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| Chiwetel Ejiofor |
Welcome to the weekly column Trailing Off in which I take a look at a trailer from the past week and analyze its potential. This will be done using an obnoxious amount of analyzing and personal thoughts on the cast and crew as well as expectations. Coming every Sunday (it's called Trailing Off for a reason), I will attempt to highlight films ranging from new blockbusters to lesser known indies and give them their due. Partially to spread awareness, I do believe that there is an art to the sell and will do my best to highlight why these trailers matter or don't with approval (trove) or disapproval (trash). So please stop by, recommend some trailers, and I will see you next time.
Trailer in Discussion
Directed By: Craig Zobel
Written By: Nissar Modi (screenplay), Robert C. Obrien (book)
Starring: Margot Robbie, Chris Pine, Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Preamble -
There is solely one reason that I am curious about this movie: Chiwetel Ejiofor. In 2013, he starred in the Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave. He gave a powerful performance that could easily haunt your memories. It was a journey of hope and stamina. Most of all, it made me feel like this charismatic talent was ready to have his own sort of revolution. Having seen the film a few times since its release, I began to wonder where Ejiofor was in the pop culture landscape. While some may think that he has disappeared entirely, I do feel like he shouldn't just yet. He turned in a performance that instinctively demands more. We want to see what else he can do. While I know that he has been a bit part player for awhile now, I personally want to see him in more of a meatier role.
My mind wasn't deceiving me. A quick trip to IMDb will prove that he was in fact absent from 2014's slate of movies. It wasn't even that he was in an overlooked title (which is a different, sadder story if it was true). While I get the need for a break now and then, it felt like it was killing momentum. Even then, I immediately became curious about this Sundance hit in which he co-starred alongside fellow 2013 breakout Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street). I wasn't so much into the dystopian elements, but there's enough in the cast that got me excited for a potentially great movie from Ejiofor. With more films planned for this year, it looks like he may be having that breakthrough I wanted, though it has to come first.
As a whole, I don't know a lot about this movie other than the cast and that it is a dystopian tale. Part of me even thinks that it is a western of some sort. However, we will find out shortly and discover what is true. I do think that Ejiofor could do it justice, provided that the story is more than ridiculous horror tropes. He is an actor who knows how to exude endurance in a visual display. I really hope that this pans out. Maybe even Robbie will come through. Who knows. Let's just watch the trailer and see how things go.
- Dissection -
So, what is Z for Zachariah? It looks more specifically like a dystopian film where two people discover a new person. Then creepy stuff happens because that person is creepy. There isn't much really to dissect in that way. Along with a few block quotes of how great the film is and that the book is a best seller, it plays like a rather conventional trailer that sells you on something that is probably better than the marketing materials. I don't blame the film, but this is chock a block about as familiar as trailers get nowadays. Where cheesy voice overs ruled in the 90's, this is how you sell a film nowadays. Give some tense scenes, a few reviews, and enough to get audiences intrigued. I don't necessarily think that there's anything extraordinary about the production of it all.
Yet, there's something to watching Ejiofor once again playing something dramatic and complicated. He is whispering here and his paranoia plays over the review quotes. There's a lot that works here, but it is mostly the promise of two cast members reacting to their new found situation. We don't know what makes Chris Pine creepy, but we do know that him and his crucifix is supposed to somehow be creepy. There's plenty of eeriness on display, but I don't know if there's anything distinguishable about it that makes me even more excited to see it than I already did. If anything, the conventional trailer makes it look more... conventional.
Again, I don't hold that against the movie. I didn't know anything about the film prior to watching the trailer, so I learned just as much as they felt necessary to share. It is nice to see that it wasn't an awful-looking film, so there's merit in the conventional model. However, I do wish that there was something more, like a hook, that would get us on board. At least it didn't promise something astounding and crazy in the third act as a selling gimmick. I award points on that. At best, this film maintains my interest in the film, but I still think I am about as sold as I was before, given how much I want to see more of Ejiofor.
Yet, there's something to watching Ejiofor once again playing something dramatic and complicated. He is whispering here and his paranoia plays over the review quotes. There's a lot that works here, but it is mostly the promise of two cast members reacting to their new found situation. We don't know what makes Chris Pine creepy, but we do know that him and his crucifix is supposed to somehow be creepy. There's plenty of eeriness on display, but I don't know if there's anything distinguishable about it that makes me even more excited to see it than I already did. If anything, the conventional trailer makes it look more... conventional.
Again, I don't hold that against the movie. I didn't know anything about the film prior to watching the trailer, so I learned just as much as they felt necessary to share. It is nice to see that it wasn't an awful-looking film, so there's merit in the conventional model. However, I do wish that there was something more, like a hook, that would get us on board. At least it didn't promise something astounding and crazy in the third act as a selling gimmick. I award points on that. At best, this film maintains my interest in the film, but I still think I am about as sold as I was before, given how much I want to see more of Ejiofor.
- One Sentence Sell -
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars alongside Margot Robbie in a creepy dystopian movie where creepy stuff happens.
- Trove or Trash -
TRASH
No offense to the trailer, which I think does a decent job of raising awareness of the film. However, I think that it looks too familiar and too cut from a cloth for me to immediately feel invested in seeing it. I already like Ejiofor, but I don't know what else I am supposed to like about this film based on this trailer. With that said, I am likely to see it when it comes out.
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