The Big Sick Trailer: Get a Look at Sundance’s Buzziest Film

Here’s how much buzz The Big Sick generated at the Sundance Film Festival: people begin earnestly talking about Ray Romano’s chances as a dark horse Oscar contender for Best Supporting Actor, thus really testing the limitations of the famed theorem that everybody loves Raymond. Indeed, the film came out of the fest with nearly unanimously glowing reviews. It currently holds a 97 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and became the subject of a Sundance bidding war. It was Amazon who emerged victorious after inking a $12 million deal (the second highest price tag of the festival), though major indie players Netflix, Fox Searchlight and Focus Features were all reportedly in the hunt as well.

Of course, that may mean very little to those outside of the industry. Movies are meant to be seen after all, and those who didn’t attend Sundance haven’t had the opportunity to watch The Big Sick. Well, now the first trailer for the flick is finally here, and the general public has a chance to get something of an idea about what all the buzz is about.

At first the flick establishes of playing in standard millennial romance fare: a relationship that might actually grow out of a random one night stand had by the character played by Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan, with the clever twist that Nanjiani is Kazan’s Uber driver. Then the stakes are raised when we learn that Nanjiani has traditional Pakastani Muslim immigrant parents who expect him to follow the tradition of arranged marriage and settle down with someone from his own culture.

Some movie might be content to stop there and explore the already rich thematic possibilities, but in the final twist unveiled in the trailer we finally understand why the movie is called The Big Sick. Kazan’s character has fallen into a coma, and Nanjiani’s character eventual bonds with her reluctant parents, played by Romano and Holly Hunter, in the waiting room.

Nanjiani, a stand-up comedian best known for currently occupying one the lead roles of HBO’s Silicon Valley, co-wrote the script with his real life wife Emily V. Gordon, a former licensed couples and families counselor. Michael Showater, the comedy veteran who co-wrote Wet Hot American Summer and recently directed the adored Sally Field-starring Hello, My Name is Dorris, serves as director. Judd Apatow found time to co-produce.

The Big Sick is set for an initial limited release on June 23rd and will role out to a wider release on July 14th. As one of the better reviewed and possibly more commercial flicks that premiered at Sundance, Amazon undoubtedly has high hopes for the film at the box office, if not on the Award’s Circuit.

Related: Zoe Kazan is the Pretty One

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