We get bombarded with teasers, trailers and promotional clips relentlessly – each weekend Steve Newall sorts through the best of the week for you to check out and get excited about.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick
Colin Woodell (Unfriended: Dark Web) steps into the shoes of Ian McShane’s character Winston in this 1970s-set prequel to John Wick. With nods to the era’s grimier cityscape and film genres, this three-part series traces Winston’s mission to take control of the Continental hotel, the iconic safe haven for assassins, as the Mafia rise to power in the US. Dunno why they thought they needed Mel Gibson, but oh well.
Bottoms
We don’t have a release date for Bottoms yet, but that’s not going to stop me from calling this the #1 contender for comedy of the year—a queer high school fight club comedy starring Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott, from Sennott’s Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman. In this new clip, we get a further sense of the tone, and how well the two leads—both having a bit of a moment—share great screen chemistry.
The Changeling
Queen & Slim (and Beyoncé) director Melina Matsoukas helms this new Apple TV+ show starring LaKeith Stansfield. Part fairy tale series for grown-ups, part horror story, part parenthood fable, it’s a perilous odyssey through a secret New York City, adapted from the fantasy horror novel of the same name by Victor LaValle.
Fair Play
You just can’t keep the erotic thriller genre down (good!). Fair Play juggles sex with corporate backstabbing and relationship tensions as it follows a couple working at the same hedge fund—and secretly engaged, against company rules. Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynevor stars alongside Alden Ehrenreich in Chloe Domont’s feature debut, one that sparked a bidding war after its Sundance premiere.
All Fun and Games
Asa Butterfield and Stranger Things‘ Natalia Dyer lead this teen horror set in spooky Salem, one that sees its young cast drawn into deadly childhood games. A cursed knife, the hidden history of Salem, possession, and hide and seek/hangman/spotlight—it sounds a little jumbled (and looks it from the trailer), but if this is Butterfield’s demonic Charles Manson audition, then so be it.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Premiering at Sundance, this new A24 drama charts the life of a Black woman in Mississippi, following her from childhood through her adult years. “Take your time,” we hear in the trailer for this feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer and filmmaker Raven Jackson—a suggestion that the film itself looks to take on board as it patiently moves through the decades.
You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
Adam Sandler keeps cranking out Netflix content, but in a departure from his usual strategy of making movies with his mates, he’s now making movies with his family. Sandler’s real-life daughters are front and centre—their dad playing their… dad—in this teen comedy about two best friends who fall out over, what else, a boy.
Deliver Us
Speaking of families, there’s an unspeakable pair of unborns driving the plot of upcoming horror Deliver Us. A possible immaculate conception sees a nun pregnant with twins, which itself would merit some priestly investigation—even without the fact that they are talking to her from the womb, and may be the unborn Messiah and Antichrist…
