Also in Thursday’s round-up of news briefs, the Toronto International Film Festival unveils plans for an Asian film summit with some high-profile guests. Senator Patrick Leahy boards Batman pic; Netflix touts record viewership and British comedian Eric Sykes passes at 89. Locarno to Fete Charlotte Rampling The Locarno Film Festival will present English actress Charlotte Rampling with its Excellence Award. The event will take place August 1st. To mark the occasion, the festival, which takes place August 1 – 11, will screen her latest film, I, Anna (2012) as well as two other film, The Night Porter (1974) and Under the Sand (2000). Toronto International Film Festival Unveils Asian Film Summit Organizers behind the annual Toronto International Film Festival said it will host the “Shangri-La Hotel Toronto Asian Film Summit,” which will coincide with the annual film festival at the city’s new Shangri-La Hotel. The event is being styled as a meeting place for Asian and Western film industries, bringing in film production, finance, distribution and exhibition. Jackie Chan and MPAA chief Senator Chris Dodd will attend the event. More details will be revealed later. Around the ‘net… Senator Patrick Leahy to Get Dark Knight Cameo The Vermont Senator will appear in The Dark Knight Rises in a scene with Christian Bale (Batman) and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox). He also appeared in The Dark Knight in 2008, Deadline reports . Princess Diana Documentary Shelved Unlawful Killing , funded by Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed who died in the car crash along with the Princess of Wales in 1997 is being shelved after insurers refused to indemnify the makers against potential libel lawsuits. The film questioned the circumstances of their deaths, The Guardian reports . Netflix Viewing Tops 1 Billion Hours in June The company’s CEO also said that when House of Cards and Arrested Development debut the will “blow away these record,” THR reports . Eric Sykes Dead at 89 British comedian/actor Eric Sykes passed away following a short illness. He worked in television in the U.K. and had supporting roles in films including Heaven Above (1963), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and more recently in The Others (2001) with Nicole Kidman and Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (2005), Deadline reports .
It’s hard to say how much can be blamed on the timing of the release of The Do-Deca-Pentathlon and how much on the movie’s self-amused mediocrity, but the latest from brothers Mark and Jay Duplass (who co-wrote and directed) seems to expose the limits of a certain kind of realism by stretching them one man-child too far. Do-Deca comes on the heels of Jeff, Who Lives at Home , the latter a light, surprisingly affecting story of two brothers at various odds finding common ground. Jeff is the better movie, by a significant margin. Do-Deca is also the lesser movie in a very specific way: If the runoff of several more successful Duplass-driven or otherwise Duplass-oriented projects (including Jeff , Cyrus , and Humpday ) had swirled into a single stream and then pooled in an Austin ditch at summer’s height, Do-Deca might be the movie some avid scavenger fished out. It feels this way despite the fact that Do-Deca was shot back in 2008, before the brothers went Hollywood. Time on the shelf hasn’t improved this story of two middle-aged brothers, Mark (Steve Zissis) and Jeremy (Mark Kelly), and their re-staging of a two-man, 25-event competition they first participated in as teenagers. Schlubby Mark has a pretty wife named Stephanie (Jennifer Lafleur) and a longhaired son (Reid Williams) who’s too cool for most rooms, but especially the ones containing his dad. We meet this trio at the house of Mark’s mother (Julie Vorus), where they are about to celebrate Mark’s birthday. Deadbeat brother Jeremy shows up despite being distinctly uninvited (in the opening scene Mark recalls Jeremy’s delight in traumatizing him with repulsive gags), crashing the family’s 5-K charity run. From there the brothers reignite their obsessive competition, to Stephanie’s mean-mommy dismay. Initially Mark expresses a burning contempt for his brother, asking his wife if she’s ever really looked at Jeremy, fully considered his ugliness, or realized how closely he resembles “a troll who guards a bridge in England.” There’s something darkly amusing in that description, the way one person’s earnest repulsion can strike another as funny. Jeremy feels Mark’s family isn’t seeing him clearly either, and is often mentioning how differently he behaves now, alluding to the “real” Mark. Even Mark’s son accuses him of fakery, of performing an even-tempered dad schtick. On the whole, character development is made a function of the plot, as it were, which has the brothers agreeing to a rematch and staging it behind Stephanie’s back. The “joke” of these competitions feels worn out when Mark and Jeremy gnash and flail to cross the finish line of the 5-K first. With 25 events to go and little at stake either dramatically or humorously, Do-Deca feels more like a Mumblecore obstacle course. Cameras are jerked, long glances are exchanged, characters look like us but behave like people in a certain kind of movie, scenes fall limp, and an attenuated conceit fails to hold it all together. It’s also a good example of the way a movie with an anti-formula, pro-realism mandate develops its own ruts, ditches and worn-down grooves. Not all improvised dialogue or scenarios taken from real life (as this one apparently was) translate to something “real” onscreen. At its worst this kind of filmmaking can take on a kind of forced realism, an aesthetic that’s grating because it revels in an authenticity it hasn’t actually achieved. Zissis works hard to give us one of the uglier mid-life crises portrayed onscreen, but very little about his supposed envy of his brother, his dissatisfaction with his life, or the conflict that erupts with his wife rings true. Only Reid Williams, ever casting one bored gimlet eye out from behind a shank of hair, feels as if he might exist, if not in the meticulously fake-real world of this film, then in the one where actual humans live.
