The Farce is still strong in Seth Green and Matt Senreich. The boy geniuses behind Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken series joined collaborator Todd Grimes at Star Wars Celebration VI on Friday to unveil footage of their new animated series Star Wars: Detours . IGN reports that the comedic CGI animated series — which depicts the very familiar Star Wars crew in “exaggerated Chibi/super deformed style” (translation for the uninitiated: small bodies, massive heads) — takes place in-between Episodes III and IV of George Lucas’ Star Wars canon and will focus on the what these characters do in their downtime. “Where do Gamorrean Guards grocery shop? Does Darth Vader do online dating? The answer is yes,” Grimes told the gathered Star Wars super fans. ” We answer all these things.” Among the footage fans saw was Obi-Wan using a Jedi Mind Trick on his audience after he bombs at stand-up comedy. (“That joke was hilarious and you all liked it.”) In another scene, Jar Jar Binks asked Dexter Jettster why everyone hates him and Jettster replies by asking the Gungan how honest he wants him to be. According to IGN, the Star Wars: Detours team did not announce a debut date or even if they’d been picked up by a TV network yet, but the site estimated that the show would probably bow in 2013. That sounds promising. Earlier this year , when I spoke to Star Wars creator George Lucas — who was working with Green and his team, on the show — he told me: “We just can’t get anybody to put it on the air” because, he explained, the show doesn’t fit into a neat demographic package. Check out the clips: [ IGN ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Most movies get a soundtrack after they’ve been filmed. Boyd Tinsley doesn’t work that way. On Aug. 30, the violinist for the Dave Matthews Band will premiere Faces in the Mirror a film that was shot after Tinsley and a group of musicians that included Matthews, other DMB members and the groups Maktub and The Silent Comedy. Tinsley, who produced and conceived of the film, tells me that he’s wanted to make a movie ever since the band shot the Dean Karr-directed video to the DMB’s 1997 hit “Crash Into Me.” In December 2008, he explained, he took the first step by going into a studio with a hand-picked group of musicians. He explained to the musical artists that he had a bare-bones concept for a story of a young man dealing with the death of his estranged father. “I knew there was a rift and the father and the son lost contact, but I didn’t know everything about the story,” Tinsley said. “I didn’t know how it ended.” Having expressed this rough outline, Tinsley said, “I told them, ‘Go into the room and play from the heart. Don’t let your head come into it.” The musicians recorded over the next five days, much of it in between sessions for DMB’s 2009 album Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King. “Everything you hear on the soundtrack happened in the moment. Music just materialized,” Tinsley said. “Things happened that just don’t happen.” First timer Aaron Farrington directed the moody, lushly shot film that was adapted to the music. Ryan Orr plays Ben Fisher, an angry young man who returns home to bury his long-estranged father. On the day of his dad’s funeral, Ben finds himself on a trippy, stranger-guided journey to self-realization, forgiveness and possibly love. “It’s raw and it’s real,” says Tinsley who will take part in a post-premiere concert after Faces in the Mirror premieres in Seattle on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Snagfilms.com will webcast the film. You can check out the exclusive clip of the film here . There’s also a sizzle reel for the film that includes footage of Tinsley performing . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Friday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, the New York Film Festival has unveiled plans for an inaugural Midnight sidebar and Transmedia program. Peter Strickland’s latest thriller is headed for U.S. theaters after screenings in Toronto and New York tests. Kodak announces departure from key photo biz areas and The Dark Knight Rises passes an international box office milestone. Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep Heading to U.S. Theaters Sony Pictures Classics has picked up U.S. rights to Redford’s feature which stars Shia LeBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, and Susan Sarandon. A thriller centered on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity. It will screen at the upcoming Venice and Toronto film festivals. New York Film Festival to Host Midnight Movies and Convergence Program Thrillers will have a section to call home for the first time at the 50th New York Film Festival. The premieres of three films will take place at the festival which opens with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi September 28th. Barry Levinson’s The Bay , Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio and Outrage Beyond by Takeshi Kitano will screen in the festival which continues through October 14th. Additionally, Transmedia will get a two-day focus during the festival September 29 – 30. The event will host panels, workshops and “immersive experiences” designed to be an “intimate gathering for creators, designers, thinkers and fans.” For details on both events, visit The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s website . Peter Strickland’s Thriller Berberian Sound Studio Heads to U.S. Theaters The film stars Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco and Antonio Mancino about a sound engineer’s work at an Italian horror studio that becomes a case of life imitating art. The feature will screen at the upcoming Toronto and New York film festivals. ” Berberian Sound Studio is a dazzling cinematic tour-de-force that brings to mind Hitchcock,Argento and De Palma featuring a brilliant performance by Toby Jones,” said IFC/Sundance Selects president Jonathan Sehring about the film which genre label IFC Midnight will release at a later date. Around the ‘net… Sesame Street Puppeteer Jerry Nelson Dead at 78 He voiced Count von Count as well as many other beloved Sesame Street characters including Snuffleupagus, Sherlock Hemlock, Camilla the Chicken and Kermit’s nephew Robin. He also worked on several Muppet movies, Deadline reports . Kodak Set to Quit Camera Film and Photo Paper Business The announcement means an end to it making films for still cameras, photo papers, souvenir photo products at theme parks, scanners and picture print-out kiosks at stores. It would leave the business focused on printers, cinema film stock and chemicals, BBC reports . The Dark Knight Rises Passes $500M Overseas Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy finale has grossed $501.1 million overseas, making its worldwide total (when combined with almost $414 million in North America) to $915 million, Screen Daily reports .
This week’s DVD releases encompass everything from the sublime — Richard Linklater’s Bernie , one of the best films of the year so far (Millennium Entertainment; $29.99 Blu-Ray, $28.99 DVD) — to the ridiculous — the DVD debut of the 1980s T&A epic Joysticks (Scorpion Releasing; $19.95 DVD). For my tastes, however, the highlights include a subtle but powerful British romance along with some animated Disney faves that are available for the first time on Blu-ray. HIGH: Weekend (The Criterion Collection; Blu-ray $39.95; DVD $29.95) Who’s Responsible: Written and directed by Andrew Haigh; starring Tom Cullen and Chris New. What It’s All About: Soft-spoken lifeguard Russell (Cullen) and cynical artist Glen (New) hook up in a British gay bar, but what begins as a one-night stand unfolds over the course of the titular time span into something else entirely. As they spend time together, the two open up about their lives, let down their defenses and appear to be on the brink of falling in love. There’s just one problem: Glen is about to go to the United States for a two-year arts program. Why It’s Schmancy: Following its debut at South by Southwest in 2011, Weekend felt like a revelation, not only to gay audiences, who are always starving for fresh and intelligent — and sexy and romantic — examinations of their lives, but also to mainstream critics. The latter group recognized that, with only one previous feature to his credit, Haigh had turned out a poignant tale of love and missed opportunity that can stand alongside David Lean’s Brief Encounter and Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset . Why You Should Buy It: Although there’s no commentary track, this release includes several illuminating documentaries, including one where Haigh explains the mechanics of the sex scenes. In another, scenes that the actors used to audition for their roles are compared to corresponding scenes in the the finished movie. There’s also a video essay on artists Quinnford + Scout, who shot stills and home movie footage on the set. Two of Haigh’s short films, Cahuenga Blvd. — which has some thematic parallels with Weekend — and Five Miles Out (starring Dakota Blue Richards of The Golden Compass ) are also included. Finally, there’s a fine Dennis Lim essay that contextualizes Weekend in contemporary queer cinema. LOW: The Rescuers: 35 th Anniversary Edition/The Rescuers Down Under (Walt Disney Home Entertainment; $39.99 Blu-Ray, $29.99 DVD) Who’s Responsible: Directed by John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman and Art Stevens ( Rescuers) ; Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel (Down Under). Both films star Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor. What It’s All About: A mouse organization known as the Rescue Aid Society operates alongside the United Nations to help abduction victims around the world. The glamorous Hungarian agent Miss Bianca (Gabor) enlists janitor Bernard (Newhart) to help her on her missions: In the 1977 original, they track down