I admire anyone who tries to bring something new to a very stale genre or format. The standup movie or special has remained basically the same for decades. The venues change, the material and comedians change, but the general aesthetics don’t; a man or woman and a microphone, a stage, a bunch of cameras, a couple of reaction shots of crowds laughing, and that’s pretty much it.
The Sundance Film Festival loves a good coming-of-age story, and that was certainly true in 2016, when this year’s fest fell hard for Morris From America, the story of a young teen (Markees Christmas) with dreams of hip-hop stardom who moves to Germany with his single father (The Office and Hot Tub Time Machine’s Craig Robinson). The film won two awards at Sundance 2016, one for screenwriting plus a Special Jury Prize for Robinson in an unusual dramatic role, and got great reviews from critics and audiences. It was eventually acquired by A24, who will bring the film to theaters in the U.S. later this summer.
Flying in under the radar for a July premiere, HBO’s John Turturro-led miniseres The Night Of (formerly Criminal Justice) at last has a full trailer, looking more and more like the True Detective Season 3 we might never get. See for yourself, as the one-time Gandolfini-led series finally gets its moment in the sun with some stylistic new footage.
Promotion of FX’s Donald Glover-fronted Atlanta has been few and far between, its only real teaser airing with the People v. O.J. Simpson finale, at least until now. The off-kilter hip-hop drama has a new full-length promo, along with a September premiere.