“Armadillo” Trailer: A Quiet Preview of One of the Year’s Best Films

This is an exciting month for documentary, especially for anyone impressed by the programming of last fall’s debut of the DOC NYC film festival (for which I served on a jury and so couldn’t talk about many of the selections at that time). April brings the official theatrical releases of a few of that event’s competition and non-competition works, such as the brilliant “Kati With an I,” which opens in Harlem this Friday. Later comes Werner Herzog’s 3D masterpiece “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (April 29) and next week sees the debut of “Armadillo,” a film that’s comparable to Oscar nominee “Restrepo,” but I think it’s even more outstanding. And given that I named “Restrepo” the second best doc of 2010, you can be sure “Armadillo” is high on my 2011 list. (Also look out for DOC NYC winner “Windfall” at this month’s Full Frame doc fest in North Carolina next weekend, and keep an eye out early in May for DOC NYC fest selection “Make Believe.”)

So a beautiful trailer for “Armadillo” showed up online recently and now’s as good a time to look at it, a week in a half before you really truly must go see the film. I don’t care if you don’t want to see another embedded doc about soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. I don’t care if you hate war movies or documentaries altogether. You won’t think of what kind of movie it is while watching. You’ll be far too engaged with all the drama, action and controversial, ethical concerns laid out on the screen. Maybe, like me, you will have fun trying to figure out where and how all the cameras are in any given setup (some are attached to helmets, giving us incredible access to the fighting). After watching this trailer, I can’t wait to see it again. Check it out after the jump.

 

 

 

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