a young girl held captive in the Louisiana bayous by the treasure-seeking Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page). For the 1990 sequel, they head to the Australian outback to save a boy in the clutches of a vicious poacher (George C. Scott). Why It’s Fun: Based on the novels by Margery Sharp, both of these movies are cracking adventures for kids that possess enough sly wit to keep adults entertained as well. The original Rescuers was one of the few entertaining cartoon features to emerge from Disney’s bleak period between the death of Uncle Walt in 1966 and the resurrection of the studio’s legendary animation department with 1989’s The Little Mermaid . Also, as any fan of Green Acres knows, Gabor works best with a slow-burn straight man. Lucky for her — and us &mdash: Newhart ranks among the greatest comic foils. And speaking of Green Acres, character actor Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney on the comedy series, loans his distinctive voice to the first Rescuers . Why You Need to Buy It (Again): This release marks the Blu-Ray debut for both features, and both the Blu-Ray and DVD editions include a making-of for Down Under , an animated short ( Three Blind Musketeers ), a Disney True-Life Adventure ( Water Birds ), and a sing-along for the first film’s theme song, “Someone’s Waiting for You.” The Blu-Ray also includes a deleted tune, “Peoplitis.” Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap , Salon and MSNBC.com. He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What The Flick?! (The Young Turks Network) . He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Campaign , the new comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, faces the challenge that troubles all political satires these days, which is coming up with material that can rival what’s actually happening in the news. And that’s not a point made in some hacky stand-up comedian way — “Those crazy folks in D.C., am I right?” No, it has become a legitimate, daunting task to come up with anything that can surpass, for instance, the wild reality show that was the recent Republican primaries. Director Jay Roach has, of late, mixed HBO dramatizations of contemporary political events like Game Change into a career otherwise dedicated to comedies like the Austin Powers franchise and Meet the Parents . The Campaign should theoretically fall nicely into the Venn diagram intersection between these two realms, but while frequently funny, it’s a film that also feels disconcertingly and disappointingly mild, ignoring all sorts of specific, choice ammunition in favor of a storyline about how far political discourse has gotten from actual issues (while itself skirting any actual issues). The villain in this case is unassailably soulless “big money,” embodied by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow, playing scheming billionaires whose real-life counterparts you may just be able to make out from the fact that they’re named the Motch brothers — and even in that, the film doesn’t really have any sting. It feels akin to setting a film in North Korea and then filling it only with jokes about accidentally ordering dog meat at restaurants. There’s a giant elephant (and donkey) in the room. As a goofball comedy, at least, The Campaign generally works, pitting Ferrell at his most obliviously pompous against Galifianakis in full, mincing weirdness. Ferrell’s Cam Brady is the incumbent Congressman in the fictional 14th district of North Carolina, a Democrat (not that, as mentioned, it matters in the least) with a ferociously ambitious wife (Katherine LaNasa), two kids and an apparently steady, unchallenged political career. But after a sex scandal involving a misdirected answering machine message tarnishes his image, Brady’s position doesn’t seem as secure, and the Motchs decide to fund an opponent who’ll favor their interests. Their pick is the cardigan-and-turtleneck wearing doofus Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), who has no experience or anything else to recommend him for the job except that his father (Brian Cox) is a former Republican bigwig. He desperately wants to prove himself to his dad, and with the help of Motch agent Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) as his campaign manager, he starts shaping up to be a viable candidate. Most of The Campaign deals with the increasingly absurd escalation in hostilities between the opponents, with Brady launching the first salvo against his naive opponent at a bipartisan brunch and the action quickly upping from there to spite sex and retaliatory “hunting accidents.” There’s a particularly rewarding recurring joke about a misdirected punch, an absurd take on a politician’s nightmare that becomes an amusing twist on just what it would require to end a career these days. In that regard, the film has an entertainingly cynical take on how ridiculous moves, like the release of a sex tape campaign ad, result in a