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It can be…tricky…to portray journalists, particularly niche journalists, in a modern setting. Spotlight had it relatively easy because it was telling a story set in 2001 and 2002, so showing a group of working newspaper reporters wasn’t all that incongruous or odd. But in 2016 the media world is a little different. Newspapers and magazines have laid off staff to cut costs and niche media that covers music, movies and other beats only maintains the staff they need to while supplementing with freelancers.
So it’s interesting that in the new movie Tumbledown Jason Sudekis plays a “music journalist.” Andrew, Sudekis’ character, is out to track down the story of what happened to a musician who years ago put out one critically-heralded record then went into seclusion before committng suicide. So he travels to a small town to talk to the artist’s widow Hannah (Rebecca Hall), but she’s none too anxious to talk to him, in fact she’s openly hostile to the idea. Eventually Andrew convinces her to share and the intimacy of doing so leads the two, of course, form a connection of their own.
The Posters
Hall and Sudeikis are both featured on the film’s poster, which puts them in the middle of the one-sheet. They’re shown standing in a field that morphs as you move up the image into window looking out into a night’s sky. The actors’ names appear at the top and the title at the bottom.
Other than that the movie stars the two named actors and that they seem to be in some kind of relationship there’s not a whole lot of information to gleam from the poster. It relies on the recognition of the two of them without giving the audience anything else to really go off of.
The Trailers
The trailer opens with Hall ducking Sudeikis’ calls until he shows up and makes his pitch to include her late husband in a story. She’s reluctant but eventually gives in on her own terms. The two eventually team up and it quickly becomes clear there’s a connection between the two. She takes him on all kinds of mini adventures to get to know the subject he’s writing about and the two grow closer, something that’s helped by her parents but hindered by her friends in town.
There’s a lot of charm in this trailer with Hall and Sudeikis obviously playing off each other well. It looks wholly predictable, but this is one of those cases where the enjoyment lies in the execution of a familiar tune, not in the innovative reinvention of the genre.
Online and Social
The official website opens with something I haven’t seen before but which I really like: an immediate call to action. Specifically there are three things it wants you to do: 1) Add the movie to your GoWatchIt list to remind you when the movie is available either in theaters near you or on home video, 2) Find a theater near you that’s playing the movie or 3) Rent/own it through a VOD service, with links right there to both iTunes and Amazon. It looks like that pop-up is actually an ad unit from GoWatchIt, but for a limited release movie like this having this sort of immediate option to take some sort of action to see the movie is a great tool. I’d love to know more about this.
As you scroll down the site, which is built on Tumblr, you get more traditional sections. “Video” has the trailer, the TV spot and a collection of videos titled “Meet the Mainers” that show a brief scene featuring all the key characters.
The “#Tumbledown” section is a gallery of images and other media that promote appearances by the cast, countdown to the movie or feature some quotes from the movie. “Meet the Characters” offers brief insights into who all the characters in the story are.
An interesting bit of information, “Who is Hunter Miles” provides background on the now-deceased musician at the center of the story. So it’s additional information on a character we only hear about through the recollection of others as well as through his music, provided by Damien Jurado, who is mentioned at the end of this section. I like this a lot since it dives into backstory that I’m guessing the film goes into as well but which provides a nice touchpoint for those who are checking out the site before seeing it.
Finally, “About the Film” provides a well-written short synopsis of the story.
The movie also had profiles on Facebook. Twitter and Instagram.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
I don’t know of any online advertising that was done but there was at least one TV spot created and run. It plays about the same as the trailer, just much shorter. It primarily sells the movie as a good romantic option for Valentine’s Day viewing and notes that while it will only be in select theaters that it will be available on-demand this weekend.
Media and Publicity
Publicity for the film began when it got what seemed like above-average reviews and word-of-mouth from its premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was praised for being an original take on the romantic comedy model. After that there wasn’t much outside of conversations around new clips and so on. One beat that was hit a couple times was the soundtrack, as first-listen clips from it were seeded out to press.
Overall
As I said above, I really think this campaign is selling a movie that is if not deeper at least more engaging and original than it might appear. While it’s easy to see where things are going – the trailer in particular lays it out pretty clearly – I have the feeling there’s something that may not exactly subvert the genre but at least play within its tropes to say something original and affecting.
That’s buoyed quite strongly by what look to be strong, charismatic performances by Hall and Sudekis, who have some obvious chemistry as they play familiar characters. They both appear to give fast, loose performances as they tell a story that may have something interesting to say about loss, love and other topics. There are sure to be some eye-rollers but overall this looks like something that may appeal to those who have grown tired of the romcom genre as a whole.
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