Steven Seighman
June was a really good month for posters. It’s the time of year when the late-summer and fall releases overlap with their marketing, providing a lot of great designs to sort through. Of everything I saw over the past four weeks, here are five that stood out among the group in Film Obsessive’s latest edition of Poster Roundup.
Manhunter
While everyone awaits Heat 2, another classic Michael Mann project has entered the chat: Manhunter—the 1986 crime thriller that introduced moviegoers to legendary baddie Hannibal Lecter—celebrating its 40th anniversary with a 4K “final cut” that hits theaters in July. StudioCanal released this haunting new poster to build excitement.
At first glance, you might think this is a new Daredevil project. The central figure wears a cowl and is bathed in deep red. A closer look reveals the reality: It’s not Matt Murdock. It’s Francis Dolarhyde, Manhunter’s creepy serial killer, adorned in his massive tattoos. Overlapping him, in cool blue, is the film’s protagonist, Will Graham. The two men’s images connect at the eye—a smart choice that alludes to Graham’s ability to catch killers by seeing the world through their eyes.
The lime green title, set in Trade Gothic Bold Condensed, pops against the poster’s moody red backdrop, making this a fully contemporary update to the film’s original pop art style.
The Fast and the Furious
In a time when we’re told to “see it as big as possible,” premium format theaters like IMAX, Dolby Cinemas, and D-Box often bring the most interesting poster art. This 4DX ad for the 25th-anniversary rerelease of The Fast and the Furious is a great example.
The poster has a mix of elements, both exciting and visually engaging. Illustrated in a style that feels straight out of Grand Theft Auto, it really pops. Everything is on an angle. Its energy is kinetic. Because the designer framed the main action via a car’s side-view mirror, you feel like you’re in the movie—like Spilner and Dom are barreling up behind you. Even the typography helps to sell this sense of speed: “Feel it in 4DX”—a directive in big, bold letters; the film’s title and release date in italics. And “25th anniversary” reads like a highway overhead sign.
Altogether, this works so well that it begs for a closer look. Movie posters feel somewhat stagnant these days, so it’s refreshing to see something so alive.
Mutiny
This is a great year if you’re a Jason Statham fan. Not only did we get his usual January release with Shelter, but his new film, Mutiny, from Plane director Jean-François Richet, hits theaters in August. From the trailer, it looks like a better version of Under Siege, the 1992 Steven Seagal boat classic. And the matching poster is smart and attention-grabbing.
Set against the vast emptiness of the sea, in this design, Statham hangs from the side of a shipping container (in a pose reminiscent of the poster for his film The Mechanic). He’s tiny in this composition, which indicates isolation and how there’s a lot working against him. The container is red, as is the title. Everything else is blue. It’s a simple but effective color scheme that works well in selling action/thriller films. Red is “bad,” and blue is “good,” and so our brains understand there is tension.
Because it’s a teaser poster, one image is all we get, along with the essentials: director, release date, star name, and title. The latter is bold—sharply angled and blood red—giving the design real punch. It brings to mind this amazing poster for Ocean’s Eleven from 2001, though here it feels a little lost in the overall layout.
This may not be the greatest poster in the world, but it does stand out. The fun angles and color tension do the heavy lifting in what is a fairly minimal design. It’s the kind of thing you’d probably stop and look at in a theater lobby. At least I would.
Klara and the Sun
When I look at this poster for Klara and the Sun for the poster roundup, Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s best-selling novel, I feel genuinely happy. Everything is soft, bright, and hopeful. The story centers on an outdated AI model that runs on solar power to function, and therefore deifies the sun, which explains the sun’s prominent depiction in the background.
A smiling Jenna Ortega, Klara is shown in profile, bisecting two distinct mini-narratives in the lower half of the yellow ball. On the left, a city with a car driving toward it. On the right, a lonesome barn in a field. These two images feel very Wizard of Oz, and I suspect that’s by design. From what I’ve read about this story, Klara follows a similar path to Dorothy’s non-human companions.
I especially love how the seafoam background contrasts with the bold yellow. And aside from the edges of the minimal typography, everything else in this poster reads tranquil, with soft edges. Given Ishiguro’s penchant for somber stories, I’m curious to see how Waititi shaped the film’s tone, and whether it will match this joyful design.
Mustache
Here we have another boldly colored poster. It’s for the film Mustache, which had a festival run in the U.S. in 2023 and is being released digitally next month. Yellow is a go-to for marketing independent films (think Easy Rider, Little Miss Sunshine, Robot & Frank) because it’s a budget-friendly way to grab attention. In this case, the giant mustache at the top of the design helps that effort.
The story follows a teenager in Silicon Valley in the 1990s who’s forced into public school. The facial hair he’s been growing for four years goes with him, and on the poster, it seems ominous. In this poster, the mustache rains onto the boy, while everywhere else stays dry, which tells you this ‘stache is the source of at least one of the conflicts.
The poster’s title block uses a sans serif font with soft edges, providing a playful feel. Paired with a primary color palette and the illustrated rain, the vibe comes across as youthful and (at least somewhat) light. The director line at the bottom, “A coming of age film by Imran J. Khan,” helps confirm that. But as with any story like this, I’m sure it’s not all comedy.
Overall, this is a nicely executed design. Since Mustache’s release in July is digital, I’m not sure where people will end up seeing this poster. But I’m happy I could give it a little attention here, because it—and our Poster Roundup— is genuinely fun.
