Career retrospectives are special episodes of Honest Trailers that parody multiple films from a director's career.
Career retrospectives are special episodes of Honest Trailers that parody a director's entire filmography. These episodes are titled "Every [Director] Movie."[1] Screen Junkies has so far produced three career retrospective videos: Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton. Career retrospectives differ from conventional Honest Trailers in that they focus heavily on highlighting recurring tropes. In addition, the writers often refer to biographical details from the director's life to humorously explain those tropes.
Screen Junkies first conceived of the career retrospective idea in 2018. The Honest Trailers team wanted to satirize a Wes Anderson film to coincide with the theatrical release of Anderson's film Isle of Dogs, but felt no single film was preeminent enough to sustain an Honest Trailer on its own. The concept has since been applied to other directors who have received individual Honest Trailers for some of their films, however, the career retrospective format enables the writers to parody lesser known entries in their filmography.
Career retrospectives take much longer to produce than conventional episodes of Honest Trailers, because at least one of the writers (usually Dan Murrell) elects to re-watch the director's entire filmography to identify recurring tropes. In general, career retrospectives are critically lauded for their comedic insights into a director's distinct style and voice.
Every Wes Anderson Movie
Produced in March, 2018. It parodies the 8 films directed by Wes Anderson: Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moorise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).
Writer/producer Dan Murrell re-watched all Wes Anderson films specifically for this Honest Trailer, while the other writers filled in the gaps of any movies they had not seen. This Honest Trailer was well received. In their write-up about the Every Wes Anderson Movie Honest Trailer, ScreenRant appreciated how the video pointed out "how the structure of Anderson's eight films are quite similar when viewed side-by-side." In the same article, ScreenRant also singled out the Honest Trailer's starring section for particular praise, saying it is "a great illustration of how Anderson has carved out a unique voice in the industry, giving everything he works on his personal touch."
Every Christopher Nolan Movie
Produced in May, 2018 as part of the Women in Film Movie Fights Live Extravaganza fundraiser. The writers pledged to make this video as a stretch goal reward when donations reached $25,000. It parodies the 10 films directed by Christopher Nolan: Following (1998), Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight (2012), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017). The writers had already seen all of Nolan's films, many of them multiple times, and had previously produced individual Honest Trailers for six of his films.
This Honest Trailer was well received. Comicbook.com praised the Every Christopher Nolan Movie Honest Trailer for making several "sharp insights" regarding the similarity of all Nolan's protagonists and use of recurring motifs including tan suits, snowy lairs, rich guys buying things and evil female characters. Cinemablend appreciated the way Screen Junkies satirized Nolan's celebrity as much as his films, writing the video "brilliantly points out how Christopher Nolan is the internet's god of cinema, a man beyond reproach whose work is elevated perhaps past its own merits."
Every Tim Burton Movie
Produced in March, 2019. Every Tim Burton Movie was a bigger undertaking than the previous two career retrospectives, because Burton has had a much longer career. Writer/producer Dan Murrell re-watched all 18 films directed by Tim Burton to make this video, from Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).
This Honest Trailer was well received. Screen Rant appreciated the Every Tim Burton Movie Honest Trailer for highlighting many Burtonesque tropes, writing, "As this video points out, there are a lot of elements that show up in Burton's work again and again (and again), ranging from skeletons and clothing with black-and-white stripes to witches, suburbia, and Johnny Depp lathered in pale facial makeup. Arguably, this is a big part of the reason why so many of Burton's movies from the 2000s and 2010s especially have struggled to leave a lasting impression on audiences, all talk of box office success aside. While films like Beetlejuice were visually innovative and tonally unique when they hit theaters, the director's output has started to blur together in more recent years."
List of references
- ↑ The title format is somewhat similar to the quite different Smosh series Every [Blank] Ever which has (very occasionally) parodied movie tropes. At the time of the first career retrospective Honest Trailer, Screen Junkies and Smosh were owned by the same parent company, Defy Media.