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When I heard that a trailer for the American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” had leaked, I couldn’t get online fast enough. I found Stieg Larsson’s book trilogy a little late, but I knocked out the first installment during a ridiculously long flight delay at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport last year. It did drag a bit in spots — I’m sure this is the only bestselling novel in history to open with a flower and a treatise on Swedish libel law — but once it got going, it really got going.
I’ve been hearing about J.J. Abrams’ new film “Super 8″ for what seems like forever now, but I couldn’t quite muster up anything like excitement for it. I can describe the reason for that in one word: “Cloverfield.” It’s not that I disliked the film — actually, I really enjoyed it — but after spending months scouring that darned trailer for clues and trying to figure out how the heck Slusho figured into the plot, I was a little disappointed to find that the finished film didn’t really need all the bells and whistles.
That, in a nutshell, is why I couldn’t really get hyped for “Super 8″ — until I saw the trailer.
I know it’s silly to dub “Hanna” my favorite action film of 2011 on the strength of a two-minute trailer, but the story of a (barely) teenage assassin trained by her father to defeat the shadowy organization that may or may not have trained him seems too cool to pass up. This isn’t your average brainless shoot-em-up either: There are at least three Academy Award nominees involved in the project, including the director and two of the film’s stars. And did I see Adelle DeWitt in there?!
I didn’t expect the director of “300 and “Watchmen” to go all moody and contemplative with his next project, but don’t think that I’m disappointed when I say nothing in the trailer for “Sucker Punch” surprised me. Stunning visuals, crazy fights, over-the-top dialogue and enough explosions to keep Michael Bay happy for decades? Check, check, check and … check.
The early 1980s were some very interesting times in New York City. Rap music had started to migrate from the Bronx block parties that spawned it, the downtown punk scene was really coming into its own, and local artists like Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat were garnering international acclaim — all as the city crumbled around them. Crime had risen to historic levels, heroin and cocaine were everywhere, and the crack epidemic was right around the corner, but New York City was in the grips of an artistic movement that still resonates today.
In Basquiat’s case, part of that resonance lies in the tragedy of what could have been.
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