Hot 107.9’s #BirthdayBash20 weekend wrapped up with our Next To Go concert at the Variety Playhouse, which hosted the very first Birthday Bash that featured…
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T.I., Young Thug, Kevin Gates & Fetty Wap Shut Down #BirthdayBash20 Next To Go Concert [PHOTOS & VIDEO]
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Music
Tagged #birthdaybash20, all-know, birthday-bash, celeb news, fetty wap, Hollywood, kevin-gates, Mtv, Music, Photos, show, update, Variety, variety-playhouse
Normally, I’m used to seeing Anais Zanotti in a bikini at the beach, it’s how the French hottie became one of my favorite professional sunbathers. But I guess she decided to switch things up a bit this time, because here she is doing yoga in the park. And luckily the paps were around to catch every downward dog and deep stretch. So enjoy the variety, although I’m pretty sure Anais could give me a serious pants fire from just about anywhere. » view all 15 photos Photos: Fameflynet Continue reading
Love don’t live here anymore. Hilary Duff And Husband Divorcing These two gave it the old college try, but just couldn’t make it work. Oh well…at least he didn’t have a secret baby on her. According to ABC News: Hilary Duff and Mike Comrie are ending their marriage. According to a rep for the actress, the two have agreed upon “an amicable separation.” “They remain best friends and will continue to be in each other’s lives,” Duff’s publicist told ABC News. “They are dedicated to loving and parenting their amazing son, and ask for privacy at this time.” Duff, 26, and Comrie, 33, wed in 2010, and welcomed son Luca more than a year later. According to People magazine, though they tried to work out their issues in couples therapy, it ultimately became clear that they “work better as friends.” “There was no major incident – no big event between the two of them. They really did drift apart,” a source told the magazine. “They have put effort and thought into this decision for a long time…. And they really are great friends.” It’s good that they’re remaining cordial for their son. Getty
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Divorces: Hilary Duff And Retired Hockey Hubby Call It Quits After Three Years Of Matrimonydom
Posted in Celebrities, Hollywood, Hot Stuff
Tagged Actress, between-the-two, Celebrity News, did you know, make-it-work, Marriage, News, People, really????, Variety, work-out-their
Once dem babies are away, the parents will play. Nick Cannon And Mariah Carey Have Frequent Sex To Keep Marriage Alive Nick must be laying that pipe right if Mariah feels comfortable enough to stunt in a red bikini before Christmas. According to US Weekly: Nick Cannon got extra personal while sharing the secret to his successful marriage with Mariah Carey. The 33-year-old America’s Got Talent host recently chatted with Us Weekly about his recent family vacation — and how he and Carey don’t let their 2-year-old twins cramp their love life! How do the spouses of five years keep the flame alive in their marriage? “Lots of sex,” Cannon candidly told Us at the Variety Breakthrough Awards in Las Vegas on Thursday, Jan. 9. The lovebirds also enjoy quality time together on vacation. “It was wonderful. We do that every year,” he shared. “We go away and have a nice little Winter Wonderland.” But Cannon explained to Us that he doesn’t need vacations to keep him happy in life. “I tell everybody that my vocation is my vacation. It doesn’t seem like work,” the comedian shared. “Not like where you come home your feet hurt, you’ve been out in the hot sun . . . that’s work. I get to get up and be creative.” Let’s see if these two are still getting it poppin’ when they’re drooling and in diapers. GSI
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In The Bedroom: Nick Cannon Says He Smashes Mariah’s Cakes To Smithereens On The Regular To Keep Marriage Alive
Posted in Celebrities, Hollywood, Hot Stuff
Tagged Celebrity News, extraction, Marriage, News, paris, smh, successful, Variety
Although Universal’s publicity department has asked that journalists refrain from spilling the secrets of Oblivion , the major revelations, once they arrive, will hardly surprise anyone familiar with Total Recall , The Matrix and the countless other sci-fi touchstones hovering over this striking, visually resplendent adventure. Pitting the latest action-hero incarnation of Tom Cruise against an army of alien marauders, director Joseph Kosinski’s follow-up to Tron: Legacy is a moderately clever dystopian mindbender with a gratifying human pulse, despite some questionable narrative developments along the way. The less-than-airtight construction and conventional resolution may rankle genre devotees, though hardly to the detriment of robust overall B.O. Getting the blockbuster season off to an early start on April 19, when it opens Stateside in wide