The feature starring Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man pounced the box office, earning $35 million in its first day of release in the U.S. including $7.5 million in midnight screenings. The figure is the biggest Tuesday ever, outpacing Transformers , which took in $27.8 million on a Tuesday back in July of 2007. That film went on to gross over $155 million in its first six days. IMAX netted $4 million of Tuesday’s $35 million record gross, now easily the biggest Tuesday debut of all time.. Of the $7.5 million taken in at midnight screenings, IMAX grossed an impressive $1.2 million from 300 screens for a $4,000 screen average. The 3-D The Amazing Spider-Man opened at 4,318 theaters in the U.S. Overseas, it has grossed $50.2 million for a worldwide total of about $85.2 million, according to the latest figures. [Source: Hollywood.com and Box Office Mojo ]
“Katy tells us that it’s okay to stand out,” one of pneumatic pop star Katy Perry’s disciples intones at the beginning of Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D , a shiny, brightly colored piece of fan candy that follows the performer as she embarks on her 2011 world tour. Also the Word of Katy: “How could you ever be too cartoon-y?” The latter, exclaimed as Perry’s being fitted into one of her Jetsons concession girl costumes, is a baldly rhetorical question. Somewhere in between those two lines of pop scripture lies the explanation for the only female artist to eke five number-one hits from a single album, her 2010 record Teenage Dream . Do we still talk in terms of albums? The record-keepers do, anyway, still bound by the standards of the past. And Perry, the daughter of born-again evangelists (her father’s aging rock god outfit makes more sense upon learning that he used to cook up LSD; no trace of her mother’s romantic history with Jimi Hendrix remains), likes to play with a retro look. But she is an unmistakably modern creation, as the brand-conscious Part of Me confirms, beginning with the webcam testimonials from fans about the realness and relatability of their heroine that segue to an 18-year-old Katy earnestly confiding into her own laptop. Except the teenage Katy, as though guided by shivering foreknowledge of this exact moment, expresses her desire to be a leader, and her doubts about taking on “all those responsibilities.” Madonna was 25 when Dick Clark got her to blurt out her plan “to rule the world.” Perry has cited pop music’s great survivor as an influence, but I couldn’t watch Part of Me without thinking of how thinly it compares to Madonna: Truth or Dare , a backstage concert film that documents the singer at the peak of world domination. Madonna the road-mother, Madonna the hardass, Madonna the cut-up, Madonna the boyfriend emasculator, Madonna the “even when I feel like shit they love me” fan mocker, Madonna the incandescent performer who terrifies her followers as often as she transfixes them. I became a Madonna fan as a little girl; I could still dance the entire Blonde Ambition tour if I had to, like, save the world. Not that I’ve envisioned such a scenario. But then as now I would have chewed through my own wrist to avoid an encounter with the star, and the idea of relating to Madonna in some sisterly or otherwise pals-y way feels universe-invertingly wrong. Part of Me works hard to establish that Katy Perry is just like you and me. At the same time, her coterie (including an assistant as well as costume and make-up teams) assure us that Perry deserves her fame. She’s a good person from Santa Barbara who charmed even the Cobra Snake (a louche nightlife photographer) when she lit out for Los Angeles with a few bikinis, zero bibles, and a dream. Small doubts are seeded through the introductory interviews – can she handle a tour this big? – and even her manager expresses surprise at her success. There’s a glaze to the talking head segments familiar from any number of MTV or VH-1 artist infomercials. The concert footage (from shows staged around the world) is meant to showcase the 3-D presentation; there are dancers bouncing around and some fleet camerawork, but the laser light effects make the best use of it. Reality TV figureheads and first-time directors Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz produced last year’s wildly successful Justin Bieber: Never Say Never . The same formula of gifting a fan-made star back to the people is followed, but Cutforth and Lipsitz never ascend to a moment of kitsch ecstasy on par with Bieber’s slow-mo signature lid shimmy. Perry is no dancer and not much of a mover; she’s a more mannequin-ish presence, but an energizer mannequin, expressive and ever connecting. Her cabaret rendition of “I Kissed a Girl” has unprocessed flair, and a witty quick-change