Trailer Park: Skewed Visions

While stark realism certainly has its place, some of my favorite movies have a different way of looking at the world, either through the eyes of their characters, or those of the filmmakers themselves. This week on Trailer Park we're looking at skewed visions.


Paprika
I often like the idea of animé more than the execution. So much could be done with feature length animation that isn't nessecarily geared towards kids, but I find a lot of the genre's conventions like the gigantic kewpie doll eyes and amateur sounding voice talent to be off-putting. The trailer for Paprika, the story of a psychotherapist who can enter her patients' minds, is full of fascinating dream-like images, the characters' eyes don't take up two-thirds of their faces, and the dialogue is mercifully subtitled. It's a purely visual preview, giving little dialogue and no real information on plot, but I'm dying to see this anyway.

Tortilla Heaven
A restauranteur in a small town in New Mexico experiences a financial boon when the face of Jesus Christ appears in one of his home made tortilla's. With priceless lines like "Jesus Christ is a registered trademark of the Roman Catholic Church," and "It's a miracle, the tortilla resurrected the pig," the film obviously has something to say about organized religion and has a sense of humor at the same time. That can be a tricky balance, but I'm curious to see how well director Judy Hecht Dumontet pulls it off. Miguel Sandoval of NBC's Medium and George Lopez appear in supporting roles.

Blind Dating
You might think the "skewed vision" here has something to do with the main character being blind. In reality, I'm referring to the fact that the folks who thought this painfully lame looking romantic comedy was a good idea must be suffering from some kind of sensory impairment. Blind Dating is about a 22-year-old blind man who also happens to be a virgin looking for love. As awful and unfunny as the film looks, the preview itself commits one of the worst clichés. Once the premise is established, the narrator (using a tone that promises there is whackiness to come) uses the phrase "he's about to find out." South Park did a great gag about trailer voice overs not long ago, and now I cringe whenever I hear the phrase. Watch the trailer and you'll get what I'm saying. Here's Scott Weinberg's take on it.

Hair High
Described as an animated gothic comedy set in the 50s with two murdered teens returning to life (and the prom) for revenge, and being directed by the wonderfully stylistic animator Bill Plympton, Hair High would seem to have a lot going for it, but the trailer, despite an interesting visual style, leaves me cold. To be fair, the preview looks more like a collection of scenes hastily strung together and set to a decent surf punk tune. The music runs out before the clip ends, and there's no narrative structure at all. Like Paprika, this one is purely visual, but fails to engage.

The Last Mimzy
Here's a vision in which two children who are suddenly displaying genius-level I.Q.s receive their newfound wisdom from a stuffed toy rabbit. Timothy Hutton stars in this film based on a short story by Lewis Padgett. Rainn Wilson of NBC's The Office also stars, and it's interesting to see him in a non-comedic role. The film feels like a Spielberg film from the 1980s, but with a more sinister edge. This one I want to see. The film was discussed here by Cinematical's Jessica Barnes.

And don't forget to check out these trailers recently added to AOL's Moviefone.

• The Hawk is Dying - Paul Giamatti obsesses over training a hawk. Think Sideways, but the pinot noir has talons.
  
• In the Land of Women - A young man with woman trouble finds himself surrounded by women.
  
• The Condemned - Convicted criminals battle to the death in the ultimate reality show.
  
• Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - A psycho killer terrorizes a small town with a film crew in tow.
  
• Premonition - Sandra Bullock plays a woman having visions of her husband's demise.
  
• Bee Movie - Jerry Seinfeld's upcoming animated epic.
  
• Underdog - The classic canine cartoon comes to life in this live action film.
  
• Fracture - Courtroom mind games with Anthony Hopkins.