release and in Imax theaters, Oblivion reps the latest test of Cruise’s bankability, coming mere months after he tried on a new ass-kicking persona with Jack Reacher . This time he’s Jack Harper, and without giving too much away, there’s an amusing, perhaps unintended existential subtext here about the somewhat interchangeable men of action Cruise has played over the course of his career. Still, the actor’s first foray into science fiction in eight years (if you don’t count Rock of Ages ) comes with a more intriguing backstory than most. It’s the year 2077, six decades after the people of Earth fought and vanquished an evil race of space invaders called Scavengers . But victory has come at a great cost. The planet is now an uninhabitable post-nuclear wasteland, and Jack (Cruise) is one of the last men still stationed on Earth, a fighter pilot/technician assigned to fend off stray Scavengers and repair the powerful drones overseeing a massive hydroelectric energy project necessary for the survival of the human species. It all looks and sounds a bit like a live-action remake of Wall-E , right down to the way the protagonist, spurred by natural curiosity and an unexpected love interest, finds himself on a dangerous unauthorized mission. Until now, Jack has worked effectively enough with Vika ( Andrea Riseborough ), who guides his repair jobs with cool, formidable efficiency from the glassy confines of their high-tech home base (referred to as the Skytower, though it might as well be called the iPad ). But unlike his partner, Jack is a dreamer and a bit of a poet, someone who can’t help reminiscing about the past or questioning everyone’s future. Haunted by pre-apocalyptic visions of a beautiful mystery woman ( Olga Kurylenko ), he can’t quite grasp why humanity, having won the war, has decided to permanently abandon its native planet for an uncertain future in space. As he steers his sleek, pod-like aircraft over a landscape of eerie, desolate beauty, dotted with craters and radiation zones as well as lush, unspoiled lakes and valleys, Jack can’t quite shake the feeling that all is not as it appears to be, despite the chipper directives coming from the mothership (represented by a crackling TV image of Melissa Leo , boasting a deceptively sweet Southern drawl). Indeed, the audience will likely have a clear sense of what’s going on long before scribes Karl Gajdusek and Michael DeBruyn (working from a 2005 short story that Kosinski later developed into a graphic novel) get around to spelling things out; suffice to say the title refers to more than just the physical aftermath of Earth’s cataclysmic destruction. Apart from an initial burst of neo-noir narration and a few moderately pulse-quickening action sequences, one of them set in the impressively imagined ruins of the New York Public Library, the first half of Oblivion adopts a spare, unhurried approach that conveys a powerfully enveloping sense of Jack’s isolation. Kosinski wastes no opportunity to linger — and you can’t blame him — on his alternately seductive and staggering visuals, richly conceived by production designer Darren Gilford and filmed with marvelous fluidity on the new Sony F65 digital camera by Claudio Miranda (following his Oscar-winning work on Life of Pi with another accomplished integration of cinematography and visual effects). This patient narrative strategy works well enough until Jack’s big questions finally start to yield answers – many of them delivered, as answers so often are, by the sage presence of Morgan Freeman – and the story’s underlying thinness and predictability gradually become apparent. The superficial cleverness of the plotting, with its elements of amnesia, self-delusion and impossible yearning, at times gestures in the direction of a Christopher Nolan brainteaser (as does the surging score by French band M83 , which sounds like electronified Hans Zimmer ). But the lack of comparable rigor, ingenuity and procedural detail is naggingly evident, as is the almost feel-good manner in which the story explains away some of its morally troubling implications. If Tron: Legacy offered up an eye-popping playground with more videogame potential than human interest, Oblivion , despite similarly immersive environs, provides greater moment-to-moment dramatic involvement. Cruise combines his usual physical agility and daredevil stuntwork with one of his more affable characters in a while, a high-flying dreamer trying to figure out mankind’s place in this brave new world. Although much of the picture is essentially a one-man show, Riseborough locates the blood and passion beneath Vika’s icy surface, while Kurylenko brings flickers of feeling to an underwritten role. Kosinski’s architectural background is apparent in the picture’s suave, rounded design concepts and clean, coherent compositions, the effect of which is gloriously enveloping in Imax. Insofar as Oblivion is first and foremost a visual experience, a movie to be seen rather than a puzzle to be deciphered, its chief pleasures are essentially spoiler-proof. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