number sparks an absolute shitfit in the stands. Her solid and unsurprising voice sounds solid and unsurprising, but with any production as slick as this one – where personality is prized over performance – it’s hard to know what you’re getting. Unlike Bieber, Perry had several close encounters with the big time. We learn of her various blighted record deals and studio makeovers (Perry tried everything from gospel to country to angry-girl rock) and get a small sense of her musicianship. Then, in a preposterous sequence, the story of her professional bottom (involving a botched partnership with pop gurus The Matrix) is crosscut with a bondage number in which Katy wails about being held hostage. After that, we are told, Perry decided to just be herself, and the rest is chart and bullet-bra-busting history. And who is that? What can you say about someone whose real self resembles a marzipan anime character? Well, she’s a goofball and a charmer, to start. She’s sweet with fans and an everygirl champ with her crew. She’s in every way devoted to the job of being Katy Perry, and the state of her marriage to comedian Russell Brand soon replaces the “can she hack it?” storyline. Or maybe it’s another stem of the same storyline. “A baby can’t have a baby,” she pronounces after Brand texts her possible names for their kids. “And I’m still a baby.” Background drama builds to a meltdown in Brazil, the show goes dramatically on, and the split is reframed as a feminist conundrum: The baby wants to work. Despite this careful (and successful) depiction of a warm and decent person, Perry the pop star remains stubbornly two-dimensional. She’s a sexless sex symbol, too girlish to be a girl, and her crack about being a cartoon feels critical to her anodyne appeal. Perry might sing about seeing your peacock and cover the front rows in whipped cream shot out of a two-foot canister, but it couldn’t be more congenial or less erotic. Only an extreme fetishist could actually get off on her shtick; for the rest of us, especially her adoring tween army of fans, she’s a human Pez dispenser barking out candy-covered platitudes. Even her much-feted boobs seem friendly. Beckoning from behind them is the strangely modern conception of pop stardom, one that derives its powerful hold on (largely young, female) fans from the promise that if you can’t live the cupcake dream, Katy Perry will gladly live it for you. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The United States of America turns 236 years old today. That’s quite the milestone. But a couple other big names also celebrate birthdays, and each also represents the greatness of the country in which we all reside. First, there’s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, a man solely famous for his abdominal muscles, tolerance for alcohol ( rehab stint not withstanding) and unusual vocabulary. He turns 30 today and we’d have to imagine there’s a lot of gym, some tanning and also a bit of laundry in his future. Where else would someone like this become a millionaire? Take that, France! Then there’s Malia Obama, newly 14 and the daughter of the first African-American President in our history. Her father is biracial and was raised in a poor household in Hawaii. Love him or think he’s the second coming of Karl Marx, Barack Obama represents the American dream. So put down that firework, raise your Budweiser and toast the United States, The Situation and Malia today. Here’s to hoping the Mayans were wrong and we’re all around to honor year number 237.
Kim Kardashian graces the August cover of InStyle and you simply won’t believe all the things tells the magazine about her marriage to Kris Humphries and her relationship with Kanye West. Okay, maybe you will. “I’ve always believed in love,” Kardashian says for the 97th time, reciting the same lines about her divorce written months ago by some PR firm. “I haven’t always been so lucky, but I still do believe in it.. I loved this person, it just wasn’t the right situation for me. I try to hold my head up high and live my life.” And wear really ridiculous fashion whenever possible. Kim, of course, is now dating Kanye, at least in public. She’s hopeful it will last because her mother says she needs to pretend she can commit the two have been close for years. “We’ve had a deep friendship for so long and that’s the start of a really good relationship.” But will Kardashian and West be walking down the aisle any time soon, as tabloids have alleged? Probably, the former says, though that could change at any time if E! producers change their mind . “It has taught me to take things slow,” she said of her second marriage. “I’ve always been the type to fall in love fast and, with every boyfriend, I plan out my wedding in my head.”
