This week’s edition of the trailer roudup holds a little something for everyone: a bit of documentary goodness, a bit of indie goodness, a few international offerings and a movie that may have it’s cast hiding it from their credits in the years to come.

Thunder Soul

The 1970s may have ushered in disco but it also brought with it something so much better: Funk. And if you were looking for good funk music, you needed look no further than Thunder Soul, a musical powerhouse made up of highschool students led by Conrad “Prof” Johnson. It was unheard of to have an all black band, never mind one led by a black music director, but these guys had the sounds and the moves to capture international attention.

Now, 35 years since they last played together, band members get together to celebrate the life and legacy of Johnson and the result looks like a feel good documentary laced with emotion; not to mention a few laughs. This is, undoubtedly, going to be one of those get up and cheer sorts of docs and the music will certainly go a long way in making this memorable.

Thunder Soul opens September 23rd.

It’s the late 1920′s and Mexico is at war. The people have risen against the government for attempting to secularize the country. It’s against this backdrop that visual effects producer Dean Wright sets his directorial debut.

The film, which follows a group of religious supporters as they fight the Mexican army, stars an imprive cast including Andy Garcia, Nestor Carbonell, Eva Longoria, Peter O’Toole as a priest and Bruce Greenwood as the American Ambassador looking out for American’s best interests. The cast has caught my attention as has the story which covers a period of history that I’m not familiar with but I’m just not sure about this trailer. There’s not enough focus and I’m not quite sure what story they’re actually telling (is this actually about the war or about one or a group of people’s experiences with it?) and that doesn’t bode well for the film itself.

Will be curious to see if this is expanded outside of Latin markets.

Cristiada is currently in post production with no details on a release date.

We Have a Pope

Leave it to the Italians to produce a film about the Pope and his relationship with his therapist. Yup, you read right. Turns out everyone needs a little help sometimes and in this case, the newly elected Pope, played by Michel Piccoli, finds himself meeting with a shrink on a regular basis to help him through the anxiety.

Though the trailer for this Cannes selection is currently only available in Italian, it’s pretty clear that there’s a comedic twist to this tale. I’d certainly be curious to see what director Nanni Moretti and his crew have put together.

French director Céline Sciamma made quite a splash with her 2007 debut Water Lilies which explored sexuality and desire between two young women. For her follow-up, Sciamma contines her exploration of youth and sexual identity with Tomboy, the story of a 10-year-old girl who decides to start dressing as a boy when her family moves into a new neighbourghood.

Like Water Lilies, Tomboy looks beautiful and I’m excited to see what Sciamma has to offer. The terms “children” and “sexuality” are not easily mixed but Sciamma proved succesful in her earlier mix and this follow-up suggests she may have struck gold again.

There are quite a few reasons to be excited for Matthew Chapman’s upcoming thriller, all of them based on the awesomeness of this cast. The first is Charlie Hunnam making his first big jump into Hollywood since his star making role in TV’s “Sons of Anarchy.” The second is Liv Tyler who we haven’t seen enough of since her role in LotRl; then there is Patrick Wilson who tends to play a very good bad guy. And let us not forget Terrence Howard who has been solid in even the worst of pictures.

That’s the good stuff because the rest of this is not looking quite so hot. The story has an atheist man on a ledge (Hunnam) threatening to jump because he doesn’t believe his life is worth living (why else would someone stand on a ledge?) and a religious man (Wilson) trying to talk him out of it and in the process, the two get into discussions of religion and personal beliefs.

Reviews from Sundance, where the film premiered earlier this year, were not positive and admittedly, the trailer doesn’t look all that promising but I do love this cast so I’m tempted to check it out.

The Ledge opens theatrically and will be availale on VOD June 29th.