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REVIEW: Visually Stunning ‘Oblivion’ Looks Like A Live-Action ‘Wall-E’
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News
Tagged claudio-miranda, clip, digital-camera, films, french, picture, practice, protagonist, story, Tom Cruise, Variety, Videos
Neatly balancing brightly sentimental comedy with slightly edgier funny business, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone pulls off the impressive trick of generating laughs on a consistent basis while spinning a clever scenario about rival magicians waging a Las Vegas turf war with a wide multi-demographic appeal. And while it may fall short of working B.O. magic when it hits theaters March 15, the pic — which played well with the opening-night crowd at the SXSW Film Festival — could wind up generating steady biz on a long-term basis rather than pulling a quick vanishing act. Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi are well cast as Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton, childhood friends (and fellow nerd outcasts) who grew up to be superstar magicians with their own permanent performance place inside a glitzy Las Vegas casino. Unfortunately, success long ago went to Burt’s amply hairsprayed head. He and Anton routinely don their spangly costumes, strike their practiced poses, trade their well-worn wisecracks and rotely go through the motions during an act that obviously hasn’t changed much in a decade or so. (Their apt onstage theme, Steve Miller’s “Abracadabra,” becomes an amusing running gag simply through endless repetition.) But despite Anton’s suggestion that they refresh their bag of tricks, Burt is far more interested in bedding groupies — using a meticulously detailed m.o. (including demands for proof of age and a signed release form) revealed in one of the pic’s most inspired sequences — than doing anything that hasn’t already worked with audiences. Their complacency leaves room for a snarky street magician/endurance artist named Steve Gray (think Criss Angel, but with more attitude than talent) to siphon off their audience with self-aggrandizing stunts on and off the Vegas Strip. Hilariously played by Jim Carrey as a condescending showoff, Gray thrives on shocking people with dangerous feats (such as maiming himself and sleeping on hot coals) that Burt indignantly insists aren’t “real” magic. Trouble is, they’re real enough to attract the interest of Doug Munny ( James Gandolfini ), the fabulously rich and mega-egotistic owner of the casino where Burt and Anton perform. When Munny demands that his fading stars attempt something as spectacular as Gray’s risky trickery, they do so — quite disastrously — leading to public humiliation, an acrimonious breakup and the start of Burt’s reluctant journey toward something like personal and professional rebirth. Carell is at the top of his form as the self-absorbed Burt struggles to maintain his haughty sangfroid while trying to convince himself, and everyone else, that’s he’s still a superstar, even as he’s reduced to taking a gig as the resident act at a retirement home for Vegas performers. Fortunately, that’s where the fallen-from-grace former headliner meets a singularly irascible retiree: Rance Holloway ( Alan Arkin ), the same legendary magician who originally inspired Burt to pursue prestidigitation as a profession. With a little help from Holloway — and encouragement from Jane ( Olivia Wilde ), a former stage assistant who proves to be pretty magical herself — Burt is ready to compete against Gray and several others in an audition for a prime gig at Munny’s latest hotel. But what he really, really needs to seal the deal is a reunion with his estranged partner, whose own journey of self-discovery shows that in some parts of the world, people have desperate need of the rabbits magicians pull out of their hats. Former actor turned TV helmer Don Scardino does a bang-up job of unobtrusively maneuvering through stealthy tonal shifts in the free-wheeling script by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley . Some of the standout scenes border on black comedy (including the blunt-force physical gags in the pic’s final minutes), while others rely more on traditionally sunny buddy-comedy humor. But Scardino and his players ensure that there are no bumpy transitions, only a smooth ride. Buscemi is very engaging as the amiably optimistic Anton, Wilde fleshes out a thinly written part through sheer screen presence, Gandolfini attacks his part with infectious delight, and Arkin continues his long run of show-stopping, scene-stealing supporting perfs. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone boasts a brightly buffed technical polish. The trademark trick in Burt and Anton’s act is a stunt partly designed by real-life magician David Copperfield , who appears as himself in a witty in-jokey sequence. Golden oldies and new tunes are efficiently employed in the mood-enhancing soundtrack. Expect to be humming “Abracadabra” for days afterward, whether you want to or not. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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REVIEW: ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ Does The Trick
