Does Tyler Perry make movies Black people should be proud of? Tyler Perry Defends Films And Dismisses Critics Tyler Perry talked about how he handles the criticism that is thrown his way and he says that the positive feedback that he gets from fans of his movies heavily overshadows the critics’ talk. Via HuffPo Live: “Here’s the thing about the critics, let me tell you this, I look for the truth in the critique, I honestly do. If there’s something in there that makes sense to me, I try to find and say ‘You know what, I thought that.’ But if it’s vitriolic, if it’s just venomous, I don’t pay attention to it. But for me, it’s very difficult because I have to hear the balance, right? So you have someone who says ‘This is awful, this is the worst thing I have ever seen.’ And then I’ve got a mother who’s sending me a letter saying, and these are real letters by the thousands on my Facebook page, ‘I was in an abusive relationship, I was able to get out when I saw Diary of a Mad Black Woman.’ One woman talked about having a cornea transplant and the first movie she wanted to see was mine. These are real stories that touch my heart in such a way that I’m thinking, why even pay attention to that when it’s the people that are moved and keep coming to see the films.” Tyler Perry knows what works and what doesn’t work for his fanbase. Translation: He does not care about the opinions of old white men who aren’t going to spend money see his movies anyway. Continue reading →
The deaths keep coming in the red-band trailer for Eli Roth ‘s earthquake gorefest Aftershock . I count seven distinct deaths in this clip, which is just shy of two minutes, but with all the lootin’ and a stabbin’ going on in the background, I’m clearly being conservative. Roth gets to preside over his own frightfest, too. He’s front and center in this video as Gringo, a sensitive-sounding guy who just wants to meet a nice girl at an underground Chilean disco. Alas, as the old Nazareth song goes, ” Love Hurts .” Here’s my tally of the grisly deaths (and one amputation) that take place in the trailer. I left out the very last scene because, no matter how bad things look, it’s no fait accompli. *Death by nightclub speaker *Death by cement pillar *Amputation by falling shelving unit *Death by immolation *Death by falling concrete slab *Death by Ax *Decapitation by speeding truck Can anyone out there tell me whether that large crucifix that falls over in the movie has an actual human body nailed to it? I’ve paused it a few times, and I think it’s just a life-size facsimile of Jesus, but I’m not entirely sure. That would up the body count to eight. If The Earthquake Doesn’t Kill You… Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
It’s hard to reconcile, considering the degree to which adolescents now dominate popular culture, but the idea of the teenager is a uniquely 20th-century invention, born out of advances in psychological theory, changes in child-labor laws and a boom in leisure-time activities for the under-20 set. A feat of both editing and blurring-of-the-edges nonfiction technique, Matt Wolf ’s mesmerizing, scrapbook-style Teenage conveys the transition in how the world perceived this emerging in-between stage via a series of first-person portraits of exceptional individuals set amid a whirlwind of vintage footage. Ironically, the demo in question seems least likely to appreciate the pic’s arty, innovative approach. The conventional thinking goes that until roughly World War II, society and scientists alike thought of life as two distinct stages, divided between children and adults. The former were patronized and sheltered up to a certain point, then shuffled off to work in factories at a young age. In the introduction to his paradigm-shifting book, Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture , Jon Savage , who collaborated with Wolf on this film, reveals that his initial research into the subject began as background for a possible television series, suggesting that he always intended a multimedia approach to the topic. Eschewing the traditional TV documentary style, Wolf innovates a radically different format for the material, blending archival artifacts with invented elements to create an intimate, far more personal history of the emerging demographic across the four decades between 1904 and 1945, when Elliot E. Cohen published his young person’s manifesto, “ A Teen-Age Bill of Rights ,” in the New York Times . Though much of the footage has a stock newsreel feel, Teenage is clearly intended to suggest a home movie record of its era. To that end, Wolf interweaves staged, retro-styled scenes of various characters to foster the illusion of a candid look at various youthful cliques of the time, ranging from London’s Bright Young People to the anti-Hitler “Edelweiss Pirates.” Pic’s most obvious innovation is the absence of a dry, all-encompassing narrator, replaced by four voiceover actors hired to read excerpts from journal entries of the period (embellished with original dialogue designed to match elements from the filmmakers’ research). Jena Malone performs an early-century American girl, Ben Whishaw represents the British youth, Jessie Usher captures the unease of African-American teens and Julia Hummer plays a German fraulein whose lines were excerpted from Melita Maschmann’s chilling Nazi-era memoir, Account Rendered — each directed to sound distractingly contemporary. When combined with the vintage (or vintage-styled) visuals, these recitations produce an almost Terrence Malick -like effect, contrasting personal