Emmy nominated writer Jane Espenson was among the celebrities to hit the red carpet at Showtime’s special Penny Dreadful event held at the US Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. The Penny Dreadful party took place during the 2014 San Diego Comic Con, with series stars Josh Hartnett, Reeve Carney, and Harry Treadaway joining the show’s creator/executive producer John Logan to celebrate the series’ critically acclaimed first season.
Catching up with Espenson (Once Upon a Time, Husbands) before she headed into the party, I was able to ask her about the upcoming Frozen storyline on season four of Once Upon a Time. “We’re very excited about it. It’s really, really great,” said Espenson.
Asked how much she derived from the film and how much came from the Hans Christian Andersen story, Espenson replied, “We’ve talked about both in the room. I think you’ll have to tune in and see.”
As for how it’ll shake up the world of Storybrooke on the show, Espenson offered, “It shakes things up because we’ve got these vibrant new characters coming in and our established characters have to react to that, and everybody’s got their own agenda. It’s just this glorious mash-up. I think it’s working really, really well.”
Frozen had a terrific message and Once Upon a Time will continue with the lessons put forth in the 2013 blockbuster animated film. “We want to respect the messages of the film very much. I think the notion that being different isn’t bad, that it makes you special, that’s something that we’ve woven into our careers. It’s something we both believe in a lot.”
Check out the rest of the interview for more on Husbands and how she feels about Victor Frankenstein:
It’s no big deal to have talking animals in cartoons. Most of us have grown up with that be it Mickey Mouse or Scooby-Doo. But to make an animal talk in a live action film and have the audience buy it, that’s a whole lot tougher. So let’s look at some animals that have been most convincingly anthropomorphized on film. I’m not including animal puppets that talk such as Kermit or costumed humans as in The Wizard of Oz, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Meet the Feebles. Here’s a list of the best talking animals that had to work with live actors.
1. Francis in Francis the Talking Mule (1950)
I think I have to give credit where credit is due and start with the creature most responsible for the Hollywood’s love affair with talking animals. Francis was not the first animal to ever talk in the movies but he was the first to launch a franchise and make Hollywood think that there was something lucrative in anthropomorphizing animals. He made his debut in 1950 with human co-star Donald O’Connor and went on to make seven films. The character originated in the novel Francis by former Army Captain David Stern III and was voiced in the movies by character actor Chill Wills (who was never listed in the credits, which just said “Francis the Talking Mule… Himself”).
2. Draco in Dragonheart (1996)
I didn’t say the animals had to be real and there is no animal I would rather listen to than Draco in Dragonheart voiced by Sean Connery. Plus he’s a damn dragon, a majestic beast with a noble spirit and a sense of humor. Sample quote: “I merely chewed in self-defense, but I never swallowed.” What’s not to like?
3. Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
When Guardians of the Galaxy was first announced as a live action film, comic book fans cringed. How could they possibly make a wise-ass, genetically engineered raccoon work on screen? The success or failure of Guardians of the Galaxy hinges on whether we buy Rocket Raccoon. The good news is that director James Gunn — along with a team of visual effects artists and voice acting by Bradley Cooper — not only makes Rocket believable, he makes him the heart and soul of the film and audiences are falling in love with him. Here’s how to use CGI the right way.
4. Baxter in Baxter (1989)
Okay, this is a little bit of a cheat but this film was so disturbingly good and darkly funny that I had to include it. Technically Baxter (a white Bull Terrier) does not speak in the sense he moves his mouth and words come out, but this homicidal pooch narrates his own story and develops a very distinct personality. The tagline warns: “Beware of the dog who thinks,” and beware indeed. Baxter plots a murderous course through a series of owners until he finally finds a family he likes. This French film was directed by Jérôme Boivin and Baxter was voiced by Maxime Leroux, whose flat, casual delivery made Baxter all the more ominous.
5. Blood in A Boy and His Dog (1975)
And while we’re on the topic of talking or at least thinking canines, let’s mention one who displays the more traditional trait of loyalty that we associate with man’s best friend. Blood communicates telepathically with his best bud Vic (a very young Don Johnson) in this post-apocalyptic tale based on a Harlan Ellison story. Blood helps Vic sniff out food and female companionship. Character actor L.Q. Jones directed the film and Tim McIntire provided the wise voice for Blood.
