For Your Anticipation: Are you Going to Space?

My tone on upcoming indie fantasy project Another Earth turned somewhat sour the moment I saw the trailer in front of The Tree of Life. It suddenly hit like a ton of bricks how much of a laborious and self indulgent premise it is. It looks more like a failed indie than a successful one, and it lacks the relatively fantastic psychology of my favorite iteration of an alternate universe. I'm talking about Fringe. I love it. Get over it. I thought that perhaps the emotionality could bring it home, but the most emotional thing about the trailer was that music that played in the background. Anyway, count me out on Another Earth.

Films to See in 2011: July

So June went by with a deafening whimper, and as for how a whimper can be deafening, it's because you can't really hear anything. As May provided an excess of revitalizing filmmaking, not so much stunning as it was refreshing, June was the inevitable hangover. July is a spring of steady euphoria as we get back to some sense of sanity and stable thought. Transformers: Dark of the Moon switched months just after I posted my most anticipated films of June, so I'm tempted to rule July as an utterly depressing wreck starting out. Still, it will have that transforming robot heat going forward a few days ahead of time.

There are films that I am somewhat looking forward to, but don't quite break the top three. Horrible Bosses and Crazy, Stupid, Love both seem to go for the same sort of comedic demographic, with the latter having some sort of edge going for it, but both being general degradable. Friends with Benefits has more certain comedic spark, but I remain quietly skeptical. Captain America: The First Avenger seems to be on the same level of entertainment as Thor, so that's perhaps promising, but possibly disastrous. The biggest surprise omission is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, because even though I really loved Part 1, I expect a disappointing conclusion to the saga. That being said, I'm still very excited. So here are my picks, and you can comment below to tell me yours.

3. Tabloid

Directed by Errol Morris

The biggest barrier that modern moviegoers need to overcome is documentaries, because they're not always as depressing as Waiting for "Superman". Sometimes they're incredibly revealing and intense (The Cove), or spryly entertaining with a unique touch (Exit Through the Gift Shop). Tabloid looks like it's setting itself up in the ranks of the latter, looking at the true story of a woman who is either a monster or a victim, and I tend to believe the former. Then again, so little is told by the trailer that it's impossible to tell the eventual outcome of this film. I'm impressed when a doc tackles a little told and narrow subject only to reveal how fascinating it is.

Theatrical Trailer: Another Earth

I've become a sucker for what is emerging as the biggest new trend in motion picture science fiction, and that's the idea of alternate universes. Fringe, a show that very few people watch from week to week, was what started this avalanche, and was shortly followed by J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. This past year has handed us other films on the matter like Rabbit Hole, Source Code, and now Sundance Film Festival darling Another Earth. The more scientifically minded are going to shrug this one off as being stupid and illogical, because alternate realities exist in other realms. They don't just pop out of the sky.

I set my scientific logic aside when Lars Von Trier decided to make a film called Melancholia, about a planet that appears from behind the sun and decimates Earth. What makes this trailer a wonderful thing to behold is the artistry and emotionality of it. It's not just about what happens when people are made aware of an alternate Earth. It's about the journey of one girl whose path was misguided, and she's desperately trying to get it back. Part of that melancholic mystery that leads her to go after this other version of herself is what makes this so instantly captivating. My reservations against Another Earth at first have been balanced by this wonderful trailer. I wrote two paragraphs about it, so please check it out.