Yes, No, Maybe So: "Dangerous Method"

In the series Yes No Maybe So we parse out movie trailers to determine just how excited we are about an upcoming movie. Today... David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method in which two very infamous doctors of psychiatry (Freud and Jung) find a perfect guinea pig in unstable Russian woman Sabina Spielrein;  Psychoanalysis is born, though it hasn't quite worked out its doctor/patient boundaries just yet.

YES
Viggo Mortensen, David Cronenberg's chief muse these days, plays Sigmund Freud and their second reunion after the masterpiece A History of Violence (followed by the compelling Eastern Promises) would be enough for a sober grunted "yes" on its own. Stir the Crazy of Freud/Jung into the mix with justifiably Most-Wanted Michael Fassbender in the lead role of Carl Jung and the yes becomes as hysteric as Jung's patient Sabina played by Keira Knightley (who is obviously out to raise her game as an actress lately).

NO
On the other hand, sexual repression and experimental psychiatry aren't the easiest topics to portray without the possibility of unintentional laughs or hindsight ridicule in these arguably more enlightened times. The trailer does have a weird fallback mode in which someone says something we're to register as Shocking or Telling and... cut to: Fassbender immediately shifting his intense glance to the side.

MAYBE SO..
Though Cronenberg is one of the world's most fascinating auteurs and Viggo and Fassy two of its most genius actors, the trailer gives off the distinct aroma of Keira...

As in... this will all live or die or, rather, doze off with boredom or leap off the psychiatrists couch with abandon if she's up to her central role. I worry that they refer to her as Russian and Keira doesn't sound Russian at all in the trailer? And given that her role is extreme with the theatrics, will she be Oscar beloved or sliced up with the critics knives?

Keira The MadwomanKeira Oscar-Clipping It.Keira the Masochist "PUNISH ME!"

Will this feel like a stage play with the all the talking and observing in offices and bedrooms?
Will the trio of famous faces invest the heady mind games with heart, body and soul?
Will Cronenberg finally have an Oscar hit on his hands what with the true story, biographical figures and period detailing?

So many questions... so much worth analyzing.

Watch the trailer at the film's official site!

Are you a Yes, No or a Maybe So...?

Yes, No, Maybe So: I Don't Know How She Does It

Jose here.

In this edition of Yes, No, Maybe So we take a look at Sarah Jessica Parker's newest film: I Don't Know How She Does It. Based on the eponymous book by Allison Pearson, the film centers on the life of Kate Reddy (SJP) a working mom who earns the living in her household. Greg Kinnear plays her husband. 

The book is often compared to Bridget Jones's Diary and like it, became a sensation in England. For the film adaptation, the action was moved from London to the States and as your ears will make clear, SJP has no British accent. 

But anyway before we say anymore about the trailer, you have to see it first:

  

YES. SJP narrating while we see the city! Even for a second or two, it just makes you think about Sex and the City, no? And that is never a bad thing. However I couldn't help but wonder: will she ever fully get out of Carrie Bradshaw mode?  Though I adore her and think she's seriously underrated but her roles land as different versions of Carrie: bitchy Carrie (The Family Stone), slightly sluttier Carrie (Failure to Launch), indie Carrie (Smart People); you get the point. Someone better put her in a period movie right away! Try new things, SJP>

Also...Christina Hendricks! She's in it for like a second. Will someone please give her a movie now?

NO. Pierce Brosnan doing "comedy". Last time he was funny was when he played James Bond and that's the kind of funny he should be doing. 

Also, let's all agree on how much the title sucks. Right? It's such a weird thing to say, but I couldn't see myself buying a ticket for a movie with that title if it didn't star SJP.  And, as someone who has to suffer through preposterous movie title translations, I'm already expecting something particularly corny for this one.

MAYBE SO. When everything pointed to yet another forgettable comedy, I realized the director is Douglas McGrath (did you notice how the actors don't even get credited in the trailer, weird huh?) McGrath has a rather slim filmography but all of his movies have had some value. He proved he has a talent for romantic comedies with the delicious Emma and the surprisingly enjoyable Nicholas Nickleby. His take on Capote (Infamous) wasn't half bad either. One can arguably say he was one of the first directors who set out to prove that Sandra Bullock could act (her Harper Lee is just as affecting as Catherine Keener's). McGrath also co-wrote Bullets on Broadway with Woody Allen. The man is talented so maybe this movie will be better than what the confusing trailer suggests.

So, are you a Yes? No? Maybe So?
Will SJP ever stop being just Carrie?
Do you like Douglas McGrath's other movies?
Are the memories of Brosnan's vocals in Mamma Mia still haunting your deepest nightmares? 

Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Descendants"

Robert (author of Distant Relatives) here, taking a look at the trailer for the new Alexander Payne film The Descendants, and pondeing Yes, No, Maybe So.

Do you remember what you were doing in 2004? Perhaps sometime around when Massachusetts was performing its first legal gay marriage, Friends was going off the air for good, and George W. Bush was being elected to his second term as President you watched Sideways and thought that this Alexander Payne fellow was really hitting his stride as a director of intelligent comedies. If you, like me, were a fan, you didn't expect to have to wait seven years for another dose.

While Payne has been out of the director's chair for that long time, his influence has been undeniable. Darkly comedic slice-of-life films about men living lives of quiet desperation, while always present in the cinematic landscape, are starting to feel more and more like Payne knockoffs. Films like The Weather Man, Dan in Real Life, Lars and the Real Girl, or Smart People have attempted to capture some of that magic with varying results.

Now that we have our first look at the trailer for his latest, which teams the director with George Clooney as a man who must spread the word about his wife's recent accident, reconnect with his daughters, and come to terms with a revelation of infidelity.

YES. Alexander Payne's name was always going to be selling point enough for me. But there's also something here about George Clooney that's intriguing. Maybe it's the constant sadness behind those eyes, or that head full of gray hair. The knock against him has alway been that he only plays variations on the same character (an acting style I've never minded, if it's good enough for Bogart and Cary Grant). But comedically Clooney has always been in the realm of over the top. Here, he's doing something more subtle and my immediate sense from this trailer is that I'm watching what could be a very good, very awarded performance.

NO. Then again, Alexander Payne's name is one of the few things in the trailer that suggests you're not watching one of those many Payne copy cats. All the standard genre tropes are here. Single parent (sort of). Check. Mid-life crisis mode. Check. Relationship with kids he doesn't understand. check. There doesn't seem to be much new ground. What this could be is a good but minor work from Payne, expelling some leftover ideas, and cleansing his palate for the future. Unfortunately that's the sort of artisic luxury we only allow directors who are a bit more prolific. If you're waiting seven years between pictures, sorry we're going to demand another masterpiece.

MAYBE SO. Removed from any preconcieved expectations, there are some really nice moments here. While Robert Forster (it's always great to see him) punching an annoying kid in the face is guaranteed to please an audience, my favorite human moment is Clooney's inability to audibly say that his wife was sleeping with someone, quickly morphing the word "sleeping" into "seeing." It's small things like that which separate Payne's films from the pack, and the presence of even one in this trailer suggests that at least he hasn't forgotten it.

Your Turn: Yes, No or Maybe So? I sense that this isn't the type of trailer that sets the web ablaze with buzz. How do you feel? If you're not a Payne/Clooney fan is there anything here to stoke your interest? If you are does the trailer whet your appetite?

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Green With Envy"

Most of the time the lack of trailers at critic screenings is a wondrous blessing. I used to love watching trailers before movies but now that they show 7 to 8 of them before a feature and do so after commercials it feels like every movie is 3 hours long now. Still I really wish I'd seen the trailer to Green With Envy in front of Pirates of the Caribbean (review) this weekend...

I am crazy in love with the bait & switch here. Get to looking right now if you haven't yet seen it.

Regarding Green With Envy... just for fun as it doesn't actually exist... are you a Yes, No or a Maybe So?

• I'd love to say Yes given the warm (felt) fuzzies coming off this trailer but it looks so generic. Yes, I  know that's part of the joke. But still... the world needs no more generic romcoms.The genre needs another Annie Hall level game changer, right?

Regarding The Muppets... Yes, No or Maybe So?

• I feel nothing but eternal affirmatives whenever Miss Piggy is near. I purchased a ticket for this in perpetuity when I was 5.

"Yes, No, Maybe So" Triple: Apes, Immortals, Wizards

Yes No Maybe So is a series in which we divvy movie trailers up into three categories so as to manage our expectations and combat Huzz (Hype + Buzz). Huzz isn't a real word but it should be and we'll keep using it until it is. The point of the series is this: We will not be slaves to the Masters of Marketing! Except, of course, by giving them the usual free publicity that they have craftily convinced all citizens of the online world to regular deliver unto them.

The problem, we've noticed with trailers, is that they all tend to arrive at once and how does one keep up unless one merely just posts the trailer which is basically like posting a free advertisement and pretending that advertising IS content which so many websites do is just yuck. That's not a yes, no or maybe so equation. That's just a full on No, yo.  

ANYWAY... today we're doing a short form genre threesome: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, Rise of the Apes and The Immortals in an effort to catch up. If you haven't seen the trailers they're all after the jump, along with listy yes, no, maybe so bullet points. You know you wanna keep reading so do it.

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