It’s Tuesday afternoon, time to figure out what James Franco has done today to merit our attention. Well, lookie here: The Spring Breakers star has donned lipstick, eye shadow and a Rolling Rock cap to promote the release of the music video for “Love in the Old Days (Ted James 1999 Mix)” by his band with fellow Rhode Island School of Design alumnus Tim O’Keefe. Better yet, Franco directed the clip and cast one of his underground idols, Scorpio Rising filmmaker and Hollywood Babylon author Kenneth Anger as a theremin-playing occult priest. Yeah, it’s that kind of freaky. James Franco’s Band, Daddy: ‘Love in the Old Days (Ted James 1999 Remix)’ Music Video Interview magazine posted the exclusive on its website on Tuesday, and Franco released this statement about the clip: “Kenneth Anger has been an influence on me since I was first exposed to ‘Kustom Kar Kommandoes’ and ‘Scorpio Rising,’ but especially ‘Scorpio Rising,'” explains Franco. “When I went to NYU for film, I was always looking for ways to Anger up my films. My first one in particular, ‘The Feast of Stephen’ owes a lot to Anger, the way his camera transformed a gang of real 1960 bikers into homoerotic gods. In other films and projects I loved the way he took celebrity and the occult and fused them in [Sergei] Eisensteinian juxtapositions to achieve a greater, spiritual/aesthetic significance.” “I was asked to do project about a marriage,” Franco continues, describing the footage used in the video. “I wanted to do two marriages and call it ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell after Blake.’ I could think of no one better to preside over the marriage of Hell than Anger. He is a force. A fusion of art, pop-culture, magik and sex. He is the voyeur-king.” Franco certainly Angered up this video, which depicts an occult wedding ceremony at a strip bar and one helluva French kiss near the end. Call it Scorpio Settling Down . See if you can name all of the different animal heads that the wedding guests are wearing. Or play a game with your kids and ask them to name them. (Wait, this is the Internet. I need to add that I’m kidding.) Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. [ Interview ]
Representing a slightly skewed take on 2004’s Cellular crossed with a lobotomized Silence of the Lambs , Brad Anderson’s high-concept thriller The Call would be an unremarkable bit of women-in-peril dreck were it not for two distinguishing factors — the sexualized sadism inflicted upon the half-dressed 16-year-old Abigail Breslin, and the equally sadistic Sideshow Bob coiffure affixed to the otherwise lovely Halle Berry. These indignities aside, there’s little to differentiate this high-pitched screamer from a particularly feverish Law and Order rerun, and it might be tough for such a film to dial in sizable auds to theaters. One of the more high-profile films to bear the WWE Studios label in recent years, The Call features no actual grappling, yet it shows the fingerprints of its benefactor in the presence of wrestling star David Otunga, as well as a serial-killer villain (Michael Eklund) who seems less psychopath than juice-head. Perhaps it’s unfair to blame the producers for the film’s overwrought tempo, but whatever the cause, the pic’s dunderheaded emotional timbre is miles removed from the relative class of director Anderson’s previous efforts The Machinist and Transsiberian , confusing macho aggression for menace, and tightly framed screaming for suspense. Berry stars as Jordan, a hotshot 911 operator who rules over the bustling call center known as “the Hive” — we know she’s a star when co-workers casually ask her for the institutional code for a multiple stabbing. Featuring some nice aerial photography of Downtown Los Angeles, the pic expends 10 minutes laying character foundations involving Jordan’s unseen cop father, her handsome LAPD-officer boyfriend (Morris Chestnut), and her charged relationship with an unsympathetic supervisor, then disregards these details entirely once the action gets rolling. Receiving a 911 call from a teenage girl in the midst of a home invasion, Jordan concocts an elaborate strategy to help her evade the predator, but gives the girl away by hitting the redial button when the call is cut off. (Berry’s character will similarly vacillate between Jason Bourne-like ingenuity and howling stupidity throughout the remainder of the film.) The girl is abducted and murdered by the unseen, catchphrase-spouting killer, and the guilt-ridden Jordan takes a leave of absence. Try as she might, Jordan can’t avoid the call to heroism, which arrives soon, via another emergency call. Teenage Casey (Breslin), has been drugged and kidnapped from a mall parking lot, and wakes up in the trunk of a car speeding down the