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News
Tagged Actors, anton, bennyhollywood, great-white, Hollywood, invalid, jim carrey, mood, ninja-popes, sleeping-on-hot, steve-buscemi, steve-carell, Variety
The rare remake that likely will be enjoyed most by diehard fans of its predecessor, Evil Dead often comes off as the cinematic equivalent of a cover-band concert tribute to a supergroup’s greatest hits — albeit with a lot more gore. First-time feature helmer Fede Alvarez’s blood-soaked reprise of Sam Raimi’s franchise-spawning low-budget shocker, The Evil Dead , boasts far better production values than the penny-pinching 1981 original and conceivably could delight genre fans who have never seen the first version or its previous remakes/sequels. But it’s bound to play best with those who catch Alvarez’s many wink-wink allusions to Raimi’s pic. Working from a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, Alvarez briskly sets up his recycling of Raimi’s horror premise — five friends visit a secluded cabin in the woods where all hell breaks loose — with an aptly portentous prologue and backstory-heavy opening scenes. But Alvarez goes Raimi one better, by actually offering a logical reason why the characters don’t immediately vamoose once supernatural manifestations begin. Mia (Jane Levy), a drug-addicted young woman trying to go cold turkey, is undergoing physically and psychologically agonizing withdrawal, and her companions — including prodigal brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and medically trained buddy Olivia (Jessica Lucas) — are loath to interrupt the recovery process. Besides, all those terrible things Mia claims to see are just hallucinations triggered by withdrawal, right? Wrong. Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), the academically inclined member of the group, finds in the cabin a mysterious Book of the Dead filled with horrific illustrations, mysterious symbols and ample warnings not to read aloud anything that appears in its ancient pages. Unfortunately, Eric does not heed those admonitions, awakening a familiar demon for a new generation of young victims. Mia is the first to be infected by the monstrously malignant and singularly foul-mouthed bogeyman, but it doesn’t stop there, inspiring her cabin mates to damage themselves and each other in creatively gory ways. Alvarez repeatedly references plot elements and specific shots from Raimi’s original pic. Taking his cue from the original, he makes especially effective use of lenser Aaron Morton’s swooping, swirling camera movements, which suggest the POV of a rampaging poltergeist. But Alvarez’s tone is completely different, as the helmer rarely attempts to emulate the self-mocking, over-the-top campiness that distinguished the original Evil Dead from so many other cheapie creepies of the 1980s. Actor Bruce Campbell (who’s onboard here as a producer) more or less established himself as a cult figure back in the day with his inspired overplaying of Ash, the astonishingly resilient protagonist of Raimi’s original. In Alvarez’s version, Fernandez’s David serves the equivalent role, but he’s deadly serious. Indeed, the only character who even gets to crack a joke is Pucci’s Eric. Asked if he’s certain that actions described in the Book of the Dead will rid them of the troublesome spirit, the frantic fellow replies, “Am I sure? Of course not! It’s not a science book!” Levy is believably beastly as the possessed Mia, and manages the heavy lifting when her character must handle some last-act heroics. Other members of the cast do what they can with thinly written parts. For instance, it’s not really Elizabeth Blackmore’s fault that her role as David’s g.f. is so ill-defined and unimportant that some may forget she’s in the pic until she starts to make lethal use of a nail gun. The bloody mayhem is so graphic and frequent throughout Evil Dead , one cannot help suspecting that alternate takes had to be shot to ensure an R rating. The emphasis on dismemberment and disfigurement should make this must-see entertainment for gorehounds, but could literally scare off auds accustomed to less explicit, PG-13 fare. Ultimately, the new Evil Dead will rely heavily on existing fans of this unlikely franchise to make a killing in theatrical and homevid release. Those who get the inside jokes should be easy to spot: They’ll be the ones laughing when the onscreen carnage erupts most furiously. More on Evil Dead : Bruce Campbell on the ‘Dead Serious’ ‘Evil Dead’ Remake, Crowning A New Ash And ‘P-ssy Filmmaking’
