The trailer for “The Menu” was a surprising black comedy and horror mash-up that was hard to read. It was tough to tell if it was a genuinely smart satire, a corny genre exercise, or a potential guilty pleasure. Maybe a little of all. But I really did like what I saw, and the early reaction from its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival have made it sound even more tasty. Now Searchlight Pictures has released the new poster which is as odd as the movie sounds. It’s also just as alluring. What do you think?

DIRECTOR – Mike Mylod

WRITER – Seth Reiss, Will Tracy

STARRING – Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Judith Light, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, John Leguizamo, Reed Birney, Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Arturo Castro.

RELEASE – November 18, 2022

The great Jean-Luc Godard has passed away.

A renowned movie critic, screenwriter, and director, Godard was a pioneer and architect of the French New Wave, a film movement of the 1960s that significantly reshaped the way movies were being made. Along with other cinema revolutionaries such as Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol, Varda, Rivette, and Resnais, Godard challenged not only the way filmmakers approached movie-making, but also the way they viewed life through their lenses.

Godard is without question one of the most influential and groundbreaking filmmakers in cinema history. And storytellers are still drawing from his work to this day.

Jean-Luc Godard was 91.

Out of the recent flurry of awards season trailers, one that has stuck with me most is “The Good Nurse”. The film comes from Tobias Lindholm who co-wrote two of my favorite movies of the last decade, “The Hunt” and “Another Round”. Here Lindholm directs from a script by Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917”, “The Last Night in Soho”). That combination mixed with the star power of Oscar winners Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne puts this unsettling thriller for Netflix high on my list.

Chastain plays a nurse named Amy Loughren and Redmayne plays her co-worker Charles Cullen. Cullen was a real-life serial killer who eventually confessed to murdering a confirmed 29 people while working as a nurse in New Jersey. The most chilling part of his story is that it’s believed Cullen may be responsible for as many as 400 deaths. Both Chastain and Redmayne look tremendous in this, and the story itself carries a disturbing weight. This could be a winner for Netflix.

“The Good Nurse” opens in select theaters October 19th before streaming on Netflix October 26th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

After premiering yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival, Universal has dropped the trailer for Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated new film “The Fabelmans”. First reactions to the movie have called it a bonafide frontrunner for Best Picture at the upcoming Academy Awards. I certainly wouldn’t say that without seeing it, but the trailer itself features a lot of things Academy voters love. And it features a lot of things I love as well.

“The Fabelmans” is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama about Spielberg’s childhood that sees the esteemed co-writer/director not only reflecting on his family but showing the birth of his love for filmmaking. The film stars Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as Mitzi and Burt Fabelman, a working couple raising their family in Arizona. Gabriel LaBelle plays their eldest son Sammy, a bright-eyed aspiring filmmaking (guess who his character represents). There’s no denying Spielberg’s personal touch, and his sincerity and warmth oozes from every frame of the trailer. I can’t wait to see this.

“The Fabelmans” hits select theaters November 11th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

The first trailer for the DC Extended Universe’s “Black Adam” left me interested but not sold. Now the studio has dropped trailer #2 and now I can proudly say I’m all onboard. Sure there are still questions. But I really like the new footage and (more importantly) the collection of characters who will be be introduced to the DCEU. And just hearing the words “Justice Society” uttered had me smiling like a little boy. Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Atom Smasher…. Let’s go!

I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to see past Dwayne Johnson’s big personality to get to the core of the character Black Adam. But the actor certainly brings the intensity in the new trailer. I love Black Adam, and his story is tremendous movie material. And what I like even more is that this feels like the return of the larger-than-life superhero movie. While the MCU seems content with light, frothy, and more grounded content, DC is at its best when it takes its heroes seriously and tells their stories with plenty of grit. That’s what I want from this movie, and the new trailer looks promising.

“Black Adam” hits theaters October 21st. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Currently making its rounds across the festival circuit, “Armageddon Time” is the upcoming period drama from writer-director James Gray. It’s a coming-of-age movie inspired by Gray’s own childhood in Queens during the 1980s. A stellar cast is attached including Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Anthony Hopkins. As an autobiographical piece, this is clearly close to the filmmaker’s heart. But the new trailer is hard to read. In one sense the film looks captivating. It also comes across as heavy-handed which I hope isn’t the case for the film itself.

The trailer introduces us to two classmates, Paul (Banks Repeta) who is white and Johnny (Jaylin Webb) who is black. They develop a close friendship based on mutual interests. But racism soon surfaces as various people, including some within Paul’s own family, warn the boy to stay away from his friend. Will Paul stay quiet or stand up against the heartbreaking bigotry? Gray looks to be following in the footsteps of Cuaron’s “Roma” and Branagh’s “Belfast”. But how will his film hold up against those two Oscar winners? Will it be too on-the-nose? We shall see.

“Armageddon Time” hits theaters October 28th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.