Summer movie season officially kicks off this weekend—even though school is still in session for at least another month—and we’re two weeks out from Cannes, which means it’s trailer time, baby!
Today I have two trailers for you, because I refuse to acknowledge Now You See Me 3. Let’s start with The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
The Smashing Machine comes from Benny Safdie, and is produced by A24, and between that and an October release date, I think this is a film we will see on the fall festival circuit for sure. Some people are calling this The Rock going for Oscar, but I see this as more of a Matthew McConaughey-style renaissance. Johnson is a blockbuster star, but he’s had a rough run, diminishing his brand by appearing in too many movies of too poor quality, just like McConaughey in the aughts. McConaughey wiped his slate clean with a spate of dramatic roles in the early 2010s, and it looks like Johnson is now trying the same thing, and he’s doing it with Benny Safdie, not a bad start to a new era.
But this is hardly the first time Johnson has done drama. He notably appears in borderline cult classic Southland Tales—the fans are passionate but diffuse—and more importantly, he gives a legit great performance in Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain. That film is vastly underrated, probably because Bay, who is usually happy to slap jingoistic American paint on his films, turns his lens inward and critiques America’s failings with slicing black comedy (the film is written by Captain America scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the same guys who framed Captain America as a suspicious hardass who doesn’t trust his own government).
Johnson is great in Pain & Gain, and the trailer for The Smashing Machine immediately reminded me of Johnson’s performance in that film. Will it be enough for the Academy to take him seriously come Oscar time? LOL no, but he might be able to refresh his reputation with audiences.
The other trailer we have to look at is Weapons, which is Zach Cregger’s follow-up to his 2022 breakout hit, Barbarian. I was surprised Lainey asked me to cover this, because I know she doesn’t f-ck with horror, and Weapons looks super spooky.
Barbarian is better the less you know about it, so this trailer is the only thing I will ever know about Weapons. Cregger is an alum of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U Know, but in 2022 he kicked his career into a new gear with Barbarian. Now he’s one of the top rising genre talents, and Weapons looks like a big swing following a surprise success. I love a high concept horror movie, so I am here for Weapons, I just don’t want to know anything else about it. One day I would love to see someone release a trailer for a film like this that is just the title and release date for 90 seconds. Tell me precisely no more!
