The Preview Review for Upcoming Movies: Rollerskates, Aliens, and Willem Dafoe

I love movies. But who doesn't? And I love watching movies in a theater with a disgusting amount of popcorn that I never finish, plus the XXL cup of soda. If I'm feeling particularly saucy (or suicidal), I'll go for the Milk Duds too. I used to think the delicious, life-shortening calories was the reason I love watching movies in the theater. Then I started thinking, what's my priority when going to see a movie? Is it the particular theater? Is it the quality of popcorn? Then I realized that I usually pitch a fit if I'm late for the movie. Not because I'm missing the movie itself, but because I'm missing the trailers. For me (and my short attention span), trailers offer that short glimpse of a movie, showing some of the best parts of the movie without giving everything away.

In celebration of trailers, I've decided to writing a short synopsis, including my thoughts, on the various trailers for upcoming movies.

Whip It!
In Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Ellen Page (Juno) stars as Bliss Cavendar, a lovable misfit who is forced into prissy beauty pageants by her mother, played by Marcia Gay Harden. After discovering an advertisement, Bliss joins up with a team of roller derby chicks and hilarity ensues. This role looks perfect for Page with her ability to make her characters completely relatable. Bliss's (aka Babe Ruthless in the derby world) teammates include Barrymore herself, Eve, and the hilarious Kristen Wiig. This one looks like comedy gold, especially with Wiig, who has been proving herself as a comedy genius on Saturday Night Live and in bit roles on films such as Knocked Up and Adventureland. Even though it looks to be telling the same story of overbearing parents and the quest for self-reliance, the setting and cast will make Whip It! a movie to get excited about. Did I mention Kristen Wiig is in it?
Starts October 2

Antichrist
From Danish director Lars von Trier, comes a new horror flick starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Granted, any movie starring Dafoe is scary enough, but Antichrist goes to the farthest extremes to scare the bejesus out of audiences. In the beginning, Dafoe and Gainsbourg are devastated when their young son dies. To ease their pain, the couple retreats to their cabin in the woods called Eden. Once at the cabin, the couple starts experiencing creepy events. The trailer shows Gainsbourg complaining that the ground is burning as the couple hikes through the woods. With the tone of an annoyed parent, Dafoe tells her that the ground is not burning. The next shot shows Gainsbourg looking at her burned bare foot. Early reviews of the film, mostly from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, offer both extremely positive and negative views. Based on the reports of explicit sexual themes and graphic violence, Antichrist is sure to be a polarizing film experience.
Starts October 23 (Limited)

The Fourth Kind
This thriller is so serious that it even places star Milla Jovovich at the beginning of the trailer explaining that the film is a dramatization based on actual footage and completely true events. Jovovich portrays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist treating folks in Nome, Alaska whose problems stem from a vision of a white owl outside their bedroom window. The trailer slowly builds the suspense, jumping back and forth from the "actual footage" to the film's dramatization. I'm not sure if anything about the film is true (other than Nome, Alaska), but the trailer does a great job of pulling in audiences using Blair Witch-type techniques.
Starts November 6

Inception
In this one-minute teaser trailer, dramatic music and dark scenes tell us all we need to know without revealing anything about the movie. Director Christopher Nolan's name appears along with star Leonardo Dicaprio's. The only other words reveal the tagline - "Your mind is the scene of the crime." Then, as the deep beat becomes louder, flashes of DiCaprio fighting with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (I think) Matrix-style pop on the screen. And we're left with that beat as the title emerges with a depressing release date of Summer 2010.