Sunday, June 26, 2022

That hot erotic thriller starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow

Flickchart is known for having a wide variety of alternate posters for its movies, and its algorithm is capable of throwing different ones up there on any given occasion. It can be really delightful to see variations on posters you've seen a hundred times -- like, instead of Bruce Willis' haunted face next to Nakatomi Plaza with its rooftop exploding, a weird bit of German abstract art with few recognizable shapes.

Because the crew who add movies to the site -- some of whom I know -- like to pick up whatever posters are out there, we also get the terrible baits and switches. Like this one I saw today.

I guess James Gray probably shouldn't have called his 2008 movie Two Lovers if he wanted to avoid this inevitable prurient form of false advertising.

If you've seen this movie, you know that it's an indie romantic drama, and a really good one at that. At this point I don't really remember what I loved so much about it, but I obviously think very highly of it, as it currently sits at #653 on my Flickchart out of nearly 6,000 movies. 

This is the more typical example of its poster, and the one that far more accurately depicts what the movie is about and what viewers should expect from it:

Now, this does suggest intimacy and possibly even eroticism, but it also shows Paltrow in a winter cap. And that's something I do remember about this movie, it being very wintry.

To the alternate poster's credit, it does contain a tagline that's a bit more reflective of the film's true tone: "Sometimes we leave everything to find ourselves." It may be reflective of the tone, but I'm not sure how well it actually encapsulates the film's themes. 

In searching to find Two Lovers' exact spot on my Flickchart, I first encountered The Killing of Two Lovers, my #3 movie from a couple years ago that's even higher on my chart at #351. Just for a kick I decided to see if having the word "two lovers" in your title basically forces you to lean into the potential eroticism angle.

And while there's certainly a poster giving the accurate depiction of Robert Machoian's wintry, windswept indie ...

... you have to go to Asia to get it. (Sorry, I can't say for certain what language that is.) While the less accurate American version is ... 

Hey, skin sells. 

And if it's baiting and switching viewers into a good movie, it's for the greater good. 

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