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SXSW REVIEW: Super Gory ‘Evil Dead’ Remake Could Scare Off The Faint Of Heart
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News
Tagged astonishingly, bennyhollywood, book, bruce campbell, clash, danny-boyle, rarely-attempts, stars, supernatural, Variety
What begins as a barbed satire of our pill-popping, self-medicating society morphs into something intriguingly different in Side Effects . Steven Soderbergh’s elegantly coiled puzzler spins a tale of clinical depression and psychiatric malpractice into an absorbing, cunningly unpredictable entertainment that, like much of his recent work, closely observes how a particular subset of American society operates in a needy, greedy, paranoid and duplicitous age. Discriminating arthouse audiences not turned off by the antidepressant-heavy subject matter should be held shrink-rapt by what Soderbergh, after years of flirting with retirement, has said will be his last picture “for a long time.” Establishing a mood of grim foreboding with a brief glimpse of a blood-spattered domestic scene, the film rewinds three months to the incident that sets things in motion. Emily Taylor ( Rooney Mara ), a New Yorker in her mid-20s, awaits the prison release of her husband, Martin ( Channing Tatum ), a former business exec who has just finished serving four years for his involvement in an insider-trading scheme. But the couple’s happy reunion is complicated not only by Martin’s period of readjustment and unemployment, but also by Emily’s ongoing struggles with anxiety and depression. The story is thus immediately rooted in an easily recognizable and, for some, relatable world of financial difficulty and pharmaceutical overreliance. After Emily’s condition declines to the point of attempting self-harm, she sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Banks ( Jude Law) , who puts her on a try-this-try-that regimen of drugs that include Prozac, Zoloft and Ablixa. The names of these antidepressants and their assorted side effects are rattled off with cheeky proficiency in the well-researched script by Scott Z. Burns (“Contagion,” “The Informant!”), and soon Emily starts to manifest the byproducts of so much medication, including nausea, a heightened libido and a disturbing habit of sleepwalking. Soderbergh’s sinuous HD camerawork (done under his usual pseudonym, Peter Andrews) maintains an unnervingly intimate focus on Emily in these early passages, dominated by breakdowns and consulting sessions. Yet even in intense closeups that enable Mara to vividly register Emily’s panic, fear and vaguely suicidal impulses, the direction has a certain cool-toned detachment that keeps the film from becoming a wholly subjective portrait of mental instability. That distanced quality persists even when Emily’s behavior, under the influence of Ablixa, takes a shocking turn for the worst. At this point, the dramatic perspective shifts to Banks, who suddenly finds himself professionally compromised as a provocative question comes to the fore: If a patient is not responsible for actions taken under the influence of a powerful drug, does the liability shift to the doctor who prescribed it? But as Banks launches himself into an increasingly obsessive quest to clear his name, leading him into private conversations with Emily’s former therapist, Dr. Victoria Siebel ( Catherine Zeta-Jones ), the peculiar feeling persists that not everything about the case may be what it seems. The very title of Side Effects — a suggestion of unintended, undesired consequences that distract from the matter at hand — provides a clue as to the level of narrative misdirection Soderbergh and Burns are up to. Suffice to say that what the film is actually about, and the specific social malaise being diagnosed, suddenly seem to shift beneath the characters’ feet, as the story turns its attention from chemical dependencies and shaky medical ethics to the dark recesses of the human mind. The rapid-fire twists, reversals and flashbacks that crowd the third act may strain plausibility to the breaking point, but by the end, viewers are likely to feel as though they’ve been craftily but not unfairly manipulated. The casting of Soderbergh alums Law, Zeta-Jones and Tatum lends the picture a somewhat valedictory feel, and if Side Effects is indeed the final chapter of at least one phase of the director’s career, it gets the job done in modest but assured fashion. Thematically, this efficient genre piece feels entirely of a piece with Soderbergh’s prior work; no less than Magic Mike and The Girlfriend Experience , it’s keenly invested in the material