freeway. Through some needlessly convoluted plot machinations, she has a friend’s untraceable pay-as-you-go cell phone in her pocket, and Jordan must don the headset once again to talk her out of harm’s way. It’s here that the film generates its only real sparks of invention, as the desk-bound Jordan is forced to coach the hysterical teen though a series of ruses to try to tip off passers-by. Unspooling more or less in real-time, the pursuit sequences manage to evoke the primary appeal of such high-concept material, for which one happily suspends disbelief just to see how long the filmmakers can stick to the premise. But no sooner can you say “this time … it’s personal” than the film disengages completely, running Jordan through some paint-by-numbers Nancy Drew routines, and veering toward the ickily exploitative as it invents reasons to remove Breslin’s shirt and tie her up. Berry is enough of a pro to muddle through yet another underwhelming star vehicle with her dignity intact, and Breslin acquits herself well enough for a problematic role in which she’s forced to cry and scream nearly continuously. Eklund is a hulking, malevolent presence, though his scrambled-brow attempt at a psychopathic glare provoked gales of laughter at the screening attended. Whether it’s the odd directorial tic of freeze-framing during moments of violence — perhaps intended to suggest a sort of rage-induced blackout, but which feels like a projector glitch — or the offputting cadence shifts in editing, the film hits a number of unusual technical notes, yet the overall quality is solid. Practical effects and freeway footage are well handled, as are the scenes contained entirely within the trunk of a car. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
If you’ve read about the Iron Man 3 footage that Marvel Studios has shown to bloggers, then you know that, during the Mandarin’s helicopter attack on Casa Tony Stark ( Robert Downey Jr. ), Pepper Potts ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) ends up flying to safety in one of the armored suits. It sounds like a cool scene, and I won’t be surprised if it’s a set-up for another later in the movie. But I’m not so thrilled about Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige’s recent comments that Potts could suit up for her own adventures in future Iron Man installments. Kevin Feige Talks About Pepper Potts’ Possible Future In Armor Here’s what Feige says in an interview with About.com : I will tell you this. In this movie [ Iron Man 3 ] we play with the convention of the damsel in distress. We are bored by the damsel in distress. But, sometimes we need our hero to be desperate enough in fighting for something other than just his own life. So, there is fun to be had with “Is Pepper in danger or is Pepper the savior?” over the course of this movie. In terms of where we go with future movies, we’ll see. In the comic books she does get a taste for the suit and becomes her own hero named Rescue, who doesn’t necessarily battle other people, but is on missions to help people and to save people. Will we do that down the line with Gwyneth Paltrow? Who knows. But her being in the suit is something we have been playing with since Iron Man 2 , where we did some designs and it didn’t end up fitting in that movie. But the little taste you saw here [in an Iron Man 3 clip] is something that we’re certainly interested in. Why Pepper Potts As Rescue Is A Jump-The-Shark Idea I hope it’s a passing interest because the idea of Paltrow’s character donning her own metal suit (insert Spanx joke here) to rescue families threatened by a hurricane or some other catastrophe sounds like a jump-the-shark premise that is devoid of the tension and smart-assery that distinguishes the Iron Man movies. I’m not familiar with the comics storyline to which Feige refers, but “Rescue” sounds like a very Saturday-morning-cartoon name. And that’s where this G-rated idea belongs. If the Marvel Studios is serious about putting Goop-curating Gwynnie in full-metal jacket mode, then they’ve got to surprise the audience by having her play against type. Contrary to what Feige says in this interview, Paltrow should be kicking super-villain ass Michelle Rodriguez -style to the point where Tony feels threatened by her superhero potential. Now that’s an Iron Man subplot. Feel free to contact my agent. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
