Steven Seighman
As summer movie marketing ramps up and titles from the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival emerge, May has been a good month for movie posters. As usual, most of them were pretty standard fare. But a handful did stand out from the rest. Here are five that warrant a closer look.
Tuner
Daniel Roher’s Tuner is a story of chaos. Niki (Leo Woodall) is a lowly piano technician who breaks bad to help dig his mentor out of debt. When he does, his world turns upside down, and the film turns into a high-stakes crime thriller. Its frenzied energy is captured beautifully in this jazzy poster from design firm Art Machine.
The poster draws heavily from the artwork of legendary jazz label Blue Note Records, as it leans into a blue color palette and a lowercase serif for the film’s title treatment—and all the action is framed inside an askew piano keyboard. These are all things you’ll find across that label’s catalog, whose design style has become synonymous with jazz.
So, let’s look at this poster. We know right away that Niki is the lead character because, even though he’s tied to the blue motif, he’s also the only character in color and the most prominent visual.
Then there is the safe dial graphic, overlaid behind him. Safecracking is a big part of the film’s story, so making it prominent is a nice touch—as is having it be the only element breaking out of the piano keyboard “frame.” In the background photo, both supporting characters glance to the right with concerned expressions. So now we know that their storylines depend on Niki—and whatever he does with that safe dial.
All the elements on this poster work nicely together to tell you what the film is about: crime, music, and romance. And at the center of it all is Niki.
The Odyssey
At first glance, you might not give this new character teaser for The Odyssey much thought. Its layout is simple, defined by primary colors (and embers, which director Christopher Nolan likes to include). But just like a viewing of a Nolan film, the more you sit with it, the more you will find to appreciate.
Every Nolan film is an event, and the posters are, too. This character teaser’s minimal elements and basic color scheme actually do a lot of heavy lifting to create a design that says a lot. The key is organization. Yellow at the top leads you in, through the background, which silhouettes the Trojan horse and draws the eye downward. Below a bright red crest at the center stands Odysseus, the poster’s lone character. Even if you don’t know that name, you can see that it’s Matt Damon. The star and the release date (also in red, at the bottom) are the big sells on teaser posters. Just in case, the film title is at the very bottom, in blue.
The bold simplicity of this has me excited not only for The Odyssey itself, but also for subsequent posters in this campaign.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is director Jane Schoenbrun’s meta take on slasher franchises. This poster plants it squarely in that eighties horror era when Friday the 13th defined the genre. The title font itself is a nod to Friday, and the white frame was a prominent design device of the time. Already, a real seventies/eighties tone has been set before getting into the art.
Stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder walk toward the camera like badass final girls who just laid waste to their stalker. The latter is pantsless (the Sex part of the title), and both are covered in blood (Death). They’re surrounded by concentric squares, which replicate the head of the killer in the film, a spear-wielding slasher called Little Death.
Behind that is a snowy depiction of the film’s setting. It’s painted and not a photograph, which surely means something. Since the story takes place at the location where previous Camp Miasma films were shot, perhaps this is a reference to a set. We’ll have to see it to find out.
Camp
This poster for Camp, the new film from writer/director Avalon Fast, gives off heavy YA novel vibes. Its bold title, dead center and set in neon, vibing on mysticism; the young women below, looking up at it; the ominous darkness, filled with trees; and the sparkly stars framing the scene all feel like things one might find in that section of a local bookstore. And from everything I’ve read about this movie, that’s a great direction for the design to go.
Emily (Zola Grimmer) becomes a camp counselor to reckon with her guilt after causing two tragedies. Once there, she’s embraced by other girls and redeems herself. However, out in the darkness of the woods, a voice tells her to go home. This poster conveys foreboding and also tells us that camp and the girls there are a shining light for Emily.
Super Troopers 3
If you know anything about the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, you’ll understand that this poster is very on-brand. For the third installment of their beloved Super Troopers franchise, they’ve ramped up the spectacle with a design that looks like it belongs on the side of a van in the seventies.
Taking up the top third of the poster, almost like toppers on a wedding cake, are two groups, clearly trying to keep the man and woman in the center from coming together. That’s the plot of the film: Officer Farva wants to marry the sister of his fellow trooper, Thorny, and nobody is having it. That tension is clear, but it’s almost secondary to all the other insanity happening here.
Behind the characters is a purple-and-orange landscape straight out of a Magic: The Gathering card. What this has to do with the film, I don’t know, but add to that the fact that these people are standing atop a giant eagle and cobra ready to engage in an epic battle, and you have a marketing piece that doesn’t make a lot of sense—but also one you won’t forget anytime soon. What more could a movie studio ask for?