impressions with the more objective, journalistic imagery presented onscreen. As a work of sociological history, Teenage withholds too much context to be of use, overemphasizing the European side of what it calls “an American invention.” As a thought experiment, however, it is uniquely crafted to inspire auds to muse on how the experience of adolescence must have felt at a time cusp-of-modern moment when engaged and driven young people wanted to play a more proactive role in their world. Nearly the entire history of cinema — much of it targeted at consumers in this very age range — retroactively applies our relatively recent understanding of teenagers as a distinct developmental stage to its young characters, and Teenage suggests how famous historical and literary figures (from Marie Antoinette to Romeo and Juliet) might have actually been perceived in their time. Still, 77 minutes is hardly adequate to cover the breadth of the four decades in question, and the film alternates between elegant transitions and confusing stretches as it tries to address everything from promiscuous, free-wheeling American flappers and “victory girls” to the ultra-organized, hyper-disciplined Boy Scouts and Hitler Youth. More on Teenage : INTERVIEW: ‘Teenage’ Filmmakers Matt Wolf & Jon Savage Make A Doc That Swings Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Iron Man 3 screened in Times Square last night, and though it’s practically impossible to talk about the Mandarin without spoilers, I’ve got to say that he is the most daring creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. As Ben Kingsley , who portrays the villain, said again and again and again in the trailers, “You will never see me coming,” and that line resonates even more now that I’ve seen the movie. Director Shane Black, who also co-wrote the movie with Drew Pearce , created a character that took me completely (and happily) by surprise. And, after all that blogosphere grousing — myself included — about casting the half-British, half-Indian Kingsley in the role of a character that, based on the Marvel comics universe, is a China-born descendant of Ghengis Khan, the Oscar-winning actor turns out be a genius bit of casting. There’s only one other actor I could imagine doing justice to the part, but I’m going to hold off on sharing his name for now for fear that his body of work would be too much of a clue. Maybe I’ll drop it in the comments section after the picture opens. The Mandarin: A True 21st Century Villain I have a feeling Black and Pearce’s construct for the Mandarin is going to piss off a lot of comic-book purists (while, at the same time, making die-hard fans of The X Files smile), but I applaud them and Marvel Studios for taking the chance. The Mandarin turns out to be a villain for the media-saturated, perception-is-reality 21st Century, and that’s a lot more memorable (and unsettling) than some dude with magic rings. I wish I could write more about this, but that’s about as far as I can go without spoiling a key chunk of the movie. What did I think of Iron Man 3 overall? I liked it, but it didn’t blow me away. In part, I wish that Marvel, Pearce and Black had taken even more chances with the movie. In addition to the Mandarin storyline, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts character gets an interesting subplot , but the movie’s ending left me with the distinct impression that Marvel is so concerned about messing with the success of the Iron Man franchise that it waffled on really exploring the possibilities. Superhero Movie Saturation Point There’s another factor, too, that is largely personal. My enjoyment of digital effects laden superhero movies is approaching its saturation point. Despite being one of those scrawny, bespectacled geeks who came of age poring over The Amazing Spider-Man and Deathlok The Demolisher , I’ve reached a point in life where movies about human struggles are vastly more engrossing than superhuman ones. Downey and the Iron Man franchise remains my favorite of the genre because the actor brings so much humanity and wit to his character, and so, besides the surprising Mandarin reveal, I was grateful for the subplot involving Tony Stark’s mostly unsentimental relationship with a wisecracking Tennessee boy named Harley (Ty Simpkins) whose aid he enlists. My favorite line from the movie, which evoked a mixture of gasps and laughs from the audience, came when Harley reveals his fatherless existence to Stark. “Dads leave,” Downey replies. No need to be a pussy about it.” I’ll remember that line long after the action sequences have faded. The Problem With Trailers And they are already fading. Let’s just say that an army of Iron Men is cool to behold, but it does not necessarily make for better action sequences. But what does? The first effects-rendered action sequence that has turned my head in a long time is the scene from the most recent Pacific Rim trailer in which a Jaeger robot uses an oil tanker as a Louisville Slugger to bash in the skull of a Kaiju. Speaking of trailers, they diminish the impact of some of the best action sequences in Iron Man 3 (and other tentpole movies) because they reveal too much play for months before a movie’s release. By the way, I think most moviegoers will disagree with my assessment of Iron Man 3 based on the reactions of the crowd that saw the movie with me. The 3D glasses that were being passed out came in a number of collector’s variants, and entering the theater, I encountered a scrum of moviegoers jostling each other to get a particular version. During the movie, the crowd’s reaction was enthusiastic and, after watching the disappointing post-credits scene with Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk ‘s alter ego Bruce Banner, I heard a middle-aged woman excitedly telling someone on the other end of her cell phone, “I can’t wait to see it again.” If you’ve seen Iron Man 3 , let me know what you think in the comments section. More on Iron Man 3 : ‘Iron Man 3’: Is The Mandarin An Extremist Fringe Republican? Marvel Studios Says Iron Man 3 Villain The Mandarin Isn’t Chinese, He’s International Iron Woman? If Pepper Potts Has A Future In Armor, She Needs To Kick Villain Ass REVIEW: ‘Iron Man 3’ Proves Its Mettle Despite Symptoms Of Franchise Fatigue Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
