Three Trailers: Sometimes the Formula Works

My first thought watching the trailer for The Friend was that it felt a lot like St. Vincent, completely forgetting that Bill Murray starred in that one, too. I’m not wrong, and I also think that when this film is released, we’ll be able to republish that St. Vincent review and just change some names, and it will be otherwise interchangeable. But that’s OK because I think a lot of us could use a formulaic, feel-good story about a lady befriending a giant dog these days.

Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Ann Dowd, and Felix Solis star in The Friend, which opens in select theaters on March 28th.

Netflix’s upcoming series, Running Point, is also formulaic and feel-good, but make it sports. This will probably get watched in my house because it’s about basketball and I’ll take that compromise because there’s only so much actual sports I can tolerate. And Mindy Kaling, although flawed, does know how to make a funny show.

Running Point stars Kate Hudson, Brenda Song (Dollface), Justin Theroux, Max Greenfield (New Girl), Drew Tarver (The Other Two), Scott MacArthur (No Hard Feelings), and Chet Hanks.

The series begins streaming on Netflix on February 27th.

Black Bag looks like quintessential Soderbergh. I guess you could consider that formulaic, but it’s a formula we love. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender star as very elegant Mr. and Mrs. Smith types who will wipe the dust of that series out of our mouths. Fassbender is squarely in his spy era, and we’re here for it.

Black Bag also stars Marisa Abela (Back To Black), Regé-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan, and Naomie Harris. It opens in theaters on March 14th.

Crispin Glover being an extreme weirdo isn’t news. But, in this week’s lagniappe, he’s starring in a reimagining of a lost Lon Chaney classic, and that’s something.