question of how individuals operate in an economy that leaves them with fewer and fewer honest options. The film’s careful attention to the details of its psychiatric milieu compels fascination above and beyond the characters, and indeed, Soderbergh’s typical disinterest in conventional audience identification has rarely been more pronounced. Mara’s chilly yet vulnerable quality, exploited so effectively in her films with David Fincher, keeps the viewer at a sympathetic distance; Law makes Banks seem weaselly and pompous even when he assumes the role of protagonist; and Zeta-Jones, as usual, plays her part with a slyly seductive allure. Of all the actors, Ann Dowd ( Compliance ) rings the sole notes of earnest emotion in a small role as Emily’s mother-in-law. Editing is sharp and precise, and Thomas Newman’s churning score amps up the story’s intensity. Expertly chosen locations and Howard Cummings’ production design create an offhandedly diverse snapshot of New York, ranging from a high-security mental institution to a table at Le Cirque where Dr. Banks and his colleagues talk shop. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
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REVIEW: Rooney Mara Will Hold You Shrink-Rapt In Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Side Effects’
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News
Tagged Actors, antidepressant, awards, Hollywood, influence, informant, Movies, rooney mara, stars, Variety
What begins as a barbed satire of our pill-popping, self-medicating society morphs into something intriguingly different in Side Effects . Steven Soderbergh’s elegantly coiled puzzler spins a tale of clinical depression and psychiatric malpractice into an absorbing, cunningly unpredictable entertainment that, like much of his recent work, closely observes how a particular subset of American society operates in a needy, greedy, paranoid and duplicitous age. Discriminating arthouse audiences not turned off by the antidepressant-heavy subject matter should be held shrink-rapt by what Soderbergh, after years of flirting with retirement, has said will be his last picture “for a long time.” Establishing a mood of grim foreboding with a brief glimpse of a blood-spattered domestic scene, the film rewinds three months to the incident that sets things in motion. Emily Taylor ( Rooney Mara ), a New Yorker in her mid-20s, awaits the prison release of her husband, Martin ( Channing Tatum ), a former business exec who has just finished serving four years for his involvement in an insider-trading scheme. But the couple’s happy reunion is complicated not only by Martin’s period of readjustment and unemployment, but also by Emily’s ongoing struggles with anxiety and depression. The story is thus immediately rooted in an easily recognizable and, for some, relatable world of financial difficulty and pharmaceutical overreliance. After Emily’s condition declines to the point of attempting self-harm, she sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Banks ( Jude Law) , who puts her on a try-this-try-that regimen of drugs that include Prozac, Zoloft and Ablixa. The names of these antidepressants and their assorted side effects are rattled off with cheeky proficiency in the well-researched script by Scott Z. Burns (“Contagion,” “The Informant!”), and soon Emily starts to manifest the byproducts of so much medication, including nausea, a heightened libido and a disturbing habit of sleepwalking. Soderbergh’s sinuous HD camerawork (done under his usual pseudonym, Peter Andrews) maintains an unnervingly intimate focus on Emily in these early passages, dominated by breakdowns and consulting sessions. Yet even in intense closeups that enable Mara to vividly register Emily’s panic, fear and vaguely suicidal impulses, the direction has a certain cool-toned detachment that keeps the film from becoming a wholly subjective portrait of mental instability. That distanced quality persists even when Emily’s behavior, under the influence of Ablixa, takes a shocking turn for the worst. At this point, the dramatic perspective shifts to Banks, who suddenly finds himself professionally compromised as a provocative question comes to the fore: If a patient is not responsible for actions taken under the influence of a powerful drug, does the liability shift to the doctor who prescribed it? But as Banks launches himself into an increasingly obsessive quest to clear his name, leading him into private conversations with Emily’s former therapist, Dr. Victoria Siebel ( Catherine Zeta-Jones ), the peculiar feeling persists that not everything about the case may be what it seems. The very title of Side Effects — a suggestion of unintended, undesired consequences that distract from the matter at hand — provides a clue as to the level of narrative misdirection Soderbergh and Burns are up to. Suffice to say