Oscar Bait! Trailer reviews for November 1

Halloween's over, it's starting to get chilly outside, and guys everywhere are growing cheesy moustaches.  With the beginning of November also comes the beginning of Oscar season, which means lots of great (or potentially great) movies are coming out.  Let's check out some trailers, so you can decide what to go see over the next few weeks when the theatres are packed with Oscar bait.

Inside Llewyn Davis (December 20)

More than anything, the appeal for this film (for me, anyway) is obviously The brothers Coen, Joel and Ethan (it's strange, and pretty annoying that IMDB doesn't have them listed as a group, but whatever.) Just looking through their filmography is enough to bring back memories of some of my favourite movies, so I'm pretty psyched for this one.  I trust these guys more than anyone not named Quentin when it comes to making movies.  This movie looks a little different than anything they've ever done before, but the Coen brothers have shown an aptitude in so many different genres that I've got no worries they'll kill it here.

Some dude named Oscar Isaac is playing the titular Llewyn Davis, and I've never heard of him before, but you might remember him from his role as Standard in Drive.  That haunting folk song that plays in the background (a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Fare Thee Well') of the trailer is actually him singing, so the musical parts should work out nicely (not to mention JT is in it as well).

A strong cast surroungs Isaac, with the always spectacular John Goodman and Carey Mulligan (who played alongside Isaac in Drive) standing out.

The trailer was great, it really managed to establish the tone early, when Goodman is saying that Isaac's former partner threw himself off the wrong bridge.  The movie looks to be pretty depressing, dealing with the titular characters struggles in music, life, and love, but with some dark comedy thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and there was an adorable unnamed cat.  Cat's are good.

Trailer: 4 stars

See it!

Diana (November 1)

Naomi Watts playing one of the most beloved, tragic women of all time, who just so happened to be a princess?  Yeah, that's Oscar bait.

It's really weird, Naomi Watts has been making movies for what seems like forever (she's got 62 credits on IMDB) but I still have no idea how to feel about her as an actress.  I feel like I should respect her, but looking at her work nothing jumps out at me and makes me say "oh yeah she was great in that".

On that note, this movie looks like a mess.  I was only ten when Princess Di had her fatal car crash, but I remember the day after it happened and the week of hysteria that followed pretty vividly.  I was hoping this movie could successfully recreate that (like 2006's The Queen did), and show why she was so beloved, but it seems like they're just going to make a shitty 3 act romance movie with a tragic ending.  Yawn.  Everything about this screams "emotional manipulation".

Trailer: 1.5 Stars

Skip it.

All Is Lost

We already had an awesome stranded alone movie  and an awesome trouble at sea move this year, so the market might be a little bit saturated for this one.

That being said, Robert Redford in a life raft catching sharks for two hours?  Yeah, I'm in.  The trailer was a little stock and quote heavy for my liking, but I'm still down.

Trailer: 2.5 stars

See it.