I have a bit of an obsession with Casey Neistat. Or rather, I’m obssessed with Casey Neistat’s process. He’s messy but organised, chaotic but meticulous. Watching this video made in 2010 about the 10 rules for Tom Sachs’ studio (Casey Neistat was one of Tom Sachs’ studio assistant), you can really see where he got a lot of his ideas.

No more teaser trailers or trailer teases, this is the real thing. And here’s my HOT TAKE, basically my thoughts as they happened watching the trailer:

1. Forrest Whitaker doing a weird breathy accent is super distracting. Is that supposed to be a British accent?
2. Oh God, what if they try to make Ben Mendelsohn do a British accent?
3. This looks every inch a Gareth Edwards film.
4. It looks like they’re trying to set up K-2SO as the comic relief. If those are the best laughs they could pick out for the trailer, oh dear.
5. Felicity Jones seems like she’s stuck in the Tomb Raider school of action acting.

Overall, I’m cautiously optimistic about this one. It looks great, really nailing the 70s aesthetic with a cinéma vérité feel. But Edwards’ last film, Godzilla, was let down by its characters and nothing in this trailer suggests things have improved.

I’ve said it before, but Noel Gallagher gives the best interviews.

Four little words that guarantee I’ll drop whatever I’m doing to make time for: “narrated by Tom Waits”.

John Baldessari was Tumblr before the internet was ever a thing, and this is a terrific introduction.

Drop whatever you’re doing and make time for this.

This is so good. And I feel like a lot of what Ta-Nehisi Coates says in this video is applicable to any sort of creative work.

Old one, but still fantastic. Always amazing to see the process of someone who is just great at their job.

A couple of weeks ago, Jamie Harrington appeared on Humans of Dublin talking about how he helped save a suicidal man by just asking if he was okay.

I was just on my way to the American sweet shop to buy some Gatorade, when I saw this guy in his 30s sitting on the ledge of the bridge. I just thought, “wow…” I stopped and asked him if he was okay, but I knew from the look in his eyes he wasn’t, and he didn’t say anything either, but I saw tears coming from his eyes. I pleaded with him for a while to come down and sit on the steps, and eventually he did. We sat on the sidewalk on the south side of the Liffey and talked for about 45 minutes, about what was happening to him, why was he feeling that way…

(If you’d rather hear him tell the story, he was on the August 8th edition of RTÉ’s Playback – skip to ~30’00)

From the IMDB’s trivia page for The Hateful Eight:

According to Quentin Tarantino, this show is inspired by the Western television shows Bonanza (1959), The Virginian (1962) and The High Chaparral (1967): “Twice per season, those shows would have an episode where a bunch of outlaws would take the lead characters hostage. I love it in a Western, where you would pass halfway through the show to find out if they were good or bad guys, and they all had a past that was revealed. Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling backstories that may or may not be true. Trap those guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see what happens!”

I wasn’t crazy about Django Unchained, but I’m pretty sold on this.

(Also, it’s hard to believe this is only Tarantino’s eighth film.)

Pixar are pretty great at pulling at my heartstrings, but this is the
first time they’ve made me cry during the trailer.

This looks amazing.