There’s a new Pope in town, and he’s chosen a name I rather like. Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina is the first Pope Francis in the history of the papacy. He’s also the inspiration for a trending Twitter hashtag: #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Tweets. From one Francis to another, here are my five favorites so far: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Pope #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope — Comedy Central (@ComedyCentral) March 13, 2013 The Great White Pope. #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope — Dave Coulier (@DaveCoulier) March 13, 2013 #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Mean Popes….”ummm you can't pray with us.” http://t.co/8IHE1LrPiz — ☺MATT☺ (@Mattheewwc) March 13, 2013 #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope The Pope Wears Prada— Charlie Moss (@_CharlieMoss) March 13, 2013 #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Pope Floats, South Pope Bigger Longer And Uncut, Dont Tell Pope The Babysitters Dead, Teenage Mutant Ninja Popes— Mike Jurkowski (@MikeJurkowski) March 13, 2013 Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Deadline’s report that Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin plan to turn the 1970s sitcom Good Times into a feature film reminded me that there are still quite a few sitcoms from that era that are substantial enough to translate to feature films. Here are three: 1. Sanford and Son : Redd Foxx’s character, junk dealer Fred Sanford, was initially touted as a black Archie Bunker, and the show’s writers certainly did explore racial and cultural issues, but the real genius of the show was the give and take between Foxx and a great supporting cast of comedians that played his family and friends, including LaWanda Jackson (Aunt Esther), Whitman Mayo (Grady Wilson) and Slappy White (who inspired one of Tom Hanks funniest appearances on David Letterman’s NBC Late Night Show.) There’s only one funny guy who could adapt this to the big screen and make it count, and that’s Dave Chappelle. He could make a Sanford and Son feature relevant, find roles for Charlie Murphy and other cast members from his Comedy Central show and pull in some impressive hip-hop cameos like the RZA. 2. Barney Miller: I see Hal Linden’s salt-and-pepper mustache and I can’t help thinking Will Ferrell would be great as the captain of that series multicultural squad of plain-clothes detectives in chaotic 1970s Greenwich Village. Ferrell would get to stretch comedically by playing more of a straight man role and you could cast J.B. Smoove against type as the natty, urbane Sergeant Ron Nathan Harris, rewrite the Sergeant Nick Yemana role for Korean-American actor John Cho and feature David Koechner as Detective Stan “Wojo” Wojciehowicz. The best part: Abe Vigoda, who played Det. Philip K. Fish in the original series (and briefly had his own spinoff) is still around to make a cameo. 3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are too original and ambitious to ever attempt a straight parody film, but since Fey has cited The Mary Tyler Moore as inspiration for 30 Rock, I can still fantasize about the feminist fun she and Poehler would have with this landmark sitcom. Entertainment Weekly once even drew parallels between MTM and 30 Rock characters, but, unlike that publication, I’d rather see Alec Baldwin in the Ted Baxter weatherman role. [ Deadline , USA Today , EW.com ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Long before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down as the head of the sexual scandal-scarred Catholic Church, the 18th-Century novelist and dramatist Matthew G. Lewis’ was inspired to write The Monk , a gothic supernatural novel about a man of the cloth who is tempted and corrupted by (cue ominous music)…Satan! More than two centuries later, filmmaker Dominik Moll ( Lemming , With A Friend Like Harry ) has brought the cult classic to the screen starring Vincent Cassel as Brother Ambrosio, the titular Capuchin monk who is led way astray. Here’s the synopsis: Abandoned at birth at the gates of a Capuchin monastery in Madrid, Brother Ambrosio (Vincent Cassel), raised by the friars, grows up into a preacher admired far and wide for his fervor. Ambrosio is feared for his righteousness and believes he is immune from temptation – until the arrival of a mysterious apprentice undermines his convictions and leads him down a dangerous path of sin, corruption and murder. First up, is the film’s Red Band trailer which has a bit of a vampire vibe initially — the actress is Deborah Francois — and then gets all sexy and stuff. One corrupted, Ambrosio sets his wolfish eyes on the virtuous Antonia (Joséphine Japy), who, in this clip, does not seem to be interested in finding out what’s beneath the monk’s itchy cassock. Click here to view the embedded video. Why do I think this ends badly for Antonia? The Monk opens Friday, March 8 in select theaters and on VOD. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
