Trailing Off: "One & Two" (2015)

Kiernan Shipka

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: Andrew Doz Palermo

Written By: Andrew Doz Palermo, Neima Shahdadi

Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Timothee Chalamet, Elizabeth Reaser

- Preamble -

With the summer coming to an end, it is also looking to be a dead time for trailers of note. That isn't to say that there isn't any. In fact, it is a pretty good week if you're a fan of the women of Mad Men. Elisabeth Moss also has a new movie coming out called Queen of Earth that looks really intense. However, I chose to focus on the younger Mad Men star: Kiernan Shipka. For eight years, she played Sally Draper and quickly became one of my favorite characters. She was so assured that even as a young child performer, she had a lot of promise and charisma burrowed underneath ever single acting choice. I am very curious to see what her career after the show is going to look like because, unlike her peers, she hasn't been as prominent in various other projects.

That is the only reason that I ended up choosing One & Two. I know very little about it beyond her involvement. However, I do think that this means that I have the ability to be surprised. Much like any noteworthy performer adding their name to an independent film, I do think that there's merit in her choosing one with a row of names that I do not recognize. For all I know, it will help me find new favorites. If not, it will just be another film that may lead her to bigger and better things. I really don't know what is in store with this trailer.

So I am hoping, like all trailers, that this holds some promise of something to come. I don't even know if this will be good. I often go in blindly when choosing trailers. This is one of those cases. So, I am going to hold my breath and get ready for what I hope is something good. I would like to think that Shipka is off to a good start with Mad Men and is only going to get more interesting from there. So, without further ado, let's get on with this.

- Dissection -

I am not entirely sure that I get any big moment out of the trailer. The only thing that really happens is teleportation and a father yelling angrily at his children. I do think that it is fine for a film to use this tactic and save all of the good stuff for the movie. In fact, I even argue that it makes the otherwise mediocre trailer something compelling. I am left with a lot of questions regarding why the characters are pariahs. I wonder why they can teleport and why they ran away. There's a lot here that is definitely doing a very good job of selling the movie that I presume it wants to be. 
Otherwise, I don't really find much that personally interests me. Maybe it comes from my personal disinterest in sci-fi in general, but the trailer as a whole doesn't provide any standout moment that makes me excited to see it. I may one day do so because Kiernan Shipka is a promising performer. Otherwise, it is just another film with a lot of good looking sets, some vaguely interesting aspects, and very little else. I am in the middle about this film, though my opinion hasn't changed much since seeing it. There's Shipka doing shady stuff, and little else of note.

- One Sentence Sell -

Two kids who can teleport get into a heap of trouble when they decide to run away from home.

- Trove or Trash -

TROVE

This is barely a squeeze into Trove because while there isn't anything spectacular about it, I do come away with a certain optimism of the film that it could be. I still maintain that Shipka is the main sell, but at least it doesn't look like an awful trainwreck of a movie.