The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Trailer 1)

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to “listen” when I’m being sold on something. I don’t want to think of its merits or the lack thereof- wasting my precious consciousness passing judgment as I weigh the pros and cons of a film’s sample- conjecturing as to whether or not the main course is worth it. Thinking about a film is meant to be for dessert- after the main course has been digested. As far as I’m concerned, if I’m thinking as I consume a trailer my potential interest in the movie has already eluded me. When I watch a trailer, I want my subconscious to cower in its fetal position as a subliminal blitzkrieg of captivating sounds, shapes, colors, and movements overwhelm my psyche. I want a trailer to sucker punch me and then turn away like it doesn’t give a fuck, leaving me moist- and wanting. David Fincher’s de-“coming of age” epic as portrayed in trailer form succeeds on these levels, and on its own is a beautiful piece of editing.

Alright. I may have gotten a little excited there. “Blitzkrieg” and “Epic” are pretty strong words to describe the Curious Case. While there may very well be Nazis involved (a few sequences indicate that some sort of World War occurs in the span of the film), and while the grand, fantastical scope of the film’s storyline suggests an epic quality (the lifecycle as timeline, love and war, and the fact that a dude is growing down)- the overall tone of the trailer effectively takes its cue from part of its title, “curious.” The trailer relies on sounds and images over narration to tell its story and sell itself. As such, the trailer’s score does most of the brunt-work in the audience captivation department. The score itself sounds like the love child of a Danny Elfman/Tim Burton compilation and Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” Like what they’d play if Big Fish was a Ballet. Ever so gracefully, the selected scenes are cut in timing with the music. As the tension of the score raises so does the tension of the image reflecting it. The selection of images is, likewise, spot on. Each shot a DP’s wet dream while simultaneously serving a functional role, marking off a chronological sequence of Pitt’s reverse metamorphosis. The trailer leaves the viewer… well, curious to know more. How about that? Where most trailers fail by divulging too much of the plotline, the Curious Case overwhelmingly succeeds by giving the entirety of the story, yet leaving the viewer with a desire to fill in the blanks.

As a piece of marketing, it says a lot of the product by saying very little. I mean, there are two lines in the entire trailer. It’s a freakin’ montage sandwiched by two lousy lines. By all measures of logic this should be crap. The product is confident enough, though, to simply put itself out there. There’s no need for some asshole voice over to point out the obvious, stating how “Benjamin Button’s about to find out how hard growing down really is!” No. The story tells itself and makes the viewer want to know more. It’s about as close as a trailer can get to doing its job well.

My love of Fincher aside, I would gladly see this film based upon the quality of its trailer.

Adventureland

I was hooked on this trailer for Greg Motolla's follow-up film to Superbad about 10 seconds in due to the announcer saying "Life after college is not exactly what James expected." Being a recent college graduate in the job market is a scary, shitty thing. James, like many of us lost post-liberal arts grads, takes a day job. However, instead of serving food, he works at an amuzement park. This sounds compelling enough (a movie about bullshit day jobs becomes a film about what it means to grow up) as well as easy to connect to (how many of us post-college kids needed our degrees to get us our current positions?). Sounds promising right?

Sadly, the trailer isn't very funny and the gags it sets up (a boner at a swimming pool party, drinking behind the horse racing booth, inappropriately refrigerated corn dogs) aren't as clever as you would like them to be. It's the story that kept me interested and the questions it brought up about the film. What does this say about the stigma of working a day job? What will end up happening to James and his career choices? Will this be cathartic for me? 

The shots in this trailer are very bright and hopeful (which makes sense seeing that it's set in an Amusement Park) so we're not looking at a "downer" here. Even the "gross" parts are complemented by Ryan Reyolds shining face bearing some prophetic wisdom. This shouldn't seem like a problem until you think about Superbad. Superbad had a grittiness to it that seems to be lacking in Adventureland. Part of what made Superbad so great was its horrifying reality. While Adventureland presents itself this way, the trailer doesn't have that sense of vunerability. This shift may, in part, be due to the fact that Judd Apatow's name is nowhere on this movie. The lack of his name, and I truly do mean this, is actually something to make one skeptical. 

All that said, I will see this movie, most likely in the theatres. However, Motolla's name probably would have lead me there whether or not I watched the preview.