An eight-minute alternate ending to David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook has landed on the Internets, and though it wraps up things a little too neatly (with virtually all of the main characters), it’s fun to watch. It also yields a quick-and-dirty recipe for braciole , those seasoned skirt-steak roll-ups that Jacki Weaver always seems to be making in the movie. My Sicilian grandmother taught me to secure the steak around a hard-boiled egg before letting it slow-cook in the pasta sauce, but the recipe Weaver employs in this clip is much simpler. (And yet, Chris Tucker just can’t seem to get the hang of it.) In this MTV exclusive, Robert De Niro also reveals a key rule of etiquette that often applies in Italian-American homes from that generation: the man of the house can sample the food his wife is preparing for dinner, but, hey-yo, everyone else has to wait. [ MTV ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Fifteen years after Denise Richards’ and Neve Campbell’s swimming-pool make-out session made Wild Thing s a cult hit, director John McNaughton says he and the film’s screewriter Stephen Peters are working on a continuation of the story that would involve those characters children and take its inspiration from the Amanda Knox case. If you didn’t see the Lifetime docudrama, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy , that’s the tabloid-headline-generating case in which Knox, an American student in Italy, was initially convicted then acquitted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher during a rough sex game that involved two other men in 2007. (Italy’s highest court has since ordered a retrial.) McNaughton told Hollywood.com the following: “It’s not one of the sequels, but about their children,” he says. OK, that sounds odd, but just wait. It gets real crazy. “Do you know the Amanda Knox case? It’s something like that. Something that’s like the child of Suzie Toller [Campbell’s character], she claimed that Matt Dillon ‘s [character] had raped her a long time ago and maybe there is a child and maybe Bill Murray ‘s character had a child and they’re exchange students and things get out of hand. We’re calling it Wild Child Things .” Love the title, and, as the website pointed out, Richards and Campbell are “super available” these days. The big questions are whether Murray could be enticed into making a cameo if his seed actually figures into the plot, and whether Knox’s legal and public relations team, who have been battling hard to protect their client from all the “Foxy Knoxy” innuendo , will push back against McNaughton making the connection between his movie and the Italian melodrama. Along those same lines, Knox has been making the media rounds to promote her memoir Waiting to Be Heard , which tells her side of the story. [ Hollywood.com , The New York Times ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Back in November, the New York Times reported that a planned sequel to Top Gun , with Tom Cruise aboard, had fallen apart in the wake of director Tony Scott ‘s suicide last August. So, I did a double take a few minutes ago when I read this Tweet from what is supposedly Val Kilmer’s official account: I've got a great title for the TOP GUN SEQUEL: DOG FIGHT— Val Kilmer (@ValEKilmer) April 24, 2013 Time will tell whether the Tweet is a joke, a leak or a sign that the actor has awakened from a long contemplative slumber that resulted in him missing months of pop-culture news. If a Top Gun sequel is back in play and an Iceman cameo beckons, Kilmer should invest in one of those P90X cross-training videos that former vice presidential Paul Ryan favors. In the most recent pictures I’ve seen, the six-pack that the actor sported in Top Gun had evolved into a full keg. UPDATE: Five hours after Kilmer posted his idea for a Top Gun 2 title, he returned to Twitter to explain himself: Before the “Dog Fight” tweet, he had posted a photo of him and Tony Scott talking on the set of the original movie. Here’s what he had to say: I am fully aware that we have lost one of the most considerate kind directors and that everyone involved in this project has put it on hold.— Val Kilmer (@ValEKilmer) April 24, 2013 I posted a photo of me and Tony and thought of the last time we talked about the sequel and wrote you all what I told him.— Val Kilmer (@ValEKilmer) April 24, 2013 In fairness to Kilmer, I’d also like to point out the comment below from “Chris” who saw the actor channel Mark Twain in Dallas and noted that Kilmer has lost weight. Judge for yourself here . