“Ema”
In just thirty seconds, the heady atmosphere of Pablo Larrain’s dance drama “Ema” is conveyed perfectly in pulsating beats and neon-soaked streets. There are sexual tension and resentment between its dancers and lovers, danger and horror as a young woman sets fire to the sky and is about to terrify the man she, supposedly, loves the most. It’s a meditation on motherhood that’s always moving, and the few lines of dialogue in the trailer highlight that it’s about losing and regaining as much as it is about just loving. The infectious music comes from electronic producer Nicolas Jaar, who proves he should be scoring movies all the time – few compositions this year have done it better.
“Sound of Metal”
Loud disruption and quiet recovery are juxtaposed in the trailer for “Sound of Metal,” as stillness is communicated through the muffled noise of a hand hitting down on a metal slide as much as the initial ear-splitting thud of drumsticks on a drum kit. Darius Marder has made a movie as much about disability as addiction, and the teaser splits its time between both the cause of a loss of hearing – a heavy metal band – and the road to recovery at a secluded sober house for the deaf. It’s a complex, immersive film, that reaches new heights to allow an audience to suffer and wait and heal and learn alongside its protagonists in a sensory way. Just in these two minutes alone, Riz Ahmed is as heartbreaking as you’ve ever seen him. Poetry and power in motion.
“Judas and the Black Messiah”
It’s never going to be a less than thrilling time to see another Daniel Kaluuya joint – and as he gears up a crowd to shout “I am a revolutionary” as Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton, you can feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. And then there’s Lakeith Stanfield and Jesse Plemons providing the conflict here – and “Judas and the Black Messiah” is already building up to be the most corrosive and explosive film we’ve seen in years. No screams are too loud, no violence unwarranted. Plot matters little, as we’re dealing with real events – looking at Hampton’s betrayal and assassination. What the trailer gives you is a fire, a reason to stand up and revolt and start speaking up. This is the kind of trailer that sets your soul alight and reminds you just how powerful movies really can be.
“The Nest”
What begins with quiet sophistication, even a sense of calm, soon reveals more tension as one marriage hides secrets and danger in “The Nest.” Sean Durkin’s masterstroke in this trailer makes you feel like something with fantastical, impossible plot twists must be unfolding behind the eyes of these actors giving the performances of a lifetime (Carrie Coon, in particular, steals it), as lavish mansions and extravagant dinners aim to paper over the cracks of a failing, duplicitous marriage. It’s a rare feat to take the struggles of the very wealthy in cinema without turning them into caricatural villains. Still, Durkin does just that here: you might marvel at the settings, the clothes, the beauty of it all, but the suffocation still builds. There’s no clue as to what exactly will go wrong – but you know it’s only a matter of time.
“Bacurau”
“Do you want to live, or die?” It’s a simple question, but there’s nothing basic about Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ genre-bending Western. In just 90 seconds, MUBI cuts together scenes of tranquility and community with violence and freakish interference – both from tourists and from, well, something much more foreign – to create a sense of dizzying dread. “Bacurau” is a cacophonic masterpiece that constantly throws the viewer off-guard, so it makes sense that the trailer operates with the same level of mystery. Plus, the film is nothing if not stylish – and so the futuristic soundtrack scoring the vivid colors of rural Brazil work brilliantly.