Rooney Mara

Joaquin Phoenix reunites with Gus Van Sant to play cartoonist John Callahan in ‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’ trailer.

Critics weren’t too kind to Gus Van Sant’s last film (the Matthew McConaughey Japanese suicide forest movie), but the filmmaker tends to follow a pattern where every other movie is actually good — and thankfully, judging by the first trailer, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot looks to be one of the better Van Sant projects in recent years. Joaquin Phoenix leads an awesome cast (which includes a few musical faves) in the true story of an alcoholic who finds respite from his addiction in drawing cartoons for the funny pages.

There’s really nothing like David Lowery’s new film. A Ghost Story isn’t the typical haunted house tale we’re used to. But Lowery’s transcendent, meditative film captures the haunting realization of how fleeting our time in this world is. The film was hailed as one of the best out of Sundance this year (you can read our review here), which makes today’s debut of the first trailer all the more exciting.

It’s downright mystifying that Una, Australian theatre veteran Benedict Andrews’ first foray into screen directing, hasn’t found an American distributor as of yet. It’s got two major stars in Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn — and with Riz Ahmed also appearing as a supporting player, they could even work the “Rogue One reunion” angle! — the reviews out of its screenings at the film festivals in Telluride and Toronto were uniformly strong, and it also happens to be excellent. (I was one of the critics praising the film as a superb actors’ showcase back at Toronto.) While there’s no U.S. release date on the horizon, it’s only a matter of time until some clever distributor makes a move, and for now, we’ve got a new trailer.