When The Onion ‘s CEO Steve Hannah publicly apologized last week for the satirical newspaper’s controversial Oscar-night tweet about Quvenzhané Wallis , two thoughts crossed my mind: 1) It’s not a good day for comedy when a satirical publication says it’s sorry for a joke that was not actually about the Beasts of the Southern Wild actress. And 2) what would Paul Provenza make of this? In addition to being a veteran stand-up comic and actor, Provenza directed The Aristocrats , one of the finest dissections of comedy in any media (and not because I’m in it). The 2005 documentary deconstructs one of the oldest and dirtiest jokes in stand-up — the film’s title is its punchline — and when I shot my segment with Provenza, I quickly learned that, in addition to being a very funny guy, he’s a scholar of humor, who’s really good at explaining why something is funny — or not. ‘The Onion’: The Quvenzhané Wallis Controversy So, in the aftermath of the Wallis controversy, I emailed Provenza to get his analysis of the situation. Excerpts of his assessment appear below, but, first, an unexpurgated recap of what happened last week for anyone who was focusing on the sequestration crisis instead. If you’re offended by the word “cunt,” then stop reading now, because the term appears quite a bit in the following passages, and, in the context of this discussion, I think it’s justified. Also, as Provenza noted, censoring the word, “just adds to the irony” of the controversy. Here’s what The Onion initially tweeted during the Academy Awards on Feb. 24. After initially obscuring the offending word, the tweet was eventually disappeared as the backlash grew: “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right?” The Onion’s Apology Here is the apology that Hannah posted on The Onion ‘s Facebook page on Monday, Feb. 25: Dear Readers, On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire. The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible. Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry. Sincerely, Steve Hannah CEO The Onion Why The Onion’s Apology Is Problematic Take it away, Professor Provenza: I think the crux of it is that the whole issue has more to do with Twitter than it has to do with comedy. Not completely, but largely. Twitter is a big, broad audience, and it’s a tough room to ‘read’, particularly with a joke this harsh. But the joke is absolutely misunderstood in most of the chatter. It is NOT a joke calling that sweet little girl a cunt. It’s not maligning her in any way whatsoever — it is saying exactly the opposite. The joke rests squarely on the fact that Quvenzhané Wallis is the very last person you’d ever want to call a cunt. Not even the most steadfast cynic can find her anything but innocent, beautiful and adorable, and that’s the whole point of the joke: The Hollywood schadenfreude and the palpable desperation that runs through much of the movie biz inspires the idea that someone, somewhere in Oscartown is already spreading vicious rumors about her. The fact that it is so inappropriate to say anything like that about her is precisely the basis — and I believe the point — of the Tweet. It was meant as a satirical comment about Hollywood and the pretense that everybody at the Oscars loves each other so much. It’s all golden statues and lavish praise — and is, The Onion suggests, about as phony as it gets. SO The Onion ‘s apology is problematic. It suggests they did insult her, and they’re sorry about it. Which is not the case. They offended, yes — not by insulting Quvenzhané Wallis, but by using the word “cunt” in the first place. And what could they expect, putting a most innocent, beloved 9 year old in the same sentence with perhaps the second most reviled word in the English language? That’s not the norm for The Onion , which usually does a much more deft job of communicating harsh comic ideas, but, comedically speaking, the joke is meant to be a bludgeon. So, I really can’t fault it on that score. It’s not meant to be a cleverly disguised notion. It’s meant to be as harsh as the ugly truth of envy, back-biting and negativity that Hollywood embodies. No one is spared, no matter how sweet and pure and innocent. Provenza goes on to point out that launching the Wallis joke into the Twitterverse put The Onion in “a difficult place.” Their work rarely has reached the audience this has reached — it has gone beyond their normal audience of comedy fans, fans of biting satire, whatever — to the broadest based audience imaginable: Oscar viewers, news & opinion blog/TV watchers. That audience includes far more people who would be offended in great numbers. And that’s where it becomes about Twitter. It’s now a story debated by people who have never had, nor do they now have, any interest in The Onion or what they’re all about. And