6. Babe in Babe (1995)
Talking animals are a frequent gimmick in kids’ movies and for the most part they are usually too cute or calculated for my taste – witness Stuart Little, the live action Charlotte’s Web, Air Bud, and Doctor Doolittle. But Babe is one that I can enjoy and perhaps that’s because it’s an Australian-American co-production and not something cranked out by Disney. Babe is a pig raised by sheepdogs and learns to herd sheep. Hugo Weaving lends his voice talents to the role of the lead sheepdog and all in all the film delivers family fun.
7. Falcor in The Neverending Story (1984)
Sticking with family-friendly films is German director Wolfgang Petersen’s first English language film, The Neverending Story. It was loosely based on the fantasy novel by Michael Ende and spawned two sequels. Once again it’s a dragon – this time a luck dragon named Falcor voiced by Alan Oppenheimer — that captured the imagination of a generation of filmgoers.
8. Iorek Byrnison in The Golden Compass (2007)
The Golden Compass was a weak adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s complex children’s book. It was meant to launch a series of films but was so expensive and so poorly received that it never went beyond the first film. But Iorek Byrnison, a massive polar bear voiced with dignity by Sir Ian McKellan, is one impressive beast. There are quite a few talking creatures in this fantasy film but Iorek Byrnison is the standout.
9. Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia (2005)
It’s hard to resist a god-like lion voiced by Liam Neeson, even if the film fails to live up to its potential. Neeson gets some able support from Ray Winstone (as a Beaver) and Rupert Everett (as a Fox) in this adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ classic children’s stories.
10. Turkie in Thankskilling (2009)
And let’s end with perhaps the weirdest, most politically incorrect talking animal to ever hit the screen — Turkie from the ultra low budget horror flick, Thankskilling. Director-writer Jordan Downey provides the voice for the lecherous and lethal Turkie that goes on a killing spree. The foul-mouthed fowl has such memorable lines as “Gobble, gobble mother-cker” and “Nice tits, bitch.” It’s safe to say Disney will never attempt to remake this.
Guillermo del Toro at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con (Photo by Richard Chavez/ShowbizJunkies)
Guillermo del Toro always pulls in a huge crowd when he participates in panels at the San Diego Comic-Con, and the 2014 sold-out fanfest was no exception. One of the main projects del Toro was promoting was FX’s The Strain, a vampire tale that has nothing whatsoever in common with Twilight, True Blood, or any other recent vampire film or TV series. And in our roundtable interview, the award-winning filmmaker spoke about the origin of his vampires and the transition from book to the small screen.
How did you cultivate this particular breed of vampires?
Guillermo del Toro: “When I was a child, I started collecting not only horror fiction but horror fact. I started collecting folklore and mythology from all over the world. I was a child in the 1970s so it was a heightened point of the weird overtaking literature. People were re-evaluating Charles Fort. You have Erich von Daniken. You have Colin Wilson. You have Jacques Verges in France. And there was a lot of explosion of deep mythology, strange mythology.
There was an author that particularly influenced me called Bernhardt J. Hurwood and he put out a gorgeous book called Passport to the Supernatural. In it, he had collected myths of vampiric lore from China, India, America, Europe, and he recommended a few readings that I tracked down religiously. In pre-internet time it was a true hunting expedition, like the books of Dom Augustin Calmet, Montague Summers. They were both church officials or priests that were interested in the occult. One of them chronicled the vampiric lore that had happened in his time and before his time trying to specifically address different types of vampires in Eastern Europe. The other one did The Vampire, His Kith and Kin, The Vampire In Europe, went deep into werewolf mythology and so forth.
I continued collecting vampiric facts. I have a whole room. You know I have a library that is two houses. That’s my library. It’s 11,000 square feet of books and I have one whole room dedicated to vampire and werewolf mythology. Not fiction, just mythology. I can talk to you about the variations between Indian vampires, Filipino vampires, the Pennangalan, the Strigoi, the Upir, and each of them is different. The Mexican vampire which is hairless like a Chihuahua, each of the countries reinvents the vampire. Like the dragon represents something really deeply ingrained in us, my theory is that it represents a collective memory of a time when we were cannibalistic apes and we ate each other and we started to try to mythologize those tendencies to werwolf and vampire myth.
