The trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are premiered today on Ellen (yikes), but it’s been making its way around the internet since then, and damn does this film look gorgeous in motion.  I wasn’t expecting to see a trailer so soon, as I was still drooling over a lot of the beautiful still images that had been released.  With all of the problems that seemed to plague the filming of the Maurice Sendak children’s book adaptation, it’s just a joy to see this film come together.

As you may notice, this version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” looks to be slightly tweaked over the original.  Regardless, listening to it sent chills down my spine as I watched it play over the trailer.  This is Spike Jonze taking a gigantic step as a director, and even if you’re not familiar with the source material, it doesn’t take much to appreciate his vision at work here.

Films about childhood are extremely difficult to get right, and it’s rare to see this sort of filmmaking done for what is essentially a kid’s film.  I’m hoping this is a taste of something genuinely great once this is released in October.

A while back I posted the teaser trailer for the indie love-story 500 Days of Summer.  The film is directed by Marc Webb and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a greeting card writer who falls for a young woman (Zooey Deschanel) and ends up having to deal with the subsequent break-up.  The teaser, despite the horrid voice-over narration, had me hooked from the very first viewing, while The Temper Trap song, “Sweet Disposition” worked very well with the trailer.

A full-length trailer has been released, and it may seem a little too cute and sweet for some, but I can’t help but be completely powerless at this point after watching the new footage in the trailer.  I mean, how cute does Zooey Deschanel look when she asks about The Smiths in the elevator?  Come on now!  Though, I imagine any film that portrays a connection over The Smiths sorta dooms any kind of relationship.  You’re pretty much fated to be unhappy with each other; which seems to be a little bit of what this film is actually about according to an interview with Joseph Gordon Levitt.

“He’s a hopeless romantic, a lovesick young man who falls in love with [Zooey's character] Summer, and he gets dumped,” the actor said of the plot. “The thing is, the movie is all from the point of view of this guy, and this guy has watched way too many movies and listened to far too many pop songs. So his life becomes a pop song.”

Sounds like this could possibly be a mix of High Fidelity and crossed with a little Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Annie Hall.  I guess we’ll find out when the film is released this summer on July 17th via Fox Searchlight.

MP3: Regina Spektor :: “Us”

As i’m currently staying up to watch the Australian Open men’s final between Federer and Nadal, I can’t help but say a lot of my attention has been swayed towards the influx of Super Bowl spots for the upcoming summer flicks.  I’m always a sucker for these high-budget tentpole movies, and hey, by watching these you possibly save yourself at least three hours of sitting through the Super Bowl.

The following videos I found via FirstShowing.net, which I initially found on Cable & Tweed (Boss Tweed can appreciate big, dumb summer flicks, too), as they’re the only site I could find with some decent quality embedded videos.  There’s plenty of trailers to be seen, including a couple of others not shown here (Year One, Land of the Lost), but i’m sure there will be some more to actually watch during the Super Bowl tonight.

Clicky after the cut to see the goods, or non-goods?

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