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The studios want him, but, these, days Zac Efron only has eyes for indie film. After making a splash at the New York Film Festival with The Paperboy last fall , Efron is back in the Big Apple, at the Tribeca Film Festival, with At Any Price . What’s the deal? “Y’know, Dennis [Quaid] says that the only rule he sort of had for himself in his career is to do as many different types of movies as possible, and never stop stretching and trying something new,” Efron told when I talked to him about the project. I also talked to Quaid who said that he and At Any Price director Ramin Bahrani drew inspiration from Arthur Miller’s classic play: Death of a Salesman . “We talked about Death of a Salesman and the Willy Loman character a lot…[my character] is a man who’s really trying to do the best for his family but he’s corrupted himself in the process,” the actor told me. The buzz on At Any Price is that Efron will get you into the theater, but you’ll leave it talking about Quaid. Check out my full in-depth interview below: Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Sex and horror have long been cinematic kindred spirits for decades now, whether you’re talking The Phantom of the Opera , Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho , the Hammer horror films of the 1970s, the Friday the 13th franchise or Re-Animator . And in today’s crowded media marketplace the dual themes seem to have become even more prevalent — and graphic. The last 24 hours have seen the release of two film clips that mix gore and sex in memorable ways. Check it out: Today, for instance, JoBlo.com posted an exclusive video from Xan Cassavetes va-va vampire flick Kiss of the Damned . The movie, which features Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough , hits theaters on May 3, though you can watch now on VOD. (Vampire on Demand). In the trailer below, two couples engage in some heavy making out, and one ends with some rather severe tissue damage. That will make you think twice about giving in to passion. Kiss of the Damned, Indeed! And then there’s the latest trailer to Netflix’s Eli Roth -produced horror series, Hemlock Grove . Although it’s not nearly as hard to watch as the bone-cracking, eye-popping werewolf transformation we posted last week, it is seriously weird from the get-go. Don’t miss the red-band warning that alerts viewers to “mild fornication, fellation, heavy cocaine use, lesbian necrophilia and violent hemorrhaging.” (Really? That’s meant to be a deterrent?) As one character says midway through the trailer, “What the fuck is going on?” You will probably agree with him, since right after that scene, there’s a sequence where a woman kisses the very pale, open-eyed corpse of a women, and then a quick cut to a shot of what appears to be the same woman screaming over the fact that the dead woman’s severed torso is crawling with maggots. What the fuck is going on, indeed! Is some sort of lesbian necrophilia hygiene issue being played out here? You know, I love kissing dead girls, but dead girls crawling with maggots have….cooties! If that’s the case, the lesson is similar to the one that the unlucky male victim in the Kiss of the Damned trailer learned too late. If you’re going to be overcome with lust, then do some research beforehand. Kissed A (Dead) Girl: That’s a tough act to follow. [ JoBlo ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Sex and horror have long been cinematic kindred spirits for decades now, whether you’re talking The Phantom of the Opera , Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho , the Hammer horror films of the 1970s, the Friday the 13th franchise or Re-Animator . And in today’s crowded media marketplace the dual themes seem to have become even more prevalent — and graphic. The last 24 hours have seen the release of two film clips that mix gore and sex in memorable ways. Check it out: Today, for instance, JoBlo.com posted an exclusive video from Xan Cassavetes va-va vampire flick Kiss of the Damned . The movie, which features Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough , hits theaters on May 3, though you can watch now on VOD. (Vampire on Demand). In the trailer below, two couples engage in some heavy making out, and one ends with some rather severe tissue damage. That will make you think twice about giving in to passion. Kiss of the Damned, Indeed! And then there’s the latest trailer to Netflix’s Eli Roth -produced horror series, Hemlock Grove . Although it’s not nearly as hard to watch as the bone-cracking, eye-popping werewolf transformation we posted last week, it is seriously weird from the get-go. Don’t miss the red-band warning that alerts viewers to “mild fornication, fellation, heavy cocaine use, lesbian necrophilia and violent hemorrhaging.” (Really? That’s meant to be a deterrent?) As one character says midway through the trailer, “What the fuck is going on?” You will probably agree with him, since right after that scene, there’s a sequence where a woman kisses the very pale, open-eyed corpse of a women, and then a quick cut to a shot of what appears to be the same woman screaming over the fact that the dead woman’s severed torso is crawling with maggots. What the fuck is going on, indeed! Is some sort of lesbian necrophilia hygiene issue being played out here? You know, I love kissing dead girls, but dead girls crawling with maggots have….cooties! If that’s the case, the lesson is similar to the one that the unlucky male victim in the Kiss of the Damned trailer learned too late. If you’re going to be overcome with lust, then do some research beforehand. Kissed A (Dead) Girl: That’s a tough act to follow. [ JoBlo ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
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