December has been interesting so far. There was a week of being sick. Then an especially crazy week of work. Then came 20 inches of snow, which delayed my trip west and led to nine hours on hold with airlines (no exaggeration), all but two of which turned out to be entirely unnecessary. And tomorrow I get to try traveling again, now with a connection through O'Hare. Put it all together and I feel I have quite a bit to rant about. But instead let's celebrate the best posters of 2009, which as a whole don't impress me as much as those of 2008, but there are some goodies in the bunch. Enjoy.
15 comments:
"Basterds" had a pretty ingenious ad campaign all around, taking the film's contradictory tones and essentially turning it into whatever movie you wanted it to be.
I'm partial to the poster for "A Serious Man," with whatshisname on the roof. Even if you don't know who whatshisname is, the poster somehow draws you in.
Not too crazy about the one for "Brothers." For some reason it makes me think of the love scene in "The Naked Gun" where two pairs of hands are mysteriously joined by a third pair.
P.S. Have a safe trip.
Ah Craig, you beat me to the punch with the A SERIOUS MAN poster, but even though I am a negative holdout on IB, there's no question that's quite a poster there. The scissor in the ANTICHRIST one is up there too, though I can speculate that a lot of attention will now go on the AVATAR adds, as that is quite the consumate visual experience. I just saw it this afternoon, and I'm numb, ravished and emotionally overwhelmed. I'll go to the mat for this one.
Nice presentation, have a good flight, and yes the snow did head northward, leaving us here with a foot in the metropolitan area! Ugh!
I would add Cold Souls, Drag Me to Hell, The Hurt Locker, Medicine for Melancholy, Orphan, the other Precious versions, Sin Nombre, The Song of Sparrows, Tyson, and Up.
This is a lot of fun - maybe I'll do a worst list if I get around to it.
P.S. I assume we're looking at the same list.
Without holdouts, Sam, movie criticism would be a boring place.
What I love about the "Serious Man" poster is its perfectly imperfect symmetry: the manner by which Stuhlbarg is trying to live up to the title and falling comically short, right down to the slant of the rooftop, tips us off that this is a satire (in case the names of the Coen brothers didn't).
Daniel, thanks for the link. Others posters I like are "The Hurt Locker" and "Zombieland." The ad campaign for "District 9" (which I haven't seen) was very clever too.
"Without holdouts, Sam, movie criticism would be a boring place."
Aye Craig, aye. I must tell myself that when the inevitable backlash surfaces with AVATAR. I am on th eother side of the fence with that one. Ha!
Good thoughts, guys. Just a quick note from Oregon after a long day of travel ...
The poster for A Serious Man was on the bubble for me. I like it, but I decided that I liked it more after I saw the film than before. I don't really have a hard rule for the posters I select, but in general I like for them to have some general artistic appeal and also convey the movie both going in (enticing me) and coming out. I think the reason I like the poster for A Serious Man is because I like the scene it represents. So that's why it isn't on the list, even though I like it.
As for Brothers ... Maybe I just think that any poster with Natalie Portman in the middle is off to a good start. But I do like the simplicity of it, the way it shows off its three stars and conveys the film. Er, at least it conveys the film as marketed. After the fact it turns out that the one who should be sliced in two is Maguire.
Also on the bubble ... The Hurt Locker (again, liked it after the movie more than before), Tyson and Sin Nombre. And I admit that I was so unimpressed by District 9 that the cleverness of the marketing campaign annoyed me in the end, unfairly so.
OK. I probably overlooked someone's comment in there. Sorry. Winding down out here. Tomorrow I'm going to take my oldest little brother to see some movie called Avatar. Supposed to have special effects or something.
Great collection of posters Jason. "Moon" is probably my favorite followed closely by that unique "The Girlfriend Experience." Both are very inventive. The only ones I don't really care for are "500 Days of Summer"(just too busy for my liking, great film though) and Invictus (photoshopped to death).
Completely with you on that "Brothers" poster. I like the simplicity of it also, as well as that split screen effect.
No Woodstock; too obvious?
I keep seeing that Police, Adjective poster popping up here and there and am more impressed each time. It really grabs you - great design. (see here: http://www.out1filmjournal.com/2009/12/interview-with-police-adjective.html).
Anyway, I'm hoping you'll jump into the mix with my year-end round-up. Relevant post is here:
http://thesunsnotyellow.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-of-blogosphere.html
Hopefully I can be less MIA here & elsewhere next year - due in part to a busier schedule, and also to seeing less contemporary films than ever (and hence leading less reviews thereof - which is a shame because I always enjoy your take, regardless of the movie in question).
Happy new year!
Joel (MovieMan0283)
RE: Brothers. It conveys the message pretty well, but as Craig alluded to, it also could easily be construed as being a bit sexual, even for the content of the film. Not bad, but not great.
That Invictus one sure seems out of place to me. It doesn't help that it greatly resembles the Changeling poster, though at least it doesn't appear as though Freeman is getting ready to dine on some Damon...
Fletch: Good thoughts. In another year I'd agree with you on Brothers and Invictus. With both, I like the way they put the stars forward against clean backdrops and then add artwork that conveys the film's themes, at least to a degree -- Portman split between the two brothers, Freeman wearing the rugby team on his back.
there's some good ones here: http://www.freakfilms.com/aa/aamovieposters.html
Cool films, but my favorite is BROTHERS, the story is so nice, and the movie is very well done, I like it so much! I want to see it again!
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