Unicorn Store: Watch First Trailer For Brie Larson's Directorial Debut
"Everyone needs some magic in their lives, even if they're all grown up."
Netflix has released the first trailer for Unicorn Store, the candy-colored feature film directorial debut of Academy Award-winning actress and recent Marvel Cinematic Universe inductee Brie Larson, who utters those heartwarming words near the end of the clip.
The film, written by Samantha McIntyre and starring Larson in the central role, follows a young woman by the name of Kit as she picks up a temporary position working in a public relations firm and wonders if she'll ever have the life she has always dreamt of having. Living with her parents after failing to make it as an artist (the trailer shows critics giving her multi-colored living art installation poor ratings in every category) and asking her fellow temps if bouncing from job to job was what they truly wanted to do, Kit experiences a sudden stroke of luck and change of fate when a mysterious letter-carrier delivers her an invitation that simply says, "Get ready, Kit."
Kit, intrigued by the possibilities that await her, heads to the location listed on her letter: an otherworldly place called The Store. It's manned by The Salesman (Samuel L. Jackson), who tells Kit he will sell her exactly what she needs. In Kit's case, it's the fantastical creature she's longed to have since she was a little girl: a unicorn. The catch is that The Salesman won't summon a unicorn and allow Kit to take it home until she proves she's "for real." Kit quickly jumps into a game plan, telling her friend Virgil (Mamoudou Athie) that she's made up her mind and is "building a home worthy of a unicorn."
While Virgil offers level-headed support, stating that he doesn't think a unicorn would want to live in Kit's basement, Kit's parents Gladys and Gene (Joan Cusack and Bradley Whitford, respectively) are resistant to her whims, believing that she's completely disconnected from reality.
"Do you think this is some kind of joke?" Gene asks. Gladys then jabs, "Should we just get you a puppy?"
The trailer continues to highlight familial tensions and the strained dynamic between Kit, her parents, and her presumed brother Kevin (Karan Soni) when Kit says, "I know that I'm just a disappointment. You're always like, 'Why don't you have a boyfriend?' Or, 'Why aren't you just more like Kevin?'"
Kit admits in voiceover in the Unicorn Store trailer that she doesn't know how to be a normal adult, and that she understands her parents think she's "insane." But the Unicorn Store might be the answer to Kit's woes — not because it will finally give her the thing she's most desire in life, but because it may teach her how to love herself and to experience the truth of one big life lesson: "The most grown-up thing you can do is fail at things you really care about."
Take a look at the whimsical trailer for Unicorn Store above.
Though the film isn't set to hit Netflix until April 5, reviews poured in well over a year ago after Unicorn Store premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September of 2017. Unfortunately, it wasn't sunshine, sprinkles, and unanimous L-O-V-E for Larson's directorial debut. The film received mixed response from reviewers — with one arguing that it "treads the line between kooky and irritatingly silly and winds up on the wrong side"; another writing that it's "too adult for kids, too childlike for adults, and too muddled for the motley lot of misfits and dreamers who just want to think different"; and one praising it as "a film full of great laughs, terrific performances, clever observations, and a huge, rainbow-colored heart."
If nothing else, Unicorn Store is another film that features Larson and Jackson — Captain Marvel and Nick Fury in the MCU — getting into situations beyond anyone's wildest imagination. There are sure to be a few moments that will make even the stony-faced skeptics crack a smile.
Formulate your own thoughts on Unicorn Store when the film premieres on Netflix on April 5.