Michael Shannon Resurrects the Erotic Thriller in New Trailer

At this point, the erotic thriller feels about as timely as acid-wash jeans and Milli Vanilli.  Thinking back, its hard to believe movies like Fatal Attraction or Basic Instinct were such huge hits (Fatal Attraction was the second highest grossing movie of 1987 after...wait for it...Three Men and a Baby.  The 80s were freaking weird).  Studios would regularly throw huge budgets at directors like Adrian Lyne and Paul Verhoven, each of whom had a strange talent for giving scandalous softcore a palatable mainstream sheen.  By the time Kubrick got around to deconstructing the genre with his deliriously weird and oddly compelling Eyes Wide Shut, he all but killed it through sheer wtf-ness.  Every once and a while, new blood comes along that makes you go, "Hey, remember when that was a huge thing?"  But they are rarely worth the effort.

So imagine my surprise when the slick trailer for Frank and Lola was released a few days ago and I actually thought it looked interesting.  Although, that may all boil down to one thing: Michael Shannon's seething intensity.  There are not many things I like watching more than Shannon slowly spiraling out of control, and having the lovely Imogen Poots (a name that sounds like a hipster Swedish rock trio featured regularly on NPR) on hand as his dramatic counterpoint is just icing on the cake.  I love how this trailer offers hints and glimpses without truly giving anything away.  The mystery is definitely a selling point.  

Writer-director Matthew Ross is clearly drawing from several of the genre's touchstones, but most especially from Eyes Wide Shut.  The trailer focuses heavily on rich people and their dirty deeds, and even features a tracking shot of Michael Shannon walking down a sidewalk from the same angle as Kubrick's recurring shots of Cruise.  The trailer has style in spades and some beautiful imagery.  As long as there is at least one rage-filled blow-up from Michael Shannon, I'm in.  

Check out the trailer below.