This Week In Trailers: The Visit, The Hunting Ground, Mad As Hell, Partisan, The Beaver Trilogy - Part IV
By Christopher Stipp/Jan. 25, 2015 9:00 am EST
What should happen if and when alien life makes contact with human beings?
The Hunting Ground Trailer
Rape.
The way in which the word rape has seeped into our collective consciousness as an invective to hurl at the most egregious of human violations is, at the very least, some kind of indication that we are moving forward as a culture. On college campuses, though, the bastions where the fountains of knowledge, propriety, and progressive dialogue, you would think, flow free. Documentarian Kirby Dick, though, who gave us the emotionally biting and sobering look at the politics of sexual assault within the US military in the 2012 Oscar nominated doc The Invisible War, isn’t done with examining rape in large scale institutions. The trailer is as effective as anything you would think about a documentary on rape on college campuses should be and the real answer to “Why does it appear that colleges operate under some kind of different legal system than you or I are used to?” is right there. At least the hypothesis is and it’s sickeningly troubling. The trailer hits the high points about what is most likely afoot and why this is a systemic issue within the higher educational system. It should make you sad, it should make you angry, and it should remind you about the forces at play when there are those who put the reputation of a brand above the rule of law.
Partisan Trailer
There are times when I’m convinced that Vincent Cassel can look straight through to my soul.
It’s just something to wonder, thinking about how Cassel has this fluid ability to be so damn intense and, at times, light and airy like a freshly baked Madeline. This trailer is one of those former moments. I don’t know what director Ariel Kleiman is up to but if the trailer for his wildly received short Deeper Than Yesterday is any indication it will be glorious. This teaser/trailer is testament to the insane amount of impact you can have if you compose things a certain way, position others, and bringing it home with a moment that begs to be understood, snatching it away before you have a chance to resolve it. There might be oodles and oodles of information explaining what it is that we’re witnessing but when I see a little kid with a heater who is ready to kill someone in what looks like a remote, bombed out outpost enclave of Bavarian freedom fighters you’ve got my attention, my curiosity, and, soon, my money. Cassel as a father looks ready to kill and, soon, his boy will be too. Damn anyone who is able to see this when it shows at Sundance.
The Beaver Trilogy – Part IV Trailer
First, listen to this particular This American Life story. It’s about as strange and odd, yet wildly engrossing, as anything you’ll hear this week.
Mad as Hell Trailer
I fell in love with Cenk Uygur when he dissected the Ben Affleck/Bill Maher kerfuffle that erupted over Islam.
From an epistemological vantage point of breaking this conversation down to its essence parsing moments of this debate which were filtered through Uygur’s point of view was a fascinating watch. I don’t know much about Uygur or his operation but the trailer is just money. Here’s a brash guy who has a point of view, who seems rather learned about the world, about politics, and appears to have carved a niche for himself in a landscape littered with bloviating blowhards and butt-heads. I’m intrigued by his story, his ascent, his chance at greatness, and what appears to be the tale of what happens when that gold ring is snatched from your fingers when you’re that close to realizing your dream. Director Andrew Napier appears to have constructed something with this guy’s story that makes Uygur a genuine underdog. The promise this trailer has to live up to is whether it captures the ascent and how it deals with the events that follow when it reaches its turning point.
Nota bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers to possibly be included in this column, even have a trailer of your own to pitch, please let me know by sending me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com or look me up via Twitter at @Stipp
In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week:
