Hot Trailers

David Oyelowo (right) and RosamundPike (left). PHOTO: YOUTUBE
Dev Patel. PHOTO: YOUTUBE

A UNITED KINGDOM

Until I watched this trailer, I had no idea about this true story, which sounds like Out Of Africa-meets-Jungle Fever-meets-Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. In 1947, Seretse Khama (Selma's David Oyelowo), later to become the first president of Botswana, meets and marries Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike of Gone Girl), a white Englishwoman.

"If you choose to marry the leader of an African nation, you will be responsible for the downfall of the British empire in Africa. Have you no shame?" a snooty Brit official admonishes her. As expected, this clip mixes racism, bravery and moral victory in a Martin Luther King-among-the-bushes style.

I'm never going to complain about getting an angry, severely hostile reaction the next time I gatecrash a members-only party.


LION

Since when did geeky, goofy Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire get so, er, manly? With his long hair, beard and fierce determination in this drama, he could be auditioning to be Tarzan. Instead, he plays Saroo Brierley, an Indian kid who got separated from his family in India and was adopted by a white Australian family with Nicole Kidman as his mother.

Call this Slumdog Millionaire meets Rabbit-Proof Fence.

Guilt-stricken about leaving his biological family, he goes back to his native land to find them. "You have any idea what it's like, how every day my real brother screams my name?" he asks his girlfriend (Rooney Mara).

Well, at least he is not destined to be the first president of Botswana and has to face opposition to his interracial romance with Mara.

Tay Yek Keak

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 31, 2016, with the headline Hot Trailers. Subscribe