R. Kurt Osenlund
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TRAILER MIX: GANGSTER SQUAD
The trailer for "Gangster Squad" isn't selling nostalgia so much as retrograde, standard-issue images of masculinity.
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TRAILER MIX: RUBY SPARKS
Trumpeting the long-awaited sophomore effort of "Little Miss Sunshine" creators Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the trailer for "Ruby Sparks" tackles that age-old challenge of visualizing the tribulations of a writer, which are inherently and notoriously un-cinematic.
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BONUS TRAILER MIX: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
At the end of "The Dark Knight," Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) had to explain to his son why Batman (Christian Bale) was being willfully chased by police—disgracing himself and abandoning his post for the greater good of Gotham. The new trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" zeroes in on the sleepy...
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TRAILER MIX: MAGIC MIKE vs. COYOTE UGLY
Films that showcase nightlife as a business have a way of settling into their guilt, reminding us that parties have moral consequences despite being the main attraction (think "54," which uses a whole institution to symbolize nightlife's rise and fall).
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TRAILER MIX: LOOPER
Sometimes a trailer's ability to sell a novel concept can make you forget its otherwise ordinary construction.
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BULLY: The Conversation
The recent documentary release Bully is an up-close look at 5 families of children who have been the victims of bullying. The film attempts to examine the problem from several different sides. The film has been the subject of much interest and debate since it came out; here, writers Simon...
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TRAILER MIX: VINTAGE MODEL: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
This vintage edition of TRAILER MIX looks back at a film preview from days gone by, and measures its virtues in terms of nostalgia, contemporary comparison, and innate artistry. Vintage entries will appear periodically throughout the run of the column.
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TRAILER MIX: House at the End of the Street
The trailer for "House at the End of the Street" goes all "Memento" on its viewers from the start, beginning at what appears to be the film's climactic chase scene, then winding back, in snippets, to a nasty origin story.
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TRAILER MIX: SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
If "Snow White and the Huntsman" initially seemed like yet more fairy tale fodder (another film to push Hollywood's fantasy trend from comic books to storybooks), then the second trailer promotes the movie as a formidable CG spectacle, serving as a veritable effects reel for awards consideration.
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Trailer Mix: A New Press Play Column
These days, movie-trailer creation is largely a lost art, reduced to an easily-pegged formula akin to the one that gives us the "John Carter"s of the world. Trailer Mix will take a close look at a different film trailer every week, pointing out the highs and lows of its form and function.
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