Addendum to Trailers: Up

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And here (not in any specific order) are some few other trailers for interesting-looking films, due out later this year, that were not on my "Most Eagerly Anticipated" list:

• The Class, a foreign-language entry from France about the often distended relationship of a teacher to his adolescent pupils. Read 'Half Nelson (2006),' not 'Dead Poets Society (1989).'

• Fuel, a green documentary that feels spawned from the flood that was (with force) unleashed into popular culture and general awareness by 2006's An Inconvenient Truth. Read 'ostensibly preachy to those people who are already aware of its objective content but nevertheless dramatic, informative, and influential, especially (and hopefully) to those others who are not so aware.'

• Were the World Mine, a(nother) Shakespearean adaptation that at first looks as all the others (i. e., as though it were doing nothing but fumbling around in the text) but then somehow eschews morbid categorization by unexpectedly successfully capitalizing on an as-yet unmined nugget of this specific play (i. e., "A Midsummer Night's Dream"): the sexually non-specific serum that is "love-in-idleness." (The songs don't sound bad either.) Read 'an inevitably flawed product of a redeemingly fresh take: gay Shakespeare and the politics of affection.'

• Slumdog Millionaire, 2008's Fox-Searchlight entry into the games that positions a fortunate yet til recently penurious Indian boy at the sudden peak of a youthful whirlwind of instant success, dramatic love, and traditionalistic Hindi vibrancy. Read '(Romeo + 20 million rupees + Juliet - [paternal angst and distress])•(a color palette like Apple's 4th-generation iPod Nanos)/(a dharmic twist?),' or 'City of God (2002) meets Moulin Rouge! (2001) but actually in India this time.'

• The Beautiful Truth, like the above Fuel, a documentary meant to promulgate the simple truths of the natural world and indict the short-sighted companies involved in that world's gradual from-inside demolition in the process. Read 'Super Size Me (2004) takes on the oncology unit.' (Hm, maybe that was a bit too curt, but I'll let it play; sensibilities offended by a seemingly flippant use of the word "oncology" seem to have not watched the trailer.)

I'll be sure to post on any and all of these films that I get to see.