Intimate, Lyrical First Trailer for So Yong Kim’s Lovesong Drops

If Lovesong’s title is any indication of the film itself, then the latest work by So Yong Kim (For Ellen, Treeless Mountain) will be a lyrical monument to our deep need for human connection, for a broadly defined love that can mean friendship or romance or everything in between.

The first official trailer for the film reinforces this impression through a swooning two minutes of companionship and heartbreak. Starring Riley Keough of Mad Max: Fury Road and the prolific Jena Malone, whose filmography spans the gamut from Batman v Superman to Inherent Vice, Lovesong follows best friends Sarah and Mindy as they embark on a spur-of-the-moment road trip to help the former escape the discontents of married life. As the trailer and early reviews of the film suggest, the camaraderie between these two friends deepens into an equivocal sort of relational ecstasy that may be part romantic attraction, part something else that transcends labels. When Mindy gets married, the friendship is abruptly put on hold, but as the synopsis of the film makes clear, Sarah is not ready to permanently forego the connection she and Mindy once shared.

Lovesong premiered at Sundance last January and will be making its theatrical debut on Feb. 17. In a year packed with promising theatrical releases, Kim’s film is an early one to keep an eye out for. As a bonus, the film will feature Cary Joji Fukunaga of True Detective and Beasts of No Nation fame, making his onscreen debut in a cameo as Sarah’s neglectful husband.