bump in the polls, likability competitions as bread and circuses for the masses. The Campaign gets mileage out of pandering to religious groups — Brady does a press day at a snake handling church, while Huggins salutes Jesus Christ as the “greatest American who ever lived” — but neither that nor the repeated cracks about the candidates’ non-answers, filled with talk of “freedom” and “jobs” and no actual content, are exactly hard-hitting or fresh. Bits about Brady noting that Huggins keeps pugs, which are from China and therefore must be of Communist origin, or Huggins digging up a book Brady wrote in the second grade as evidence of his belief in the redistribution of wealth really don’t seem that far from actual, awful political attacks. There are plenty of practical reasons for The Campaign ‘s choice to remain non-partisan — isolating potential market share is, as the Motch brothers could surely tell you, bad business. But while funny enough, the film feels even smaller than its 85 minute runtime, like it runs through every last bit of the territory deemed safe to tread and just barely makes it to the credits at a credible feature length. Ferrell and Galifianakis both do what they’ve proven they can do so well in the past, while McDermott, clad in all black, is surprisingly good in a comedic role. You wish there was more for Aykroyd, Cox and Lithgow to do in their small and largely symbolic roles — Aykroyd and Lithgow in particular seem like they could have done more with a joke about disguising sweatshop labor that, while lifted from 30 Rock , is still a good one. At a dark moment in his career, Ferrell’s distraught Brady promotes the first person he sees in his office to the position of his campaign manager. The kid turnes out to be an intern, and the first thing the eager poli sci major brings up is that fact that we shouldn’t give tax breaks to corporations that outsource jobs. Brady immediately throws him out in favor of someone with a background in sports marketing. It’s cute, but it’s also what you’d imagine the process of conceiving of and writing The Campaign was like. Having a character land on stage at an election event playing a keytar in the midst of cheerleaders while fireworks go off? It pales in comparison to an actual Herman Cain ad . Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its Canadian lineup Wednesday, including new work from Sarah Polley , Bruce Sweeney, Xavier Dolan, Michael McGowan and Bernard Émond. Today’s 19 titles will screen in the September festival’s various sections. The lineup also spotlights first-time feature work from Jason Buxton, Brandon Cronenberg, Igor Drljaca and Kate Melville. “Through comedy, thrills, drama and suspense, films in the lineup present stories of youth and violence, coming of age, the environment, dysfunctional families, sex and celebrity,” said Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer, TIFF. “From intimate, affecting stories with big impact to films with global scope, the Canadian films in this year’s Festival will move audiences.” Toronto’s Canadian lineup with descriptions provided by TIFF : Special Presentations : Antiviral by Brandon Cronenberg, Canada/USA North American Premiere Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. When he becomes infected with the disease that plagues superstar Hannah Geist, he must unravel the mystery surrounding her before he suffers the same fate. Starring Caleb Landry Jones and Sarah Gadon. Inch’Allah by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Canada World Premiere Chloe is a young Canadian obstetrician working in a makeshift clinic within a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank where she treats pregnant women under the supervision of Michael, a French doctor. Facing daily checkpoints and the separation barrier, Chloe is confronted with the conflict and the people it affects. Her encounter with the war draws Chloe into an adventure that’s both deeply personal and as large as the land. From the producing team behind Academy Award®-nominated Monsieur Lazhar and Incendies. Laurence Anyways by Xavier Dolan, Canada Toronto Premiere In the 1990s, Laurence tells his girlfriend Fred that he wants to become a woman. In spite of the odds — and in spite of each other — they confront the prejudices of their friends, ignore the counsel of their families, and brave the phobias of the society they offend. For ten years, they try to live through this transition, and embark on an epic journey which, unbeknownst to them, may cost Fred and Laurence their love. Starring Suzanne Clément and Melvil Poupaud. Liverpool by Manon Briand, Canada Toronto Premiere A coat check attendant in a bar decides to take an unclaimed coat back to its owner, but soon finds herself in the middle of criminal intrigue. A regular of the bar has long harboured a secret love for the attendant — enough to put his life on the line to help her. Starring Stéphanie Lapointe, Charles-Alexandre Dubé and