that what the film is actually about, and the specific social malaise being diagnosed, suddenly seem to shift beneath the characters’ feet, as the story turns its attention from chemical dependencies and shaky medical ethics to the dark recesses of the human mind. The rapid-fire twists, reversals and flashbacks that crowd the third act may strain plausibility to the breaking point, but by the end, viewers are likely to feel as though they’ve been craftily but not unfairly manipulated. The casting of Soderbergh alums Law, Zeta-Jones and Tatum lends the picture a somewhat valedictory feel, and if Side Effects is indeed the final chapter of at least one phase of the director’s career, it gets the job done in modest but assured fashion. Thematically, this efficient genre piece feels entirely of a piece with Soderbergh’s prior work; no less than Magic Mike and The Girlfriend Experience , it’s keenly invested in the material question of how individuals operate in an economy that leaves them with fewer and fewer honest options. The film’s careful attention to the details of its psychiatric milieu compels fascination above and beyond the characters, and indeed, Soderbergh’s typical disinterest in conventional audience identification has rarely been more pronounced. Mara’s chilly yet vulnerable quality, exploited so effectively in her films with David Fincher, keeps the viewer at a sympathetic distance; Law makes Banks seem weaselly and pompous even when he assumes the role of protagonist; and Zeta-Jones, as usual, plays her part with a slyly seductive allure. Of all the actors, Ann Dowd ( Compliance ) rings the sole notes of earnest emotion in a small role as Emily’s mother-in-law. Editing is sharp and precise, and Thomas Newman’s churning score amps up the story’s intensity. Expertly chosen locations and Howard Cummings’ production design create an offhandedly diverse snapshot of New York, ranging from a high-security mental institution to a table at Le Cirque where Dr. Banks and his colleagues talk shop. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The rest is here:
REVIEW: Rooney Mara Will Hold You Shrink-Rapt In Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Side Effects’
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News
Tagged antidepressant, channing tatum, emily, film, Hollywood, House, howard-cummings, jude law, psych, side-effects, soderbergh, Variety, viewer
Trey Songz has already written a song about fear — literally . His track “Don’t Be Scared” soothes a hot chick who’s afraid of her carnal desire for some sweet, sweet loving. Of course, calming a girl into bed is easier than calming a girl while you’re both running from a blood-lusted maniac. But Texas Chainsaw 3D director John Luessenhop knew Trey Songz could handle the challenge when he saw the thrice Grammy-nominated R&B singer float down from the ceiling during the BET Awards and seduce Solange Knowles and the crowd; the next day, Luessenhop called his agent and asked if he could send him the script for the horror sequel — if Songz could control a stage, maybe he could command a screen. And so Trey Songz (AKA “Mr. Steal Yo Girl” as he calls himself in his club banger “Bottoms Up,” AKA Tremaine ‘Trey Songz’ Neverson) stumbled into his unlikely starring debut in a slasher flick playing the boyfriend of Leatherface’s cousin, a brunette goth named Heather (Alexandra Daddario). Will Songz’ fans still swoon over his six-pack abs when they’re slicked with blood? Maybe — although on YouTube, commenters are threatening to storm out of the theater if he doesn’t survive. (We won’t spoil anything, but, um, have they ever seen a horror movie before?) Not only is Texas Chainsaw 3D a first for Songz, Songz is a first for the Texas Chainsaw series: Its first MTV fixture-turned-cast member, its first black star, and the first male love interest to cross the color lines. Plus, it’s the first time in film history where someone dies because a Trey Songz jam on the stereo muffles their screams. We ask Songz about breaking ground in Hollywood — and if R. Kelly should follow in his footsteps. When you told your friends you were the first major black character in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, did they immediately say, “You die, right?” Trey Songz: They wanted to know if I’d die in the credits! In the first ten minutes. It ain’t even a question if I died — it’s how quick. “How fast will it happen?” is what they wanted to know. On IMDb, the first three plot keywords for Texas Chainsaw 3D are: “interracial romance,” “pretty girl,” “interracial kiss.” What’s that about? It’s an obvious thing that’s still very present in this world. In Texas Chainsaw — a huge franchise that started in the ’70s that’s been remade four times, five times, however many times — there’s never been a relationship like this. And although it’s very present in here, I think