So, the trailer for the upcoming David Duchovy-Demi Moore movie, The Joneses, about a fake family who works together as a broad-spectrum lifestyle marketing team, looks both extremely strange, and I think potentially kind of brilliant:
Obviously, "keeping up with the Joneses" is a total cliche. But in the midst of a consumption hangover when the cliche was literalized through credit, turning the cliche into something real and specific seems extremely smart to me. Especially since the setup allows the movie to play with both consumer practices and ideas about the extent to which families are constructions, and the extent to which they're ruled simply by biology. "You've seen one Mr. Jones, you've seen 'em all," Moore purrs at one point in the trailer, and I think that's what's intriguing about this movie. We think dubbing someone "the Joneses" means we know them, but of course we don't. We certainly never assume that it's not remotely real.
And I like the casting choices, too. David Duchovny, in the aftermath of his own personal fall from grace, seems to have relished playing roles that epitomize the rot behind sunny appearances. Demi Moore has been so smoothed and bronzed that she's a product in and of herself. I'll be curious to see whether or not she can externalize something from underneath that buffed surface. Amber Heard, who plays their fake daughter, has amassed a nice little resume for herself, and worked with Duchovny in Californication, so they may have some preexisting ease. And having Gary Cole in the frame is always a plus too.