now we’re into the business of damage control. But man, it feels wrong to apologize for a joke you didn’t even make. When I asked Provenza if The Onion should have apologized at all, he replied: Not this apology. They could have apologized for upsetting people in their audience. That would have been honest — they didn’t want to offend anyone. But this apology is dishonest: They apologize for offending the little girl and saying she deserves better when they did NOT say anything offensive about her. Thus, the apology is obsequious, reeks of insincerity and is compromising of The Onion’s integrity and its actual point of view in the first place. The Onion’s Tweet & Seth MacFarlane’s Jokes Stir The Pretentious Pot Provenza also drew a provocative connection between The Onion ‘s tweet and Seth MacFarlane’s much-maligned emceeing of the Academy Awards that night: If you look at The Onion thing (the actual substance of the joke, not the misinterpretation of it) and Seth’s entire night of hosting, some very loud voices were digging into the whole pretension of the Oscars. And what’s really interesting to me is that Seth was essentially a fox in the Academy Awards henhouse. The producers of the telecast knew what he was going to do: Nothing was off the cuff, songs were rehearsed for weeks, scripts were signed off on by legal departments and Standards & Practices. In other words, the producers of the Oscars themselves chose to let Seth call bullshit on false propriety, to dredge up unsavory things about the celebs in attendance and onstage, to take very little of it as seriously as the Oscars seem to want to be taken. They essentially allowed him to repeatedly remind the audience what a load of crap it all is. We all know that Oscar itself is a massive industry. The politics behind the nominees and winners is predominated by studios/distributors’ financial interests and all kinds of deal-making and horse trading. The fact that awards shows and celebrities are being called out ever more loudly, even from within, seems to suggest something. It’s almost as if even the people involved in the enterprise can’t ignore how pretentious it all is and are really tired of the machine. I can’t wait to read the comments on this. Leave them below. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
I was disappointed to learn that War Witch ‘s remarkable star, first-time actress Rachel Mwanza didn’t get to meet her idol Beyoncé when she traveled to Los Angeles to attend the Academy Awards on Sunday. I hope that the film’s producers and Sasha Fierce’s handlers figure out a way to make it happen. Just think how good it would be for Beyoncé’s brand. One of those handlers should get the pop star and her husband Jay-Z to watch Kim Nguyen’s quietly powerful film about Africa’s orphan soldiers of war. It’s currently available via VOD and will open theatrically on Friday, March 1. Here’s a trailer to encourage the First Couple of Hip Hop. In this scene, Mwanza’s character Komona earns her War Witch title after the rebel army that has just dragooned her into its ranks sends her onto the front lines to scout out the enemy’s position. There, she encounters the ghosts of her dead parents who alert her to the enemy’s presence. RELATED: Beasts Of The African Wild: ‘War Witch’ Star Rachel Mwanza Should Be As Famous As Quvenzhané Wallis Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man with swag to give away: Specifically, three limited-edition The Last Exorcism Part II posters — two red and one olive green — designed by artist Rich Knepprath . No need to sell your soul. All you need to do is submit an original haiku (using the 5-7-5 format) inspired by The Last Exorcism franchise, the subject of possession or…Satan. Before you attempt this, you must be a U.S. resident and at least 18 years of age. If you fulfill those stringent qualifications, leave your efforts in the comments section below and include your poster color preference so that, if you win, your prize doesn’t clash with your decor. Deadline is Noon Pacific Time on Friday, March 1, the date that The Last Exorcism Part II hits theaters. Now, fix yourself a can of pea soup, invite all the flies in the neighborhood into your home and break out your creepiest yoga move for inspiration. (You can also watch the official trailer and check out the posters below.) I want to be thrilled and chilled by your Lovecraftian genius. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The weeks of punditry and teary talk-show performances are over! Seth MacFarlane is about to take the stage and Movieline is about to liveblog the Oscars. Grab your favorite cocktail, enable your hand-held device and join me for Hollywood’s most holy night. Let the pageantry and snarky comments begin!
