The trailer for the upcoming comedic thriller Black Bear, starring Aubrey Plaza, has been released. The film was directed by the director-writer-actor Lawrence Michael Levine, known for 2014’s Wild Canaries and 2010’s Gabi on the Roof in July. The film will also feature Christopher Abbot, from It Comes at Night, First Man, and the television show Girls, and Sarah Gadon, most known for Alias Grace, True Detective, and Castle Rock. The film first premiered at Sundance earlier this year and was met with a positive reception.

Released by Momentum Pictures, the trailer follows Allison (Plaza) as she stays with a couple, Gabe (Abbot) and Blair (Gadon), in their lake house while she searches for inspiration for her upcoming film. While the trailer cuts between what seems like a heated discussion over drinks between all three characters and Allison shooting the scenes for her film, the trailer starts to slowly unravel and the slow-burn thriller aspects begin to come through. From shots of characters looking through windows longing for each other or lurking outside the house and peering in like ghosts to explosive arguments and tender moments, the trailer never reveals what’s actually happening, which may be its best quality.

This film seems like it should be added to everyone's watchlist because with an outstanding cast that will definitely produce nuanced, emotional performances and a twisty story that will hopefully be as unpredictable as the trailer is, it will be worth the time. Plaza has recently been in films like Ingrid Goes West and An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, which both seemed to be handcrafted for her skills as an actress and allow her to treat the screen as her sandbox. While the trailer doesn’t actually reveal much, it’s a refreshing change for a preview pull you in without telling you most of the plot. Black Bear is set to release December 4, 2020.


Black Bear’s synopsis reads as follows: At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously convoluted their lives will soon become in the filmmaker’s pursuit of a work of art, which blurs the boundaries between autobiography and invention.