Hedda

Starring Tessa Thompson and with music Hildur Guðnadóttir, there’s no shortage of reasons to get excited about Amazon Prime’s Hedda, a lesbian love triangle drama film set in the upper crust of 1950s British society–it’s Nia Da Costa’s fresh take on a Henrik Ibsen play.

Like so many trailers lately, this one begins with (sigh) a single upper register piano note drenched in reverb as we meet the title character, Hedda (Tessa Thompson).

Over shots of Hedda dancing at a party, a breathy crescendo rises to the strike of an ominous bell at 0:13. We cut to black and then to another crescendo to studio credits as we see a body being carried out of the house by a medical team. Cutting in and out of scenes of Hedda being interrogated, detectives are probing into Hedda’s fateful party, and there’s a transition at 0:22 to upbeat jazz.

To really situate this jazz in the scenes we’re watching, what comes next is a tasteful series of diegetic sounds synched to the pulse of the music. A singer shouts, “Hey!” into a microphone at 0:25, in time with the music. The clatter of fine china placed on the dining table at 0:29 is synched to the music (as is a cheeky vocal shout). And at 0:31, we see Hedda gasping for joy, in sync with the music.

At 0:36 we segue into a Latin-infused horn section melody, as we see Hedda’s severe and overbearing husband (Tom Bateman). But we cut to musical silence at 0:44, synched to the explosion of the party’s fireworks. This silence leaves attention-grabbing space for us to focus on the arrival of Hedda’s ex-lover, Eileen (Nina Hoss).

At 0:50 we kick into the bassline from “Love is the Drug,” a funky 1970s groove from English rock band Roxy Music. For the next 8 seconds we hear only the bassline, plus a whistling riser tone in the background, and a whispered conversation between Hedda and Eileen. At 0:58 we cut to an exterior shot of the grounds of the mansion, synched to the entry of the song’s vocals. While we hear the song’s lyrics we see shots of Hedda and Eileen taking a walk and becoming intimate in the gardens.

From 1:08-1:27 we’re hearing the outro of “Love is the Drug” as we watch the evening’s romantic chemistry between Hedda and Eileen unfold. At 1:30 we cut to musical silence but what happens just before that is my favourite part of this trailer. Listen closely at 1:28 and you’ll notice that Tessa Thompson’s line “Sometimes I can’t help myself” is synched such that it aligns nearly exactly in time with the song, as if she were casually rapping over top of a Roxy Music sample. Serious shout out here to the trailer editors for attention to detail!

From 1:32-1:45 we have the kind of montage that is becoming predictable in 2025 trailers: a flurry of short high-energy shots synched to the rhythm of the music, in this case, aligned to the ending vocals of the title hook from “Love is the Drug.”

The trailer is all but done now, and Hedda fires a pistol into the air at 1:45 triggering a cut to musical silence for the turn phrase. As could be predicted, Roxy Music’s groove comes back for a few more seconds at 1:50 over the title card, and the trailer’s over.

I have to say, it’s a risky move to sync a 1970s funky groove to a period drama set decades prior, but honestly this trailer pulls it off, especially since it comes on the heels of the trailer’s more era-appropriate jazz intro that is so seamlessly integrated with the visuals

Hedda lands on Prime Video October 29.

— Jack Hui Litster