I just got back from the SIFF press preview. There are some exciting changes to SIFF this year, including a new way of categorizing movies by mood (the thinking being if you’re planning an evening out and you’d like to see a comedy or a thriller or an international film, you’ll be able to easily find a list of exactly those types of movies playing on that evening). As they traditionally do during the press preview, SIFF organizers showed us a half-hour or so worth of trailers. And the trailers, for the most part, did their job: They made me excited about some of the movies that are coming. The trailer for Another Earth was especially promising. It looks like it’ll be another Moon-style smart sci-fi movie.

But the trailer for Shut Up, Little Man! is terrible. It’s maybe the worst trailer I’ve ever seen. Here, watch this:

Now read IMDB‘s synopsis of the film: “When two friends tape-recorded the fights of their violently noisy neighbors, they accidentally created one of the world’s first ‘viral’ pop-culture sensations.” Sounds interesting, right? A study of what it took for something to become viral in the pre-internet age. Why didn’t they explain what the fucking movie is about in the fucking trailer? How did they think that a trailer full of losers doing what sounds like awful Jerky Boys impersonations with no explanation of what’s going on would draw the audience in? I know the common trailer complaint is that they give away too much about a movie. But when they tell you nothing at all about the movie, it’s arguably worse, especially when the trailer is as willfully annoying as this one.

13 replies on “Maybe the Worst Trailer I Have Ever Seen”

  3. I liked the trailer, but that’s as someone who actually owns the CD, comic book, et al, I’m easy to please. Objectively (ahem), you’re absolutely correct, Paul.

  5. I made a perfectly good movie and you crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrucified it! Oh course I have been a big fan of this meme before anyone know what a meme was.

  7. I have to disagree, Paul. The trailer makes you discover Raymond & Peter the same way most of us did pre-internet: hearing this crazy recording and having no idea what the hell is going on.

    Also, yay for @5.

  9. As much as I am skeptical of the 25 year, water based gravy train these guys have been on- based on the misery of impoverished, elderly, alcoholic, closeted homosexuals- the trailer is geared for those of us who remember the meme. Who else could be interested in this film?

    I’ll see it, as so little is made for us aging Gen X’ers. This may be my only shot at boomer style, non Nirvana/ non “Greenberg” style nostalgia.

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