Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising?

This week, we get stuck swimming in grain, look into the girlfriend experience as a career option, free ourselves from the small town we live in, escape from Copenhagen, and track down a killer using MySpace.

Silo

Director Marshall Burnette is racing against the clock.

Inspired by true events, SILO follows a harrowing day in an American farm town. Disaster strikes when teenager Cody Rose is entrapped in a 50-foot-tall grain bin. When the corn turns to quicksand, family, neighbors and first responders must put aside their differences to rescue Cody from drowning in the crop that has sustained their community for generations.

This is a different kind of movie for Oscilloscope. The distributor, who usually supports unique visions and content, seems to be focused on something a little more traditional. I’ve watched this trailer a few times, and while it’s based on a true event, the way it’s presented feels wholly fresh. There isn’t a mandate that true stories have to look and feel like they were made in a sterile film lab. There’s an earnestness and gravity to what we’re shown here, and I’m all for it.

Beast Beast

Director Danny Madden’s take on a few teens who are emotional powder kegs is electric.

A look at the lives and trauma surrounding three people living in a southern town.

I love the way this movie breathes, the way it moves, the way we glide through the narrative. The trailer doesn’t induce nervous, sweaty palms, but by the end of this thing, it sure comes close to doing so. We’re not allowed to see where we’re ultimately going, and I’m glad we’re driving a little blind. Just get a taste of these characters, see them in their natural environments. Feel uncertain whether this a documentary or completely made up. I miss that sensation, and Madden pulls it off perfectly.

Sugar Daddy

As far as debut features go, director Wendy Morgan is coming out swinging.

Darren (Kelly McCormack) is a wickedly talented and unconventional young musician who dreams of making music like nobody has ever heard before. But she’s broke, juggling multiple part-time jobs, and has no time to create. Desperate for cash, she signs up to a sugar daddy paid-dating website and throws herself down a dark rabbit hole that forces her to grow up fast, shaping her music, and how she sees the world.

The title is wildly misleading. This is a story of a woman who is a financial hit away from complete ruin. The desperation, the need to obtain money just to stay alive, is palpable, and this movie like it’s going to be a wild ride. She doesn’t know how to exist in a world where her friends would certainly look at her with askance if they found out, nor how to navigate this new life of trading her physicality for cash. There is a bit of pressure being applied to both sides of her essence. The trailer blends fantastical imagery with moments that feel genuine. This is not your usual indie, and thank goodness for that.

Why Did You Kill Me?

If you’re going to go down a true crime road, this seems like a splendid avenue.

The line between justice and revenge blurs when a devastated family uses social media to track down the people who killed 24-year-old Crystal Theobald.

When it comes to this kind of content, Netflix has it on lock. I went from not knowing anything about this poor woman who was murdered to being completely dialed in to what followed. It’s it’s borderline Dateline NBC quality, but I’m now needing to know how this ends. The trailer isl lays out the premise easily: we’re out to catch a murderer through social media. Elegantly simple, but heartbreakingly real.

The Unthinkable

Director Victor Danell’s high concept idea looks just wild enough to be amazing.

It’s midsummer and Sweden wakes up to a state of emergency. TV, internet, and telephone networks are down, and before anyone realizes what’s behind the collapse, a series of unexplained attacks take place around the country. Alex, a successful pianist whose controlled existence is upturned when his mother dies in a suspected terror attack, returns to his childhood village to arrange the funeral. There, he must reconcile with both his father and his old flame, Anna, who he has desperately been trying to forget. As old feelings come back to the surface, more mysterious attacks plunge Sweden into chaos and confusion.

In an age where more people are giving movies with subtitles a chance, this looks like something that could satisfy everyone in the family. It’s got guns, it’s apocalyptic, it’s got romance, and there are helicopters going down in the middle of a Swedish forest. It’s exceptional. The trailer tries to pack as much as it can into this to get everyone it can onboard with its vision. The explosions, the confusion, the intermingling of end-of-days action and romance, it’s bizarre, but it works. I need to see this.

Nota bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers for possible inclusion in this column, even have a trailer of your own to pitch, please let me know by sending me a note at [email protected] or look me up via Twitter at @Stipp

In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week:

    • Mainstream Trailer – Looks like what you get when a pack of entitled children of celebrities who get a blank check to make a movie about themselves
    • Girls5eva Trailer – Inert
    • Monster Trailer – Solid
    • Without Remorse Trailer – As Clarence from RoboCop said, “Guns, guns, guns…”
    • Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street Trailer – Great topic, bad trailer
    • Chucky Teaser – Neat, I guess
    • Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Below Deck Trailers – If you’re a fan, I’m sure you’ll be delighted
    • Profile Trailer – Played out
    • Loki Trailer – OH YES
    • Space Jam: A New Legacy Trailer – Not my jam but I’m sure the kids will love it
    • Cruella Trailer – Looking forward to it
    • Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Trailer – YMWV
    • Jupiter’s Legacy Trailer – Feels like a lighter version of The Boys, who are doing this better than what’s here
    • Those Who Wish Me Dead Trailer – Not feeling one way or the other about this
    • Sons of Sam Trailer – Don’t know how necessary this is if it’s just going to speculate on something as heinous as this
    • The Mosquito Coast Trailer – Looks a solid double in an environment filled with home runs
    • The Woman in the Window Trailer – Take this for what it’s worth, but it looks like Netflix quality?
    • High School Musical The Series: Season 2 Trailer – Perfect for the teen girl in your life

The post This Week In Trailers: Silo, Beast Beast, Sugar Daddy, The Unthinkable, Why Did You Kill Me? appeared first on /Film.