it’s still a shock to some people that it’s so real. People are starting to erase the color lines. Which is awesome. It definitely is. In your songs, you have this reputation as being a player. I was curious to see if Ryan would be this sweet boyfriend who would change your image — but it turns out Ryan isn’t the best at monogamy. I think Ryan wants to be a good guy. He wants to be there for his girlfriend. You know, they’re young kids having a good time, and he’s messed up a time here or there. Heather, the girl who Alex [Daddario] plays, is kind of a mystery herself. She doesn’t know much about her past, and meanwhile her friend is going behind her back with Ryan and saying, “Hey, I was drunk, I didn’t know better — but let’s do it one more time.” Singing seems like it would be good preparation for acting. You learn that it’s not just what the line is, but how you say it. Singing is all about certain inflection on certain lines. I used to listen to tapes of everybody from Michael Jackson and Prince to Earth, Wind and Fire. They would have different vocal inflections. If the line insinuated pain, they would cringe on some lines. I remember Live at the London Palladium , Marvin Gaye is singing this song about love and he’s talking about how a man ain’t supposed to cry. And he’s going, “Oooohhoooh! Ohhhoooohh!” singing and crying at the same time. That was a good learning tool. Memorizing lines, too. I memorize my own words — I write my songs without writing the lyrics down most of the time, and that’s great practice. There’s a great scene in the movie where one of your friends is in the next room screaming for help, and you can’t hear him because you’ve got the stereo cranked up and playing, uh, one of your own songs. Rip in the space/time continuum? “I’m only here for the ladies and the drinks” — I’m going crazy. That’s funny. The beauty of that is this being my first film, a lot of people will relate to this as me being Trey Songz versus me being Ryan throughout the bulk of it. To those people that aren’t really within my world of music, it’ll be a good moment for them to tie that together as well. At the same time, you know, this is Trey Songz in this movie and this is Trey Songz’ song — if my fans go crazy, too, I’ll appreciate that. You’re already used to have cameras on you on tour and when you’re shooting videos. Do those same cameras feel different when you’re on a movie set? It’s a bit different, but I’d say having directed some of my videos, having shot I don’t know how many videos, and being in short movies sometimes or having very small roles in films, I have been prepared well. Most of the time I’m not speaking in these videos, but that’s probably about the only difference. You’ve said you were a shy child. Are you now used to attention? I wasn’t really ever that shy. That’s some misquoted s–t. I was the kind of kid who loved singing, I loved rapping, I loved attention. But for me, it was more about chasing the dream of being a superstar because of the town I was from and because of what I’d seen. That’s why I say wherever I go, all around the world, it don’t matter where you’re from, or what you’ve got going on, or who’s made it in what profession. You can do whatever it is you plan to do if you really stay focused. Several of the people you’ve worked with musically are making their own moves towards acting. I’m going to say a couple names — tell me what kind of movie you think would be perfect for them as their big break. Cool. Okay: Soulja Boy. A movie like Roll Bounce . Nicki Minaj . I think she could play anything. She’s a character within herself. Last one: R. Kelly. He’s always wanted to act. I don’t really know that about him, but if you listen to his songs, albums after albums after albums, they’re stories. He writes movies in his songs. He’s on Trapped in the Closet , like, 30 by now. I think he’d be good at it, actually. He could play any kind of role. He could play anything from a preacher to a villain. Which he kind of does in Trapped in the Closet . You wrote your joking response song “Out of the Closet” back when you were rivals. Now that you’ve made peace, when you heard he was making more chapters, did you want to get involved? That fact that he’s able to tell a story through music that’s so profound and deep — and with great vocals and great production — is amazing. That’s the end-all, be-all of it. Texas Chainsaw 3D is in theaters Friday. Amy Nicholson is a critic, playwright and editor. Her interests include hot dogs, standard poodles, Bruce Willis, and comedies about the utter futility of existence. Follow her on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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Trey Songz On His ‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ Debut (And R. Kelly’s ‘Trapped In The Closet’)
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