The Voices Trailer: Time to Stop Knocking Talking Animal Movies

By  · Published on January 9th, 2015

Lionsgate

What with a new baby, casting news for Deadpool and now a trailer for The Voices, it’s a big week for Ryan Reynolds. At least bigger than he’s had in pop culture for a while. We’ve barely written about the guy since we shared a first look at The Voices back in 2013. We missed the movie when it debuted at Sundance last year, and that’s too bad because it looks like a lot of dark, twisted fun – good enough to put it on our list of most anticipated releases of this year.

Reynolds plays a factory worker who talks to his pets, and the dog and cat talk back (both voiced by Reynolds). At least in his mind. And in his mind they tell him to kill his girlfriend (Gemma Arterton), and then her decapitated head starts talking to him, too. Maybe that’s a spoiler, but it’s a huge part of the new trailer and could even be seen in that early promotional image (seen also above), so I guess the filmmakers aren’t concerned about us knowing that much.

Anna Kendrick is also in the movie as a co-worker and apparent new love interest, while Jacki Weaver plays the guy’s psychiatrist. The Voices is directed by Marjane Satrapi, who broke out in cinema with her wonderful animated adaptation of her classic graphic novel “Persepolis” and also helmed the live-action Chicken With Plums, which was a bit of a disappointment for me but others love it.

A bunch more people love The Voices, including our own critic Dan Schindel, who gave it an A- grade over at Movie Mezzanine (he calls it weird in the best way possible), and our buddy Eric D. Snider who rated it a 9 out of 10 at Film.com (“a loopy, ghastly, funny, morbid, and unforgettable 100 minutes,” he writes). As a fan of black comedy, I see myself loving it, too. It looks like American Psycho meets Lars and the Real Girl meets Doctor Dolittle.

With all its praise and appeal, it’s a bit surprising that we haven’t heard much about The Voices for a whole year now. I guess it’s a hard sell to a lot of Americans, but there are plenty of us out there who like these kinds of movies and can’t get enough of them. Fortunately we finally have the chance to see this one when it opens theatrically and, more perfectly for the scattered demographic, on VOD on February 6, 2015. Watch the trailer below.

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.