SUNDOWN Trailer Is a Masterclass in How to Cut a Preview

If you want a brilliant example on how to edit a trailer and artistically present the premise of a film, focusing on mood rather than spoilers, then Sundown has you covered. Superbly so. It is only 4 days into the new year, but this might end up being the best trailer of the year, after another 361 days.

Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg play wealthy siblings and co-heirs of a meat empire on vacation in Mexico, when things fall apart spectacularly. Mexican director Michel Franco showcases the subtle mix of luxury and crime, class differentiators in Acapulco, while Roth and Gainsbourg keep the enigma at the centre of the conflict close to the vest. The trailer does not tip anyone's hand.

The trailer below makes an expert use of a 'meditation chime' as an editor's metronome -- one that slowly evolves into a kind of terrifying alarm. Not since the teasers for A Serious Man or Little Children has the rhythm for a two-minute advert been set so perfectly to the film's core imagery.

This trailer itself is an antidote to the lazy and tired (and loud) tropes that typically accompany the form. More of this in 2022, please.