I am stoked to watch Materialists, the latest movie from Past Lives’ director Celine Song and starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans; it’s my top-ranked must-watch indie movie this summer.
So I was excited to check out a new trailer (below) that premiered online on May 8. But that excitement turned to confusion pretty quickly when I heard an omnipotent voice-over narration being used.
If you’re not quite sure what I mean, do you remember the “In a world…” trend that movie trailers used to have where a voice not connected to the characters in the movie would describe the setting, plot, characters and even some of the themes of the movie? The narration in the Materialists trailer even starts out with “In the world…”
Now, this does not dampen my excitement for Materialists, which sees Johnson play a young matchmaker in New York City who herself has proven unlucky in love. But I couldn’t help but cringe a bit when watching the new trailer and wonder why A24, a movie studio usually aiming to be on the cutting edge of marketing, would opt for this odd choice.
My fellow millennials and older moviegoers will recall how voice over narration in trailers was more common in the 1990s, even making a celebrity out of Don LaFontaine, whose reading of “In a world” became iconic, lending his voice to more than 5,000 movie trailers according to Wikipedia. But eventually the trend faded out and honestly, I can’t recall many trailers that have used it in the last 10-15 years (I’m not including voice overs from characters in the movie used in trailers).
Usually in storytelling, you want to lean on the idea of show, don’t tell, so this Materialists trailer relying on a voice-over to give some background on Johnson’s character, Lucy, and a brief summary on some of the themes the movie is going to focus on is weird. That’s especially true considering Song proved herself to be able to beautifully write and film a powerful love story in Past Lives. Certainly, the powers that be didn’t feel the need to include a voice over in the first Materialists trailer.
I had two thoughts on why the Materialists went in this direction. First, perhaps they were thinking that adding the voice over could make it more accessible for those who rely on audio descriptions. The voice over could be providing additional context that may be harder to pick up for those who aren’t able to see the images as clearly; and it certainly helps when the trailer features text like its release window and talent involved.
The other thought was maybe Materialists wanted to invoke that nostalgic feeling. The movie is a romantic comedy, a genre that had its heyday back in the 1990s and early 2000s, but hasn’t been as successful at the box office in recent years. Adding to the nostalgic factor is that Madonna’s “Material Girl” is played in the trailer.
Whatever the reasoning, I’m personally not a huge fan of it. Maybe others do and this could be the start of a new surge in trailer voice overs. But ultimately, I still can't wait to see Materialists when it releases exclusively in movie theaters on June 13.
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