This week on “Pop Life” 3RDEYEGIRL and former Prince guitarist Donna Grantis talks about working with a musical genius and her new album “Diamonds & Dynamite.”
“He was just brilliant. Extremely inspiring. Whether we were jamming at Paisley Park just by ourselves with the band, or playing in an arena, full of thousands of people, every time he was just full on, and he expected that of all of us. It was a musician’s dream.”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
“Teen Spirit,” a new musical drama starring Elle Fanning, sets the authentic story of hopes and dreams against the artificial backdrop of a televised singing competition.
Fanning plays Violet, an Isle of Wight teen who works in a pub, goes to school and spends weekends selling produce from her family‘s farm at a local market. She can also sing like a popstar and often sneaks into town to perform at a local open mic because her strict mother (Agnieszka Grochowska) doesn’t approve. “Do you want to sing? You have the choir. What better audience than the Lord himself?” Drawn to the more secular pleasures of “I’m Just a Girl” by Gwen Stefani, she has dreams beyond singing in church.
When a dayglo ad for an “American Idol” style talent show called “Teen Spirit” (Sing Your Heart Out!) catches her eye she signs up for the cattle call audition. Making it through the first round—after singing and dancing à la Britney—she’s told she’ll need a guardian if she is to continue. Asking her mother is out of the question so she approaches Vlad (Zlatko Buric), a local man, who happens to be a former opera singer, to pose as her uncle and sign her into the competition. He agrees but says, “If you win I’ll be your manager.”
Electro-pop isn’t his gig, but he teaches her stagecraft, how to breathe and to sing from the heart. At her next try out Jules (Rebecca Hall), a Simon Cowell type in haute couture, tells her, “You have a nice voice. You have to work on everything else.” With Vlad and the help of a local bar band she tunes up for the big show but, thrown into the fast-paced world of television and music, will all the newfound attention go to her head? “You’re a caterpillar,” Jules says. “We are a cocoon. Maybe together we can make a butterfly.”
“Teen Spirit” is a “Flashdance”-style underdog story (you even hear a snippet of the famous Irene Cara song on the soundtrack) set in a familiar milieu. In his directorial debut Max Minghella keeps the rise (there is no fall) story simple—it’s like an elaborate performer bio segment on “American Idol” and the like—but the characters are not.
Violet blooms over the snappy ninety-minute running time. From shy girl to confident performer, her character has an arc on and off stage. On stage by the time she delivers a blistering version of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” there is no doubt she has learned to sing from the heart. Just as interesting is her off stage behavior as she learns to trust her instincts and realize her dreams. Fanning is wonderful, she can sing but also gives vivid life to all of Violet’s aspirations and desires. Buric and Grochowska hand in heartfelt performances but it is Fanning who keeps this movie’s heart beating.
“Teen Spirit” is not a searing expose of the music business. It’s a specific story, set within the music business, that has universal messages for anyone who has ever dreamed a dream.
There will be some debate as to whether or not “High Life,” a new space opera from director Claire Denis, can be classified as sci fi or not. It takes place on a starship, is set in the outer reaches of the solar system and features other sci fi faves like black holes and space stations but the setting almost takes a back seat to the very earth-bound humanity on display.
Robert Pattinson plays Monte, one of a group of death row convicts sent on a suicide mission to deep space aboard a space station. When we first meet Monte he’s alone save for his infant daughter Willow (Scarlett Lindsey). Soon, via flashbacks, we learn more about the situation, the social breakdown with the other passengers and Dibs (Juliette Binoche), the supervising doctor who performs sexual experiments on the crew, as the space station hurtles toward the abyss of a giant black hole.
There are certainly sci fi aspects to “High Life” but all the molecular clouds and the spacey instances of spaghettification (look it up), etc are trumped by, I want to say drama, but that’s not quite accurate. There isn’t much drama to be milked from a story where the characters are in lock down with little or no room for growth. There are some good performances here, particularly from Pattinson as a man who survives through discipline, and Binoche whose cold, clinical obsession to create new life borders on the sadistic, but the film is more about creating atmosphere than forming dramatic moments.
Denis is unafraid to linger on a moment, to allow the incremental passing of time aboard the ship to be reflected in the film’s pacing. Sometimes it works, offering a glimpse into the mundane lives of people for whom there is no future, but often it feels as though time has stood still and not in a good way. Add to that pages of whispered expository dialogue and you’re left with a film that maintains a sense of hope that Monte and Willow will be OK but doesn’t give us much of a reason to care what happens to them.
