The New Teaser for Netflix’s War Machine Foretells a Modern-Day Dr. Strangelove

There are many, many reasons to be excited for Netflix’s War Machine.

The first is that the film is helmed by David Michôd, the Aussie auteur behind family crime saga Animal Kingdom and post-apocalyptic Western The Rover. Both films revealed Michôd to be a sure-footed helmer with an eye and ear for the frightening spectacle of men at war. The second reason is that, based on the film’s new teaser, War Machine looks almost nothing like these two films. Stone-faced seriousness has been replaced with a smirk, grittiness with “an absurdist war story for our times” that is “part reality, part savage parody,” per the film’s synopsis. A modern-day Dr. Strangelove might be just what we need in our age of lunacy both at home and abroad, and the linchpin of this vision looks to be Brad Pitt.

It is Pitt who drives the trailer, despite not showing his face until the final seconds, and it is Pitt who seems to unite Michôd’s preoccupation with headstrong masculinity and the director’s bold new venture into satirical territory. Men have historically been the ones who’ve driven our country into dire straits, and none embodies this reality more than the image of a uniformed Pitt, marching with chest puffed out and a pair of Aviators bedecking his hard-jawed mug. Having previously nailed the role of a war-hungry U.S. officer in Inglourious Basterds, Pitt seems a promising choice to bring wartime satire to formidable heights of barbed hilarity.

But wait, there’s more. Not only does War Machine star a perfectly cast, demonstrably talented leading man, but it also features both Sir Ben Kingsley and Tilda Swinton. Yep, this one’s going high on the list of 2017 titles to watch out for.

Check out the full teaser above—the film makes its Netflix-exclusive debut on May 26.