Nicki Minaj recently commented on the feud between Chris Brown and Drake, her Young Money label-mate, by claiming that she “doesn’t approve” of the beef. The now-infamous Chris Brown-Drake fight that broke out last month at an NYC club left many injured and got the establishment shut down in the aftermath. All over Rihanna too, allegedly. Speaking to the BBC, Nicki weighed in: “I don’t approve of talented people doing things that aren’t conducive to an amazing career. I spoke to Drake, and I told him from the bottom of my heart how I felt.” “I’m like, ‘Baby, you are a superstar, and I need you to realize that.” Speaking to Tim Westwood on BBC Radio 1 Xtra, Minaj revealed that, although she thought Drake was innocent, he still needed to be careful of his reputation.” “He did nothing wrong, of course. Rumors are rumous, and that there’s what it is. Sometimes, you just need to go to bed. Go to the hotel and have an early nap.” “At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Words to live by, Drizzy. Words to live by. Whose side are you on in the feud? [Photos: WENN.com]
Mel Gibson’s own stepmother, Teddy Joye Hicks Gibson, says the actor spit in her face, threatened her and sabotaged her marriage, according to reports. Joye, who married Mel’s father Hutton Gibson in 2001, has formally filed for a restraining order against Mel in court, claiming she fears for her safety. Joye claims Mel and his sister Maura despise her because she doesn’t approve of all the medical treatments they’ve been pressuring Hutton to undergo. Hutton Gibson, 93, has a host of serious health problems. Teddy Joye Hicks Gibson claims that, among other things … “Mel began yelling and saying, ‘f*ck this, f*ck that’ while leveling other extremely offensive language at me” because she does not approve of “experimental Ozone treatments” Hutton was undergoing. (10/11) Mel warned her “not to f*ck with [Hutton’s] treatments in any way.” (10/11) Visiting Hutton in the hospital, she said something that pissed Mel off and he “began yelling at me in a very loud and terrifying voice.” (1/12) After she refused his cooking on a trip to seek stem cell treatment for Hutton, “Mel looked at me in disgust and said that I was insulting him by not eating. He then threatened that if I did not eat he would have me put outside.” (3/12) During a family meeting to discuss Hutton’s health care, “Mel became incensed and began acting like a wild man … He was so close that I could feel his spit hitting my face. [Mel’s eyes] looked as if they were bulging out of his head.” (5/12) Joye says Mel must have manipulated their ailing father into filing for divorce, which he did in June, as Hutton, a devout Catholic, doesn’t believe in divorce. Joye
Katie Holmes surprised many by filing for divorce from Tom Cruise, but the apparent reason behind her decision would likely be anyone’s first guess. Scientology. Sources say the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce is happening for precisely that reason, specifically her concern that Suri will be introduced to it. Their daughter is now six, the age where Scientology will begin to be a major part of her life, and Katie fears Suri will be dragged in too deep . Holmes has never fully committed to Scientology, TMZ reports, despite her ties with the church and more than five years of marriage to Tom. Many observers felt their marriage would never work for this reason; Katie respected Tom’s beliefs, but raising their child his way a different story. As she’s grown, the couple had been arguing over Suri with greater frequency, and Katie eventually filed for divorce to protect the little girl. A key detail in the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce filing was the location in which it was filed: The 33-year-old actress made if official in New York. She does not want Tom, 49, to control decisions relating to Suri’s religion, and feels N.Y. is far more likely to grant her request for sole custody. Holmes reportedly is not after money – she had plenty before they got married and there’s a prenup in place anyway – just little Suri Cruise . Tom deeded their NYC apartment to Katie last year, reportedly for tax purposes; she’s using it to establish residence, and file for divorce, in the city. What is Scientology and is Katie right to be running scared? You will surely have plenty to say about it in the comments, but we leave you with this: Here’s Cruise describing Scientology and what the faith means to him in a video leaked in 2008. Clearly, the man takes it very seriously … Tom Cruise Scientology Video
Katie Holmes surprised many by filing for divorce from Tom Cruise, but the apparent reason behind her decision would likely be anyone’s first guess. Scientology. Sources say the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce is happening for precisely that reason, specifically her concern that Suri will be introduced to it. Their daughter is now six, the age where Scientology will begin to be a major part of her life, and Katie fears Suri will be dragged in too deep . Holmes has never fully committed to Scientology, TMZ reports, despite her ties with the church and more than five years of marriage to Tom. Many observers felt their marriage would never work for this reason; Katie respected Tom’s beliefs, but raising their child his way a different story. As she’s grown, the couple had been arguing over Suri with greater frequency, and Katie eventually filed for divorce to protect the little girl. A key detail in the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce filing was the location in which it was filed: The 33-year-old actress made if official in New York. She does not want Tom, 49, to control decisions relating to Suri’s religion, and feels N.Y. is far more likely to grant her request for sole custody. Holmes reportedly is not after money – she had plenty before they got married and there’s a prenup in place anyway – just little Suri Cruise . Tom deeded their NYC apartment to Katie last year, reportedly for tax purposes; she’s using it to establish residence, and file for divorce, in the city. What is Scientology and is Katie right to be running scared? You will surely have plenty to say about it in the comments, but we leave you with this: Here’s Cruise describing Scientology and what the faith means to him in a video leaked in 2008. Clearly, the man takes it very seriously … Tom Cruise Scientology Video