There is an undeniable joy that comes with watching hundreds of thousands of Adélie penguins waddling, à la Charlie Chaplin, toward their Antarctic nesting grounds. “Penguins,” a new Disneynature documentary directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson, plays up the cute factor but maintains the educational component.
Antarctica. Half the year of the sun does not rise. It is the coldest, windiest place on the planet and it’s here the story takes place. Every spring hordes of Adélie penguins make their way across the frozen landscape seeking dryland to start families. We follow the story of Steve, a five-year-old penguin making his first solo trip across the tundra to find a mate and establish a home to raise chicks. The journey is dangerous and obstacle filled but with dogged (and yes, cute) determination Steve makes it to the breeding ground, takes part in turf wars for a prime spot and searches for dry rocks necessary to build a proper nest.
Nest constructed, Steve meets his intended, a female penguin named Adeline. Serenaded by 1980s soft rock on the soundtrack the pair get to know one another. We learn they memorize one another’s voice for easy identification later because, let’s face it, they all look pretty much the same. It’s not “Romeo and Juliet” but they do make an adorable couple and soon babies are born. We’re then given penguin parenting tips, Antarctica Adélie style, like how the chicks eat regurgitated fish directly from their parent’s mouths.
There is a hint of the circle-of-life as predatory birds and leopard seals prey on the penguins but there is nothing as shocking as walruses falling off cliffs in the Netflix doc “Our Planet.” It’s very kid friendly topped with amiable, light-hearted narration courtesy of comedic actor Ed Helms.
The film’s main strength—aside from the penguins—is the beautiful photography. Fothergill and Wilson capture the icy vastness of Antarctica, giving us gorgeous landscape views and up-close-and-personal shots of the penguins. Visuals of Steve and thousands of his penguin pals swimming like dolphins in the icy water are eye-popping, almost like synchronized swimming.
“Penguins” misses the chance to make a statement about global warming. Instead it focusses on the resilience of these remarkable, and cute, don’t forget cute, creatures.
This week on “Pop Life” Canopy CEO Bruce Linton talks about the challenges of getting started in the cannabis business, how the cannabis industry has changed over the years and Canada’s global impact on it, THEN THE “Pop Life” panel, Alison Gordon, the CEO of 48Nrth, wine expert Kim Gertler of Can. Assoc of Professional Sommeliers and Manisha Krishnan, senior writer/host VICE, discuss where the cannabis business in Canada is headed.
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
The “Pop Life” panel, Alison Gordon, the CEO of 48Nrth, wine expert Kim Gertler of Can. Assoc of Professional Sommeliers and Manisha Krishnan, senior writer/host VICE, discuss where the cannabis business in Canada is headed. Watch the whole thing HERE!
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
This week on “Pop Life” Canopy CEO Bruce Linton talks about the challenges of getting started in the cannabis business, how the cannabis industry has changed over the years and Canada’s global impact on it. Watch the whole thing HERE!
“It used to be weird to try and tell your parents about pot. Now you’re telling them why they should have it.”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
How does the new, rebooted “Hellboy” differ from the Guillermo Del Toro films that introduced the hell spawn character to filmgoers? The title character looks basically the same, red skin, sawed-off-horns and wise cracks his way through battles with supernatural creatures, just like the older movies. What is different is the attitude. Del Toro’s films were idiosyncratic action adventures with a supernatural twist. The new movie, directed by Neil Marshall, feels more like playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons as Judas Priest blares in the background.
This time around “Stranger Things” star David Harbour plays the wise cracking half-demon, an employee of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), an organization founded by his adopted father (Ian McShane) to combat various occult threats. Several battles with undead English giants, a vampiric Lucha libre wrestler and a massive, angry pigman lead him to the world’s biggest threat, Nimue the Blood Queen, played by Milla Jovovich. From her Big Red learns of his true origins as she tries to convince him to embrace the dark side and help her bring on the apocalypse.
