Entertainment

Mindy Stars in BJ's Book Trailer, Whatever That Is

by Lia Beck

Did you know books have trailers? I sure didn't, but I experienced my first book trailer today and I absolutely love it. B.J. Novak released a trailer for his new book One More Thing and it's great. The trailer stars Novak and Mindy Kaling — his real life best friend and former girlfriend — as two writers snobbing it up in France. The whole thing is filmed in a French New Wave style with voice overs and tons of pretentious literary talk.

In the trailer, Kaling is already a writer who has gained fame with her book, Is It Existentially Possible That The World Hangs Out In My Absence?, a play on the title of her real book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Novak wants to impress Kaling and attempts to do so by writing his own book. After completion, he returns to the cafe where Kaling and her friends hang out and tries to woo her with his knowledge of Albert Camus. Novak doesn't end up successful, and I won't ruin it for you, but there's a hilarious twist ending.

The trailer actually does work in getting me interested in reading One More Thing. It's a bit different than a movie trailer because instead of saying, "This is exactly what you'll see," the book trailer says something more like, "Hey, I'm B.J. Novak, Remember me? I'm funny and clever and a great writer and I made this whole well put together video that proves it. Now do you trust me to write a good book?" And I'm like, "Yes! Totally! Gimme that book now!" Or when it comes out on Feb. 4. Either way.