heard nothing about this film until I saw an interview with director Luc Jacquet which peaked my interest. Jacquet, who won an Oscar for March of the Penguins, is returning to more traditional story telling with this story of a little girl who meets and befriends a fox.

Now don’t start thinking that this is a talking fox. No such thing here instead, the film is told through the actions on screen and an English narration by the wonderful Kate Winslet (the film was originally narrated in French by Isabelle Carré). I was a bit concerned this would be corny but instead, I’m surprised at how much I like this trailer and how it brings up memories of the movies and even cartoons I saw as a kid. There’s also something magical about Jacquet’s direction - everything seems real but oddly mystical.

It’s not surprising that the film doesn’t have a US release date yet, it doesn’t seem to be the kind of film that would appeal to American sensibilities, but if you’re in the UK, you’re in luck because The Fox & the Child opens on August 8th. I hope it eventually makes its way over here because it looks breathtaking.