“Hellboy” Mach 3 feels more down-and-dirty than the other films. It plays up the “boy” part of Big Red’s name as he comes of age. He’s a motor mouth with a devil-may-care attitude. “I met [Egyptian deity] Ra once in the underworld,” he says. “He was a close talker.” Beneath the bluster—and his giant stone arm—however, is a more complicated guy, someone born a monster with noble aspirations. Covered in layers of make-up, Harbour hits the right mix of smart aleck and conflicted guy, giving the character an aura that falls somewhere between grandeur and silliness, superhero and supernaturalhero.
But the movie is not all Sturm und Drang. Marshall makes sure Big Red is frequently raising hell and often covered in buckets of blood. “Hellboy” gory and grimy, loud and proud, more horror than fantasy. It’s fun, if a little wearing after the ninety-minute mark.
The new animated film from Laika, the folks behind beautiful stop motion movies like “Coraline,” “Paranorman” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” is an odd couple, historical adventure that brings to mind “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.”
Hugh Jackman voices Victorian-era explorer Sir Lionel Frost. Dressed head to toe in houndstooth, he’s an anthropologist of sorts, scouring the world in search of mythical beasts. He tries to lure the Loch Ness Monster with bagpipes. “They do say music soothes the savage beast.“
Despite his adventurous spirit his peers at London’s Optimates Club don’t take him seriously. Desperate to secure his legacy, he follows the lead of an anonymous letter about Bigfoot sightings in America. “He’s neither ape nor man,” he says, “but something in between.” If he can track down the elusive beast he hopes the snobby Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry) will be won over and offer membership into the exclusive club. Trouble is, Piggot-Dunceby is an old racist who doesn’t actually want progress in the form of new biological discoveries or anything else. “We have brought good table manners to savages of the world over,” he says proudly, “Now, they all tinker with changing the world and soon there will be no room left for me.” He’s so dead set against Frost’s mission he hires Stenk (Timothy Olyphant), an assassin to make sure the missing link goes unfound.
Meanwhile, it turns out the elusive Sasquatch (Zach Galifianakis) isn’t so elusive. The 8-foot-tall beast introduces himself almost as soon as Frost arrives in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Link, as Frost calls him, can speak, has opposable thumbs and, most poignantly, is lonely. “Your world gets bigger every day as mine gets taken away.” He wrote the letter in hopes that Frost would “discover” him and escort him to his ancestral homeland, the Himalayan mountains, where he hopes to meet others like him, his long-long Yeti cousins. “I need someone who knows the wild places of the world,” he says. “Who won’t shoot me.” Together, along with Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), the widow of Frost’s ex-partner, they set off to Phileas Fogg-it around the world,
In search of adventure and Mr. Link’s long-lost relatives.
“Missing Link” is beautiful looking with the special animated feel that only comes with the stop motion technique. The visuals feel organic, handmade in a way that slicker, computer generated movies simply don’t. In fact, the visuals held my attention even when the story didn’t.
Woven into the script are timely messages about British colonialism, sometimes earnest—“The world,” says The Elder (Emma Thompson) to Frost, “is something to be claimed as a symbol of their worth.”—sometimes funny—they find Shangri-La or in the Yeti language, “Keep out, we hate you.”—that are timely and make a good argument for personal evolution. “Do we shape the world,” asks Frost, “or does the world shape us?”
It’s good stuff and Galifianakis’s Mr. Links is also a treat. An innocent with an imposing physical presence is a classic cartoon trope and with equal amounts of slapstick and poignancy, he livens up the proceedings. Galifianakis does great, understated voice work from the heartbroken—”I don’t want to have to spend the rest of my life alone. Won’t you take me there?”—to the hilarious—”Your utopia sucks!” It’s a wonderful performance that provides the movie with a great deal of heart.
Galifianakis aside, “Missing Link’s” over-all story misses the mark. Fight scenes make up much of the running time but (BIGTIME SPOILER ALERT) it’s Mr. Link’s assimilation into the human world that seems to run counter to the story’s overall anti-colonialist subtext. It puts a pretty bow on the tale and even sets it up for a sequel but makes absolutely no sense given the spirit of the film. Add to that a supporting role for a woman that isn’t quite as evolved as I‘m sure the filmmakers assumed and you have a film that will engage the eyes—it’s beautiful looking—but not the brain.
This week on “Pop Life” 3RDEYEGIRL and former Prince guitarist Donna Grantis talks about working with a musical genius and her new album “Diamonds & Dynamite.”
