You’ve got to really give A24 their due. They’ve built up buzz on Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” via gone-viral film festival standing ovations for comeback kid Brendan Fraser. A Reddit discussion has only reinforced that notion.
Just one photo of Fraser’s 600-pound character exists and it’s a close-up of his very round face. That’s it. No trailer, no clips, and, obviously, no full-body still of the character’s frame. That’s basically been the marketing for “The Whale.”
You could spend your whole life searching for this movie and it would elude you. It could become your obsession, consume your every waking moment, hunting for The Whale — Moby Dick
It’s the only big awards player with no trailer. As I mentioned last week, and it seems clearer to me now, with every ensuing day, that the people over at A24 are absolutely frightened by the reaction Brendan Fraser’s “fat suit” might garner once a trailer is released. It’s all about the inevitable “fat shaming” discourse that will occur when the trailer pops online.
Whatever trailer A24 releases, it’ll have be a smartly edited one that will need to deviate attention away from the 600-pound gay man narrative and straight into the performance itself, which is quite good. I’m not sure how that can be achieved, but I’m absolutely looking forward to A24’s game plan. They need to release something, right?
“The Whale is being released 6 weeks from now. The clock is ticking.