Anyway, what you see on The Strain is decades and decades of studious, completely obsessive lore and fact and biology, imagination on my part. I’ve been reading on how vampires are turned for decades. When I was working for my father on a real estate business, I would work from eight in the morning to like four in the afternoon, selling apartments and I would sit in the model home with a pile of vampire lore just making notes about Strigoi and stingers under the tongue. I worked there for three years and a lot of the notes came out of that period.”
Will you publish all of those notes some day?
Guillermo del Toro: “Well, they are published in a book, part of them, called Cabinet of Curiosities. They published some of my notebooks. Some of them are that old. The other thing that was important is I also was obsessed about the idea of religion and vampirism. Some of it made it into Cronos, some of it makes it into the third book of The Strain.”
Did the Dieter de la Guardia character in Cronos inspire the Eldritch Palmer character?
Guillermo del Toro: “Of course. They’re the same character. Rich people have no concept of the real world when they get too rich. I don’t f*cking understand how someone can have billions of dollars and think that is even reasonable. I just don’t understand it. The same way that they would like to live forever no matter what the f*ck happens to the world. So I find it really, really disgusting that someone can really continue accumulating billions and it’s just a number on a piece of paper. They’re not going to spend it. They’re not going to get laid more. They’re not going to buy another house. They’re not going to get another yacht. There’s no possible reflection in the real world for how their lives are affected by that amount of money.
And the same is true of the desire of immortality. Why the f*ck do you want to live forever? Who wants to live forever? What do you have to offer to the world that would make you feel you deserve to live forever? The perfect character to answer that is a billionaire who is as obscenely thirsty of life as he is obscenely thirsty of money. So, they are the same and I tried to make them the same. I tried to make them hollow, that they have somebody else’s kidney, that they are being scooped out and they’ve been filled with the organs of other people to represent what I feel about those characters. Now this said, it’s done in the spirit of the genre but that’s the way I read those characters myself. It’s like the character in Cronos says, ‘That f*cker does nothing but sh*t and piss all day and he wants to live longer?’ That’s what Ron says about his uncle.”
Can you talk about the path The Strain took to becoming a TV series?
Guillermo del Toro: “I pitched it to Fox in ’06. I pitched it with the airplane arriving and these passengers. Before then I created a bible of an arc of three acts. It could go from three to five seasons. They read it, we went up the food chain, all the way up and then they said, ‘We don’t like it. Would you turn it into a comedy?’ I said no, so I go and grabbed my little bible and I met with Chuck Hogan and I said, ‘Let’s write it 50/50. You write some chapters, I write some others.’ He said yes and we did it on a handshake deal. We didn’t do papers, we didn’t do contracts. We just went, ‘Let’s do it.’
He wrote, I wrote. We didn’t go to a publisher. We ended up going to Harper Collins with the book finished and they said, ‘We’ll buy it.’ Then what happens is it comes out, the three books did very, very well and we didn’t want to sell it to TV until we finished the third book so we wouldn’t be careful about what we wrote. There are scenes in the first book, people think stuff that’s aired is disturbing, Chuck had much more disturbing stuff on his side of the chapters if you’ve read it.
At the end of the day, we came back full circle, adapted it as a comic book in Dark Horse. If you read the comic, we are involved on every decision in that comic, the story, the line work, the inking, the covers, the color work, the writing, everything. So after doing that, we shopped it around and one day we shopped it around all the cable networks and all of them wanted it. All of them wanted it and then we went with FX. [John] Landraf had read the three books, understood it perfectly, and wanted to offer it.”
Franka Potente as Eleanor Nacht in ‘The Bridge’ (Photo by Kurt Iswarienko/Copyright 2014, FX Networks)
Hopefully, before season two of FX’s critically acclaimed The Bridge comes to an end Franka Potente and Diane Kruger will square off in a scene. Potente is in 12 of this season’s 13 episodes, and her character, Eleanor, has been fascinating to watch develop. And to see Potente’s psychopathic Mennonite killer go one-on-one with Kruger’s Sonya who has Asperger’s could catapult season two into Emmy territory.
In support of season two of The Bridge airing on Wednesday nights at 10pm ET/PT, Potente took part in a conference call to discuss her approach to playing Eleanor and her research.
Franka Potente The Bridge Interview
Your character has this very plain, very unobtrusive exterior, but inside there’s the heart of a sociopath or a psychopath. Can you talk a little bit about getting into that character and what attracted you to her?
