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| Scene from Keanu |
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: Peter Atencio
Written By: Jordan Peele, Alex Rubens
Starring: Keegan Michael-Key, Jordan Peele, Method Man
- Preamble -
I will confess up front that I usually don't watch sketch comedy. While I have made it more of a habit to watch Comedy Central's recent wave of promising programs, I am more drawn to those in the more traditional mold of one episode is one story. With that said, I get the appeal of Key & Peele, which may in fact be one of the best series to ever air on that network. Over the course of four seasons, they brought a fresh sensibility to the sketch format, even creating something that made for compelling viral content, and even got the president to recognize their craft. If that's not its own form of success, then nothing is.
With the end of their show now in the past, it's time to see what they can do next. I honestly don't pay attention to the circuits too much and don't know what who is working on and when. To me, I would rather be surprised when a trailer drops, knowing that people I like are doing something interesting. As it stands, I hardly know what Keanu is about. I've seen still images, but that's about all that I could really tell you about this film. For all I know, it's about a cat who poses for pictures. I have that little of an idea about what it really is about. That should make this trailer all the more exciting.
Even if that wasn't the case, it would be interesting solely because Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael-Key are great together in everything outside of their show as well. They were great on Fargo, and their various movie cameos rank among some of the funnier performances of the past few years. It's great to see two distinguished voices getting their shot at doing something in the feature format. To me, I would love to see them make it big with their own distinguished brand of humor. Considering how diverse their topics can be, it only makes watching this trailer way, way more interesting.
- Dissection -
There's two ways that I'm going to look at this particular trailer. I will start with the fact that I like Key and Peele's previous work. Knowing that they can deliver great comedy on the most absurd of premises, I am sold on its ability to take a very strange concept and mine it for laughter. I even like the jokes about the suburban black culture versus the ghetto culture. It's got a nice little running gag throughout. There's even an inspired feel to something that features a cat wearing ghetto clothes and running in a very action movie way. It's all very interesting, and I definitely think that this would've been great as a Key and Peele sketch if the show was still on. I'd even be willing to put up with an episode-long story about it.
Now, for the general appeal that takes away my interest in Key & Peele. How would I judge it as a trailer otherwise? Well, the thing is that it looks like an interesting idea, but a very flimsy and not worthy of more than 30 minutes idea. The jokes about urban versus suburban culture are fine here, but it definitely feels like there's not much underneath the surface. After all, it's about people trying to rescue their cat. What good is that as a premise for a movie that's even 80 minutes long? How do you drag out a story about a cat turning to gangster culture and expecting it to be interesting?
I do hope that what they're doing is saving the best for later. In fact, I hope that there's more to the plot to what could easily be one of the funnier movies of the year. I like Key and Peele, but I also think that for those that aren't familiar with their work, it's very one note and doesn't do much to distinguish itself from other broad black comedies of recent years. Yes, the cat could have an interesting role in the film, but I also worry that it's a novelty one that is unable to do much beyond point out how ridiculous the actual concept is. As a whole, I'm on the fence with this movie, even if I generally feel like it's an inspired concept that should exist in some format.
- One Sentence Sell -
Key & Peele stars make a new comedy that features a lot of weird hijinks involving a gangster cat.
- Trove or Trash -
TROVE
While I really like Key & Peele, I am mostly on the fence with this once because I feel like my interest is mostly in the bias category. Had I not been a fan, I'm confident that I would be more willing to dismiss this as just another mediocre, dumb comedy. Either way, it definitely made for some great cat images that have been circling the internet over the past few days.
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