Movies

Damien Chazelle's latest work will hit theaters on December 9.

I guess there’s not much reason for me to watch the new La La Land trailer. I saw the movie back at the Toronto Film Festival. Why watch the coming attractions for a movie I’ve already seen? Frankly, I watched it (twice) because I want to see La La Land again, and I can’t right now, and watching the trailer is the next best option.

When you make a movie about any sort of national disaster, especially one still so far in the forefront of the American consciousness as the 2013 Boston marathon bombings, it’s important to treat the film’s subjects with respect. You can’t sacrifice the truth just to put in some fictional drama, and director Peter Berg knows this, opting instead to involve as many people as possible in Patriots Day who were there on the day of the bombings. A new featurette, which came out today, shows how Berg and his associates, along with the film’s stars, did everything they could to provide a sense of authenticity to the film.

After delivering two disappointing Spider-Man movies, director Marc Webb recruited Captain America for his return to the intimate realm of indie dramas, free from the tyranny of colorful super-villains, CGI and spandex. The first trailer for Gifted features real people dealing with real problems, like hunky Chris Evans struggling to raise his niece, who just happens to be a child genius — which is still kind of like a superhero story, right?

No scandal can keep an actor down for long, as is the case with Johnny Depp, who has signed on to co-star in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sequel (which will be the second in the five-film franchise). But that’s not all — apparently, he also has a very small role in the first installment, coming out this November.

Did anyone want a third Robert Langdon thriller? While The Da Vinci Code was a gigantic hit back in 2006, Angels and Demons made significantly less on both the domestic and international charts. And now, Inferno looks to answer that question with a painful whimper. No, nobody wanted a third Robert Langdon movie, and the film’s opening weekend makes that abundantly clear.

Today brings some bad news for Toy Story fans, but good news for The Incredibles fa

M. Night Shyamalan’s Split came as a welcome surprise when it debuted unannounced as the secret screening at last month’s Fantastic Fest, delighting audiences with a daring turn from James McAvoy (and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy and James McAvoy) as a mental patient harboring 23 distinct personalities in his head. Our own Britt Hayes was on the scene and reported back with a resoundingly positive review naming the new film as Shyamalan’s best in years. (Not an especially high bar, admittedly, but praise is praise.)

It’s hardly a secret that the American military has no idea what to do with its veterans, often leaving the traumatized men to fall through the cracks due to a lack of support. As the newly released trailer for the upcoming action-drama Man Down amply shows, soldier Gabriel Drummer (Shia LaBeouf, mercifully free of his American Honey rat-tail) has more than his fair share of baggage when he returns home from an extended tour of duty in an unidentified conflict. But he’ll have to contend with more than poverty and the guilt over watching his brother-in-arms (Jai Courtney) die; turns out that while he was away fighting to protect it, America went right to hell anyway.

It’s a classic premise, and for good reason: guy’s wife/girlfriend/daughter vanishes into thin air, guy drives himself halfway to madness in dogged attempts to get her back, guy grows unkempt beard of mourning. It has drama and intrigue wired right into the plot beats, allows for some salacious secrets, and who doesn’t love a good mystery? George Sluizer’s 1988 film The Vanishing may have done it best, but just a couple of years ago, David Fincher gave him a run for his money with Gone Girl. And today, we get our first look at the latest entry in this grand storytelling tradition.