This Week In Trailers: Leviathan, Euphonia, A Teacher, I Am Divine, Gimme The Loot, Run For Your Wife

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 chum the waters with fish lips, get taken advantage of by our high school English teacher, notice the voices in our heads and rubber balls hitting the ground, get the hell out of Divine's way, tag anything with a surface and watch a truly terrible comedy out of the UK.Leviathan TrailerLucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel seem different in their documentarian sensibilities but they jive in a certain way.

Whereas Castaing-Taylor was part of a documentary about a sheep drive Paravel's last effort was about an auto parts graveyard. How these two came together I'm sure is an interesting yarn but the marriage works at least well enough in this trailer.

Instead of all the reality shows that suppose to depict the lives of men at sea whether they're grabbing crabs, tuna, or lobster, this movie feels a little grittier and, dare I say, more honest. What's particularly remarkable here is how this trailer literally bobs and weaves like the ocean current itself. With spectacular pull quotes from publications, there aren't any words spoken. It's dead fish, it's chum, it's the wizened and haggard visages of men who have spent too long at sea. Oddly, it all works in spite of itself but mostly because the material seems like a true glimpse into what it's like to be a harvester of the sea.

Gimme The Loot Trailer

Hell yeah.

This may be Adam Leon's directorial debut but there is a broken in, comfort that this trailer exudes. These people all feel like they're a part of a universe they've inhabited for a long time and the fact that everything will begin and end in the course of two days just heightens my love for what appears to be a very focused, very self assured  story.

The trailer does an excellent job at establishing what has brought us all here today without drawing out needless exposition or narration from anyone. You can taste the humidity, you can feel the heat of the sun beating down on everything and there's a pressure in the air that the narrative has to move forward. Whether it's through smart editing or clever information dissemination, what we're given is probably one of the better trailers you'll see this month.

I Am Divine Trailer

I remember my first contact with Divine.

It was in a VHS rental store and the box for Pink Flamingos was staring at me. With a hand on her hip, a gun in my face and a head of hair that was pulled back from a face that looked like a deranged circus clown, I was frightened.

Jeffrey Schwarz has cobbled together a veritable who's who of artists who came into Divine's orbit and those who have been affected by it. There is no lack of hyperbole, certainly the bow-tie nutball at the :15 mark who looks like he was awakened from a deep slumber just moments before going on camera isn't lost for words, but the clips that are chosen more than enough to get my attention and interest.

What's particularly nutty is how many times I've watched this damn thing in the past week. It's compelling while also being a little atypical of what you would expect from a documentary about a man, woman, who embodied something unique. There's an attraction to the material just because it doesn't follow a narrative arc of any kind. We bounce around but there's a beauty in the messed up, disjointedness of it all.

A Teacher Trailer

A couple of things:

1. I like that we're taking this story from the top with regard to treating the material with something other than Hallmark Channel dismissiveness. There's some gold to be mined in this kind of story as, just take your local news section, deranged teachers are trolling the student body for their next kill.

2. What is up with that douche walk/swagger that our prey does in the illumination of some headlights? It borders on the hilarious.

That said director Hannah Fidell has put together a nice looking drama that has a serious edge. The drum beat in the background belys everything we know about how fast we're going to make it to crazy town. Since it's less than a minute long we go from attraction, copulation and meltdown in no time at all. It's all economy of time so there's no waiting around.

I have no clue how this is going to end for all involved but if it's anything like our teacher's crazed look I can't wait to see how far down this will go.

Euphonia Trailer

It's the small sounds.

There's something about this trailer's use of sonic effects that make this such a gripping watch. This being Danny Madden's first feature out of the box you would expect a little handicap but all the beats are hit the right way at the right time. It's easy enough to figure out we have a dweeb who likes to record the ambient sounds all around him but it's the auditory blend when our protagonist starts losing his mind.

It's unclear why he descends into madness, whether by mental illness or by some other malady, but there's a tenderness between him and the woman who I'm sure he considers his great lady friend. How these all fit together I couldn't tell you but, again, this is a trailer that succeeds by not giving me everything I want to know. It holds back and it doesn't give up its dead that easily. Because of that, this is a piece of marvelous marketing that leaves you wondering who might be six feet under at the end of it all.

Run For Your Wife Trailer

I guess even in UK mum and dad need something they can call their own. I'm sure it'll be a hit with the 50+ crowd.

Nota bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers to possibly be included in this column, even have a trailer of your own to pitch, please let me know by sending me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com or look me up via Twitter at @Stipp

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