Franka Potente: “I was given very little information when I embarked on this journey. I knew the show so that was a door opener, but Elwood Reid told me she’s bad, she’s very dark, she has dark secrets that only kept revealing themselves episode per episode. She’s a shunned Mennonite. I did some research and then put that in the back of your head and see if it ever surfaces again by itself, because a lot of things you can’t play.
For example, like you say, the simple, plain look; that’s mainly created by the costume designers. I’m kind of there to maybe give my opinion or something, but I appreciate their knowledge very much so I just basically put on what they put on me, which is also coming from this Eleanor place, like not caring about what she wears. I think inside though she’s also quite simple, to be honest with you. What’s complicated is her baggage from the past and the history of the terrible things that have happened to her and are still very present in her life and driving her to do what she does.
I think she’s a very structured person as an inside universe that lays down the simple rules, which are basically it’s either things go as clear as Eleanor needs them or people need to be removed because they endanger the structure. In a strange, beautiful, weird way, that is actually very simple, I think, for her.”
How is doing 12 episodes of this character compared to working on a film or doing a one-shot guest-starring role?
Franka Potente: “It’s amazing. I loved every little bit of it. At first, it wasn’t quite clear that Eleanor would stick around this long. I think we had maybe seven episodes in mind, and then I don’t know, it just kept growing and she kept sticking around, which is amazing.
I like this kind of work where every week a stone is turned. It’s almost like I’m given a new challenge or something; a scavenger hunt that will eventually lead me to the goal or the prize or whatever. It’s a very playful approach. I think that in movies versus TV work we get a script maybe two, three months ideally before we do the movie and then we have to know everything; we have all the conversations and we have all the rehearsals and then we start shooting.
It’s a very different dynamic, and I think that a lot of the stuff that we do in TV, the way we work, the pace and everything is a lot more realistic to how we would discover a person in real life. You know what I mean?
You meet someone, let’s say, you start dating and then every week you find out more things. You don’t know everything about a person the minute you meet them, but if I play a character in a movie, I have to know everything about that person the minute I start shooting day one. I really do appreciate this way of working because it keeps everything fresh, it keeps you up on your toes, keeps you curious and sometimes you’re surprised. I think that happens with ourselves. I think that happens with friends, so I can connect to that very much.”
A lot of people believe you’re the most intriguing character in the show. How do you feel about that?
Franka Potente: “Well, I mean, I guess that’s not a bad thing. It’s easy though, I have to say, when you’re the new kid on the block. She’s definitely weird so I think her character raises a lot of questions, and that is intriguing. I’m also aware and very grateful for my environment. It’s easy to join an environment like the one on The Bridge where the stakes are already high. All the characters are ambivalent and interesting so we’re already in an environment that feeds everyone. Eleanor definitely thrives and lives off of that. Put it this way, for me, we just wrapped yesterday so the job’s done for now. I definitely benefited from all that, and it made it so much more enjoyable. I loved going to work every day.”
You’re a mom so I’m wondering how difficult it is for you to have those scenes with the younger actors, and between takes do you relax a little? Do you approach that a little differently than you would going opposite an adult?
Franka Potente: “Well, yes. Danny, the little guy, he was maybe five or six or so. Of course, being a mom you know how to…I can only answer for myself, I know how to speak to kids better now than I did before I was a mom, and sometimes on a long, long day where I leave early in the morning and I come home late I don’t see the kids so I kind of miss them. Yes, I guess that probably goes a little bit into me interacting with the kids there on set. They’re awesome and very professional and sometimes shocking how well behaved and patient they are. Otherwise, Kyle [Daniel Polo] and Dex [Jacob Houston], they were 18 or so, so they’re full-on adults. They’re just colleagues.”
How does Eleanor feel about being a women in a very male-centered world of the cartel? A lot of the other characters are amazed at the fact Eleanor is so high up in the cartel being that she’s female.
Franka Potente: “I think Eleanor is not interested in the female/male distinction necessarily even though we see, as the show progresses, that she does have almost like a soft spot with certain women. She will have interesting connections that are surprisingly tender for her with female characters. No, I think she has a lot of male attributes. She’s just as cutthroat as Fausto is in a way. She’s not very emotional or, to say it differently, I think she’s very good at tucking her emotions away. She’s not like a sexual person, at least she doesn’t look it, but there’s not really so much that will get into the way between her and one of the male players in a weird way.”