Louis Morissette. Rebelle by Kim Nguyen, Canada Toronto Premiere Komona, a 14-year-old girl, tells her unborn child the story of how she became a child soldier. A tale set in Sub-Saharan Africa, Rebelle is also a love story between two young souls caught in a violent yet beautiful and magical world. Starring Rachel Mwanza (winner of Silver Bear for best actress at Berlin International Film Festival), Alain Bastien and Serge Kanyinda. Still by Michael McGowan, Canada World Premiere Based on true events and boasting a veteran cast, Still is a heartfelt story about an 89-year-old New Brunswicker (James Cromwell) who faces jail time when the government tries to stop him from building a more suitable house for his wife (Geneviève Bujold), whose health is beginning to fade. Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley, Canada North American Premiere In this inspired, genre-twisting film, Academy Award-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who’s telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets behind a family of storytellers. She playfully interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of a lively, fun-loving past and the shadows just beneath. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: a messy, intense and loving tangle of contradictions. Discovery : Blackbird by Jason Buxton, Canada World Premiere An alienated teenager’s online threat ignites fear in a small community, in this disturbing and perceptive look at how our media-fuelled, post-Columbine culture can transform typical teen angst into intimations of murder. Krivina by Igor Drljaca, Canada World Premiere Miro, an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, lives in Toronto. He has a hard time relating to others and he never stays in one place for too long. When he finds out that his pre-war friend Dado, who has been missing for almost two decades, is now wanted for war-era crimes, his life starts to unravel. Upon hearing that Dado still visits Zljebovi, a village on the outskirts of Sarajevo, Miro embarks on a trip to Bosnia to find his friend. Picture Day by Kate Mellville, Canada World Premiere Forced to repeat Grade 12, Claire’s reputation is sliding from bad-ass to bad joke. At night, she escapes to would-be rock star Jim (aged 33), while at school, she bonds with Henry, a nerdy freshman she used to babysit. Eventually, Claire learns the difference between sex, intimacy and friendship. Tower by Kazik Radwanski, Canada North American Premiere Kazik Radwinski’s debut feature Tower is about a single and career-less man who lives at home with his parents in Toronto. He wanders alone in search of companionship and suddenly finds himself in an intimate relationship. Irritated by a raccoon that tears up his garbage, he sets out to catch it. Contemporary World Cinema : Camion by Rafaël Ouellet, Canada Toronto Premiere After being involved in a road accident causing the death of a woman, truck driver Germain’s world collapses as he feels an overwhelming sense of guilt and remorse. His state of mind starts to worry his younger son Samuel, who puts his own janitor job in Montreal on hold to track down his older brother, drifter Alain, in New Brunswick, hoping to head back together to their hometown to give some support to their father. The Crimes of Mike Recket by Bruce Sweeney, Canada World Premiere Bruce Sweeney (Last Wedding) returns to the Festival with this neo-noir police procedural — set against the backdrop of economic hard times — about a failed real estate agent (Nicholas Lea) whose recent attempt to turn things around makes him a suspect in a criminal investigation. Home Again by Sudz Sutherland, Canada World Premiere Home Again is about three adults raised “foreign” (in the USA, United Kingdom and Canada) from childhood and deported back to their birth country, Jamaica. Back “home” each discovers a different Jamaica from the paradise in vacation ads. We follow these three deportees on a journey for survival that surprisingly is filled with hope. My Awkward Sexual Adventure by Sean Garrity, Canada World Premiere To win back his unsatisfied ex-girlfriend, conservative accountant Jordan Abrams enlists the help of Julia — an uninhibited exotic dancer — to guide him on a quest for sexual experience, leading him into a world of strip clubs, sensual massage parlours, cross-dressing and S & M. The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada World Premiere The Lesser Blessed is a powerful coming-of-age story about Larry, a Native teenager balancing his romantic heart with a dark past that threatens to unravel his life. Vanguard : I Declare War by Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson, Canada World Premiere A group of friends play an innocent game of capture the flag in the neighbourhood woods, arming themselves with nothing more than sticks, their imagination and a simple set of rules. One afternoon, the game takes on a more serious tone and the quest for victory