Gravity and the necessary evil of movie marketing
Spoilers ahead
Suppose your movie is opening in a few months. Do you trust its quality and hope good word-of-mouth will slowly but surely get cinephile butts in seats, or do you give it a little nudge with some previews and hope the marketing campaign will get more butts in the seats and faster?
Filmmakers, obviously, want their creations to reach the widest, largest audience (so do studios, albeit for a different reason). But what if your marketing campaign ends up hurting your film?
This unintended damage happens all the time, of course, but I really felt it (and it really hurt) while seeing Gravity. As a Cuarón fanboy with limited willpower, of course I ate up every clip, sneak preview or featurette before the film opened on October 18th.
Sitting there in the middle of the room, I slowly began to realize I had had the first half of the movie spoiled for me, and it was not a good feeling.
Act I of Gravity, through no fault of its own or of the filmmaker, lost quite a bit of its emotional power and ability to surprise. What do you do in these cases? The sight of Sandra Bullock bobbing around violently in space loses some of its impact after 394 viewings.
“I really wanted to love Gravity”, I thought, “but it’s not giving me anything new or exciting”.
How wrong I was, thankfully.
It was like the second half of the film, after Clooney dies, was telling me “you want new and exciting? Here you go”.
Few times have I been this tense at the cinema, and I really commend Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón for encouraging audience participation. Advice for Ryan Stone (Bullock), many “no no nos” and general curse words escaped my mouth from time to time. Ha!
In all seriousness, the trailers didn’t spoil the best things about Gravity: its ability to amaze visually and connect emotionally.
Yet again, cinematographer Emmanuel ‘El Chivo’ Lubezki knocks it out of the park, aided by top-notch visual effects, both of which will surely be mentioned a lot come award season.
There’s a scene -if you’ve seen the movie, there’s no way you’ve forgotten it- where Bullock, breathing fresh oxygen after almost running out of it, and suspended inside the ship, takes off her spacesuit and curls up in the fetal position. It’s a scene of such subtle beauty and also one of the best I’ve ever seen.
I have been a fan of Sandra Bullock pretty much my whole life, but I’d never considered her a capital-letter Actress, until now. Her heart-wrenching performance will make you cheer, suffer, laugh and weep (oh, how I wept with that dog scene). A ‘Best Actress’ Oscar nomination is pretty much a sure thing, and don’t be surprised if she takes the golden man home once again (only this time much, much more deserved).
Even if the first half is sort-of ruined by the numerous trailers, Gravity picks itself back up and becomes one of the best films in the 2013 universe, one that masterfully combines the thrills of a great sci-fi actioner and the harrowing emotional torture of the finest dramas. Destined to be a classic.
Can’t wait for this to open in the UK!
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When is it due?
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Next Friday.
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Cool. Only a few days to go then.
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Well said! On all counts. I managed to mostly avoid the lengthier trailers, and only pay attention to the 30 second teaser (which gave away basically nothing) approximately a billion times, so I felt like pretty much everything I saw was new. Now I’m glad that’s how I approached this flick!
Glad you liked it so much anyway.
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Thanks, James. Glad you could restrain yourself and enjoy the film from a fresh point of view.
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Nice review. My favorite of 2013 thus far.
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Thank you! It’s definitely in my Top 5 as well.
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Love this film. As ckckred said, “My favorite of 2013 thus far.” My only complaint is Senior Cuarón doesn’t make movies fast enough, and I wait and wait until his next film arrives. Fine write-up, Fernando.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it, Fernando. I’ll be picking this up as soon as it is released and may even see it again at the theater.
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I want to see it again too! Such a great movie.
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Thank you, Michael. Glad you liked it. And yeah, he takes his time. But I’m fine with waiting if that’s what it takes for movies as good as this.
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I liked Gravity quite a bit and I thought Sandra Bullock was very good. However I would be VERY disappointed if Sandra Bullock takes home the award. That statue rightfully belongs to Cate Blanchett.
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I’d like to add some weight to that (even if it’s tiny lol) — Mark knows how I reacted to Blue Jasmine, but I’d have to agree with Blanchett. Bullock is incredible, but Blanchett all but disappeared completely within Jasmine. annd. . .i’m out.
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LOL. She’s certainly generated a lot of awards buzz for Jasmine. I’m very curious about the movie and her performance. I’m sure she’s great, though, She always is.
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Haven’t seen Blue Jasmine yet but I’m sure Blanchett does a wonderful job. She’s one of my favorites.
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Such a great point of view on this review, I loved it. I really appreciate the perspective on the impact of trailers on the actual product’s ability to sell you on its own merits. Sometimes, trailers become a thing unto themselves and really I do like watching them. I was definitely the same with Gravity — must’ve watched the ads at least a baker’s dozen times! For me I didn’t so much felt that the first bits were “spoiled” so much as they certainly were more predicted, but then. . . yeah, like you said. The second and third acts happen and the movie just goes to a whole new place.
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Very glad you enjoyed it. Means a lot.
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Ah you praised it like everyone did. Shun.
I’m only kidding. Good review. I didn’t think so highly of it (I gave it an A-, which is your four stars), and I really would be surprised if this were ever considered a classic.
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