Can you talk a little bit about playing the role that is usually reserved for men to play?
Franka Potente: “Well, I don’t look at it that way, of course. I don’t have any awareness of it while I work on it. To me, it is what it is, and that’s how it is for Eleanor. To be honest with you, it might seem more extreme because it’s enhanced, it’s like this weird looking, frumpy-ish, but yet hard-a** woman in the Mexican cartel world.
If we translate the question into our real lives, women have to be super heroes; we have to be moms and we have to lose the baby weight in eight weeks, have to be back at our desk another week later. We have to be awesome and beautiful and wear heels and work out. That’s really tough as nails, I think. Despite her appearance and all this, I think that makes it maybe a little bit more odd. But I think in reality woman are not much softer than men or anything. I think in the world we live in right now we have to do everything with the same energy and the same vitality. We’re go-getters just as much.”
It’s interesting that Eleanor is almost like a counterpoint to Sonya in that on both sides you have some very cold, very task-driven women. Can you talk about the parallel and the contrast between those two characters?
Franka Potente: “Yes, I totally agree. They have a lot of similarities. They’re both struggling with something family related in the past that they want to end, or want to come to terms with. I think they are both driven by some weird passion even though the surface is aloof or cold or whatever, but they’re definitely on different sides of the river. Sonya is the law and Eleanor is definitely not that; she operates by her own laws. It’s going to be very interesting to see, as the show proceeds, if these women do get to interact or, if their paths cross, one can imagine that it’s going to be very interesting.”
How much research did you do into the world of drug cartels?
Franka Potente: “I tried to inform myself a little bit more about the whole Mennonite background, and I’ve watched the show and I know a little bit about what’s going on at the Mexican border and the immigrant situation. At the end of the day, I think you have to dismiss that a little bit because all this information is stuff that I can’t act, you know what I mean? I can act someone who’s aloof, who keeps things simple, who follows a structure and defends it with blood if necessary. That’s all stuff I can act, and I really try and focus on that because, otherwise, I think you can make it also unpleasant and complicated for the audience, because then, as an actress, I’m trying to basically almost comment on what I do. That’s very confusing and not clear.
I always believe, to me, the audience is smart; they want to figure things out. It’s not my job to tell them how to understand the character, that’s their job. If they see it a different way than me or the writers, that’s absolutely fine, that’s the magic of why we watch things because hopefully it does jump start our mind and we put things together and we want to understand her secret. Why is she doing this? What I like about a character that is different, that’s bad is that, let’s say we understand that all the audience, we are all normal, we’re good. How is that we can watch someone so bad, so psycho and kind of enjoy it? How can we watch someone like that who is so different, and for a split second maybe admire her determination? How can we check in with our own aspirations watching someone like that? That’s what I want. That’s what’s interesting to me. I cannot comment on what she does, that’s not interesting to me.”
Moon Bloodgood and Scarlett Byrne play mother and daughter on the TNT sci-fi series Falling Skies, but it’s not exactly your normal mother and child relationship the two have going on. Lexi’s a human-alien hybrid who’s grown from an infant into a young adult in just a matter of months. That kind of transformation would put a strain on any family, and matters are made more complicated by the emergence of Lexi’s alien powers.
Together at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Bloodgood and Byrne discussed their onscreen relationship and what they’d like to see in the fifth – and final – season of Falling Skies.
Moon Bloodgood and Scarlett Byrne Falling Skies Interview
Your relationship has really taken a turn for the worse.
Scarlett Byrne: “I was just saying, it’s like teenage tantrums. She just totally loses it, doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She can’t control what she’s doing.”
She’s like a one-year-old.
Scarlett Byrne: “Right, exactly. So when she starts doing it, she starts getting upset. She doesn’t want to hear her mother, but at the same time she just gets so angry. It’s teenage tantrums on a whole different scale.”
Moon Bloodgood: “I also feel, this is just my observation, that Lexi wants to love her mom and she knows she’s supposed to, but she’s not sure she understands her because we were separated. You know what I mean?”
Scarlett Byrne: “She’s grown up in four months and she doesn’t really have a relationship with any members of the family. That’s really what it is. Ben’s woke up from a coma and doesn’t trust her. She’s craving this love really badly. She wants the support, and it’s the same with her mother as well. She wants her relationship with her but at the end of the day, how can you trust her?”