pushes the boundaries of friendship, giving the would-be warriors a glimpse of the darker side of human nature. Masters : Tout ce que tu possèdes (All That You Possess) by Bernard Émond, Canada World Premiere A disgruntled academic refuses a substantial inheritance because the fortune was amassed dishonestly. Soon after, he is reunited with his teenage daughter whose mother he had abandoned when she was pregnant. From the filmmaker responsible for La donation and La neuvaine. Previously announced in the Masters programme: Peter Mettler’s The End of Time. TIFF Docs : Revolution Rob Stewart, Canada World Premiere The much anticipated follow-up film from the filmmakers of internationally acclaimed, box office hit Sharkwater, Revolution follows Rob Stewart on an adventure from photographer/filmmaker to environmental activist trying to change the world. Stewart faces danger, conflict and drama in his struggle to find the key to empowering the conservation movement so it can affect change on a global scale. Canadian films previously announced in the TIFF Docs programme include: Simon Ennis’ Lunarcy! , Jamie Kastner’s The Secret Disco Revolution and Barry Avrich’s Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinksy . Previously announced Canadian features include: Denis Côté’s Bestiaire (Wavelengths), Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Gala) and Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Gala).
There are television shows about families with 19 kids. And television shows about teenage mothers. There’s even one that features strange addictions such as eating laundry detergent. Yet One Million Moms – a conservative group that went after JC Penney after it hired Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson – believes an upcoming NBC sitcom titled The New Normal is “attempting to desensitize America and our children” because it centers on a gay couple and a surrogate.
Kris Humphries Claims Kris Jenner Staged Kim Kardashian Tape There are just too many things wrong with this one right here… Via TMZ: Kris Humphries trashed Kim Kardashian and her family in conversations and text messages to his former girlfriend, Myla Sinanaj … telling her Kris Jenner not only directed Kim to shoot her sex tape, but to re-shoot because Kris J didn’t think the first one was pretty enough. As TMZ first reported, Kim has subpoenaed Myla in Kim’s divorce case, and we’ve learned Myla has a lot to say about what Kris told her about his relationship with his famous estranged wife. In addition to the sex tape, sources tell us Myla has numerous text messages in which Kris says she is the love of his life and he wants to get the divorce over with quickly so they can spend the rest of their time on earth together. In several of the messages, we’re told Kris says specifically that he’s “moved on” from Kim. The information is extremely damaging to Kris, because he’s alleging in his divorce that Kim has destroyed him emotionally by allegedly defrauding him into believing it was a real marriage. Turns out, Kris has been banging Myla since mid-January, so his devastation argument may be hard to swallow. Sources close to the Kardashians tell TMZ … Kris is lying about the sex tape. They say Kim made it clear at the beginning of their relationship she would not discuss the tape because she didn’t want to be judged by it. Our sources say the sex tape never came up in any subsequent discussions between Kim and Kris and it just shows he’s delusional. Regardless if this is true or not, this Kris Humphries character is acting like such a little beyotch. If it is true, Kris Jenner is one “by any means necessary” muhfugga! Birth control at 14 and now this!
Black People Are Still Jobless In New York As City Recovers From Recession How many of you are unemployed in NYC? For months now, New York officials have been highlighting how the city has regained all the jobs lost during the long recession and then some. But by several measures, the city’s recovery has left black New Yorkers behind. More than half of all of African-Americans and other non-Hispanic blacks in the city who were old enough to work had no job at all this year, according to an analysis of employment data compiled by the federal Labor Department. And when black New Yorkers lose their jobs, they spend a full year, on average, trying to find new jobs — far longer than New Yorkers of other races. Nationally, the employment outlook for blacks has begun to brighten: there were about one million more black Americans with jobs in May than there were a year earlier, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that is not the case in New York City, where the decline in employment since the recession began here, in 2008, has been much steeper for blacks than for white or Hispanic residents, said James Parrott, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal research group. One problem, said David R. Jones, the president and chief executive of the Community