Trailers of the Week – Martha Marcy May Marlene & The Skin I Live In

Happy Labor Day peeps, and now is the time I start to post more trailers to get you interested in movies that are coming out soon, possibly to a theater not by you sadly.  I guess my only plea I have today is to support your local art theaters as those are where you will be able to see films like these.  Plus, you get to skip all the noisy theater patrons that inhabit most cineplexes.  Today we look at a Sundance favorite and one of my favorite new actors John Hawkes starring in Martha Marcy May Marlene.  Last is yet another trippy film from the mind of Pedro Almodovar that looks sleek and possibly sexy considering his past movies with The Skin I Live In.

Martha Marcy May Marlene:

You probably couldn’t guess about what the movie is about from the trailer, but the film is about a young girl trying to assimilate back with her family after being kidnapped and brainwashed by a cult.  The trailer has this eerie, tense feeling of abuse and uncertainty in the movie.  It might be a film that could be upsetting to some given the subject matter, but this looks intriguing in the premise of the movie.  I have been reading a bit about the movie and there is a lot of buzz about the young star Elizabeth Olsen (the younger sister of the Olsen Twins) and John Hawkes is in talks about some award season love.  Rightly so for John as he has been relegated to the secondary characters of movies and a background character.  I loved his role in Winter’s Bone and glad he is getting more prominent acting roles.

The Skin I Live In:

I think is probably one of the most stylish trailer for an Almodovar film in ages.  The music, pace, cutting, and uncertain nature of the film and trailer help gets you sucked into the movie, but also might make you scratch your head and wonder what the fuck this is all about.  The film is about a successful plastic surgeon who makes a break through in creating an artificial skin that could help people hurt in accidents.  This was spurred on by the death of his wife years earlier.  The film looks to be a psychological thriller, but again this is what I have been able to observe from the trailer and some online articles about it.  Given this is an Almodovar film, I can expect some great writing, superb acting (good to see Antonio Banderas in a non-Shrek role) and stylistic visuals.