Another month has rolled by at the multiplex and the staff have taken down, put up, and taken down again a bunch of movie posters. What were the best and worst for the month of November? Read on and find out.
The American
The first of two posters in this month’s column that harkens back to a retro style. In this case, the poster for Anton Corbijn’s The American takes its visual cues from 1960s thrillers. I love the way they boldly state “George Clooney is The American” and the way it flaunts that bright orange that we so rarely see on a movie poster (probably for good reason, and yet it works).
Machete
Robert Rodriguez’s spin-off from GrindHouse (it was originally a fake movie trailer used at intermission) and that film’s 1970s aesthetic has continued through the marketing of Machete. Best of all the posters – and there were a lot – was this collage style design that apes the posters of ‘70s blaxploitation classics Coffy and Cleopatra Jones with a typeface ripped right out of Shaft.
Monsters
Of the assorted posters that this phenomenal British sci-fi arthouse flick amassed through its releases in various countries, my favourite by far is this design that gives me the shivers and makes me feel like I have an itch inside my skull. It’s like some sort of horror painting, what with those alien tentacles emerging and wriggling out from of the eye sockets of a protective gas mask and the deeply ominous tagline above.
The Loved Ones
While I don’t care for the strange font, I really like this poster for local horror film The Loved Ones. Taking a particularly feminine tone with its bold pinks and purples, it’s the composition that really strikes me. From the way the twisted and demented Lola (Robin McLeavy) towers over the bloodied Xavier Samuel with her paper crown, juxtaposed with the shiny disco ball in the background. Unusually interesting work for a film of this sort.
Gainsbourg
Nobody will mistake the marketing for Gainsbourg as an alternative QUIT campaign, that’s for sure. The deep neon blues and reds of this local design treble the effect of that age-old cinematic trick of somehow making smoking look glamorous. It rocks a sort of effortless coolness that is appropriate for a biopic about Serge Gainsbourg.
The Last Exorcism
I’m going out on a limb here and assuming the image on this poster for horror film The Last Exorcism is meant to be… scary? To me it comes off as silly more than anything else. Perhaps it’s because I find the scariest horror movies to be the ones most grounded on Earth, so seeing a girl almost flying around a room just doesn’t do it for me. That tagline is ridiculous, too, since by their own admission if you believe in neither God nor the Devil then the movie is just about a girl magically flying around her bedroom and that’s not scary!
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
I’m not sure whose idea it was to market the penultimate Harry Potter film around a sequence in which the three main characters run through the forest, but that’s exactly what this poster is selling me. Ignoring Daniel Radcliffe’s oddly inflated chest in this design, there’s just nothing that sticks out as exciting, magical and fun. It looks dreary more than anything else, and interchangeable with any teen thriller on the market. Disturbia 2?
Fair Game
Much was made about this poster for Doug Liman’s political drama Fair Game, and for good reason, too- it’s dreadful! Strangest of all is Sean Penn’s frightening omnipotent floating head with crazy Cheshire cat grin on his face that belies the film’s serious edge. Seriously, compare it to the poster for Alice in Wonderland! The colours, too, are drab and lifeless, especially when compared to this international concept, which isn’t much better from the design point, but at least it has some life to it.
And that’s it for November. December already has plenty of goodies (and, of course, some baddies too) so keep an eye out for the next column.