Service Society of New York, is that blacks were overrepresented in fields that suffered the most in the downturn, including government agencies, construction and manufacturing. “It’s being in the wrong place in the economy, so the recovery is not trickling down to these workers,” Mr. Jones said. Kevin Starkes, 53, who is black and lives in the South Bronx, said he had been trying for about 10 weeks to find work as an accountant. “Employers are getting more for less,” said Mr. Starkes, who was at a Workforce1 Career Center in Harlem on Wednesday. “People who used to get a job with a bachelor’s degree now need a master’s. I just think that’s the state of the economy right now.” Four years ago, there were about the same number of discouraged blacks and whites in the city. But since then, the number of discouraged black workers has grown to almost 40,000, from about 13,000, while the number of discouraged whites increased to about 22,000, from about 12,000. Discuss.. Via NYTimes
It’s been 25 years since Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop painted a nightmare vision of a near future in which a cyborg policeman became humanity’s salvation — so how will the upcoming reboot, starring Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (AKA Holder of TV’s The Killing ), update the tale? Movieline spoke with Kinnaman, who continues his Hollywood cross-over attempt in Friday’s New York drama Lola Versus , about Jose Padilha ’s RoboCop — and the real-world technology that suggests we’re already in a much different future than the original envisioned. Not convinced that the robot future is close at hand? Just take a look at the cyborg advances that have been made in Japan, where Kinnaman joked he’d be going to spend time with lifelike robots in preparation for his RoboCop role. “Have you seen these Japanese hospital droids, or humanoids or whatever they call them? They’ve perfected the skin, the skin looks so real, and they have these motors between the eyes for when they smile,” he marveled. “It’s just mind-blowing. We’re pretty close already. You can find it on YouTube. It’s spooky, but we’re getting really close.” Kinnaman says shooting on the remake begins for him in September, with Gary Oldman on board to play Norton, a scientist responsible for turning the human Alex Murphy into RoboCop. Today, THR broke the news that Samuel L. Jackson playing “Pat Novak, a charismatic TV mogul and a powerful force in the Robocop world.” As for writer-director Padilha ( Elite Squad , Elite Squad 2 ), Kinnaman had high praise. “He’s a young master, and a very strong visionary, and he wants to make something with a lot of substance, he said. “If you’ve seen Elite Squad then you know the action sequences are a walk in the park for him, he can portray action very realistically – and that’s how he wants to do this movie.” “It takes place in the future and it’s RoboCop , but it’s still going to feel like a gritty, down to earth movie,” he added. “With a lot of fireworks around it, but…” Back in September, Padilha spoke with Movieline describing his take on RoboCop and the deeper questions his version will explore: Even looking at the first RoboCop , which is a film that I love, it’s not local in that sense; it has an acid critique of society as a whole and it also deals with different subject matter that is more universal, like what is it like to replace people with automatic systems? A lot of jobs today are being automated; what happens when you extend that concept to very important areas of society like law enforcement? What happens if you start controlling the behavior of criminals or people in general with software-running machines? Those questions, they look like they’re sci-fi but they’re not. Pretty soon we’ll have robots in our society, you’re going to have a lot of automated processes that used to be done by people – this is happening. Society and technology is changing so fast, and the impact of the change on society and technology is global, not local. RoboCop talks a little bit about this. What does it mean to replace a person or enhance a person by using technology? What does that do to the person themselves? What sort of drama does it create, what sort of philosophical questions lurk behind those things? Kinnaman, meanwhile, has said his and Padilha’s approach to the character is more of an “acting piece” than Peter Weller’s original turn; a reported costume update means his eyes will be more visible, for starters. Asked to elaborate, he offered this explanation of how their RoboCop will differ from Verhoeven’s: “It just comes from the realization that our vision of a robot 30 years from now is very different from the vision of what a robot was in the future in 1987. That is the main thing. Obviously there are some things in the script that lead into that, but that stuff I can’t talk about.” Check back for the full Movieline interview this week. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
