Part two of my top twenty film posters of 2010. In no particular order.
11. Rabbit Hole: this poster is my pick for the most original of the year. Rabbit Hole tells the story of a couple going through the motions after the loss of a child. Not a happy film, sure, but the poster beautifully illustrates that roller coaster one experiences following such a trauma.
12. Exit Through the Gift Shop: this poster is as funny and back handed as the film itself. The rat is a Banksy signature, and this rat (much like Thierry Guetta), has stars in his eyes. I get giddy just thinking about the capacity for discussion the poster alone incites. The only thing better than this poster is if Banksy had released limited edition broadsheets of it for my consumption, which, come to think of it, would have been a pretty genius comment on why this film was made in the first place.
13. 127 Hours: as far as poster’s go, this one is actually pretty standard, and to be honest, it’s kind of ugly in all its photoshopped, underwhelming tag line glory. But hey, you have to hand it to the designers, this poster is a wading pool of metaphor. It might be improved upon by more subtlety for the sake of a challenge. But then again, what’s more subtle than a giant “hidden” hour glass?
14. The King’s Speech: truth be told, every single one of the The King’s Speech posters were terrible, photoshopped messes that frankly made one of the strongest films of the year look like substandard, straight to DVD fare. But, praise God, they got their act together. This is bold, restrained and modern, much like the film, which is at its core, a film about Colin Firth versus that damned microphone. There is no need for anything else. Indeed, this is so lovely, compelling and painfully simple, I’m surprised they didn’t get here in the bloody first place. Ugh, keep calm and carry on.
15. Tangled: like most of the posters on this list, this is a teaser. I chose this because for two months I had to look at a giant billboard of this very image every morning on my way to work, and I considered it a break from the larger than life billboards surrounding it (namely the Nikitia campaign, which I thought horrendous). Yep, that’s pretty much it. Well that and it’s cute.
16. Inception: I knew nothing about this film until about a month before its release, and even then it was a clusterfuck. I saw this poster and I was sold not because of the imagery (as I often am), but for the very two reasons a film tends to make money: I loved the director/writer, and I loved the cast. This poster was a pick not because it looks pretty neat (which it does), but because this poster is as generic as the next. How many more posters do we need of an all-star cast standing around looking effortlessly cool (even with their backs turned)? I don’t know which is more impressive, that Nolan’s track record for complex, extraordinarily written films is unparalleled, or that the posters are as unexceptional as Ellen Page’s acting. Admittedly that is a unfair of me, I have never seen a poster with a Parisian street folding on top of itself, so I take that first part back. Unlike the Toy Story 3 teaser, this poster says absolutely everything, and yet reveals absolutely nothing. Kind of like the film itself.
17. Never Let Me Go: Sofia Coppola formula. Beautiful photograph, interesting, fractured typeface. Done.
18. Greenberg: it’s probably obvious to you now how much I appreciate simple, clean lines. This tag line would be irritating if it wasn’t so amusing. The film does leave something to be desired, but Greenberg is a man of contradictions, and this poster conveys that point blank.
19. The Runaways: a film about a band of renegade girls famous for a song called “Cherry Bomb”. Maybe it’s too obvious a choice? But listen, everything else they released paled in comparison (the poster designers, not the band). It’s as glossy, sinful, suggestive and unpredictable as the lives Cherie and Joan led. I’m not sure if anyone really saw this film. I know I didn’t. Regardless, I still like the teaser.
20. The Tempest: I chose this handsome poster to demonstrate how easily they can outshine the film itself. I call this false advertising.