Anne is so disappointed because she envisions this little girl and then you don’t have your little girl anymore.
Moon Bloodgood: “Did you get that? Because that’s what I really worked hard on, when I had scenes. When I did that scene with Connor and Sarah, I didn’t want you to see that, but I wanted to show how hard it is because you don’t want your daughter to see, because I’m obviously happy she’s alive, but I can’t imagine having to act on that scene, losing 18 years. Then having that child talk back to you…Lexi. Honestly, when I see what these characters go through…me, I couldn’t go through this.”
Can you tell us anything about the cocoon?
Scarlett Byrne: “I’m really not too sure if I can.”
Moon Bloodgood: “She knew you were in a cocoon…”
Scarlett Byrne: “I know, they have teased it. I’m really not too sure if I’m allowed to say the cocoon. Lexi goes through a change. I think I’m allowed to say that. I don’t know how to say it any other way.”
Have we seen the extent of what the flower does?
Moon Bloodgood: “We have to bring that up again?”
Scarlett Byrne: “We were filming it, we put the tea in the water and it’s supposed to take four to five seconds, so we’re all sitting around this tea and this flower’s been dropped in. We’re all looking and it doesn’t open. After two minutes, we’re like, ‘Okay, it’s not working.'”
Do you have any idea what’s going to happen in season five?
Moon Bloodgood: “I honestly have no idea.”
What would you like to see happen?
Moon Bloodgood: “Well, you know what? I’m loving that it’s our last year so I always felt that I would always love to see the humans fight the humans. The aliens are there but now it’s humans against humans. I kind of wanted to take down the sci-fi a little bit, make it a little more flesh on flesh. That’s what I’d like to see. I’d like to see us being greedy and we’re at each other, but I don’t know. I don’t know if we’re still going to do a lot of alien stuff. I have absolutely no idea.”
Scarlett Byrne: “I think it’d be cool to get answers to why they invaded in the first place, why they came, what they want from us. I think that will be cool if they can wrap that up. There’s a part of me that thinks that’s not going to get answered.”
Moon Bloodgood: “They never want to answer it because if you answer it, that takes away…”
Are we going to find out Tom is her father?
Moon Bloodgood: “The next two is my favorite because it’s a flashback of my old life. You see me remembering, recalling, Dr. Kadar puts me through a hypnosis because she’s recalling what happened to her. There will be answers eventually to that.”
Joe Swanberg, Melanie Lynskey, Jude Swanberg, Anna Kendrick and Mark Webber in HAPPY CHRISTMAS, a Magnolia Pictures release. (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
Any of you who have been reading my reviews for a while may know I have a slight penchant for liking small, independent films and that extends to a subgenre commonly referred to as mumblecore. While my cool factor may be wearing thin, as I’m not even sure people are using that term much anymore, it’s basically a film that’s made in a short amount of time, largely done via handheld camerawork with a lot of grain, with perhaps a fleshed out idea of where the characters will be headed but with plenty of room left for the actors to discover how they’re going to get from point to point and the ability to create the dialogue to suit their instincts.
Writer/director Joe Swanberg is one of the more well-known filmmakers in this arena, with 2007’s Hannah Take the Stairs almost being his calling card of sorts. However, last year he earned a much-deserved amount of praise for taking the mumblecore genre to an almost mainstream level with Drinking Buddies. It still had all the wonderful and intimate hallmarks of the mumblecore genre but sported the likes of Olivia Wilde and Anna Kendrick in two of their finest performances to date. It’s an underrated film and made my top 10 of the year. Go watch it if you haven’t. Seriously.
Now he’s back much closer to his roots with Happy Christmas. I say that because the film feels more like an underground speakeasy kind of joint. Although he’s reunited with Kendrick and co-stars in the movie, Swanberg’s newest venture is decidedly built for an audience who eschew the more traditional plot structure. This is a slice-of-life kind of deal. Swanberg and his wife (played by the always wonderful Melanie Lynskey who got to keep her native New Zealand accent for once) take in his sister (Kendrick) who’s coming off a bad breakup and looking to reinvigorate her life. Tension arises as Kendrick’s immaturity and aimlessness clash with their “adult” life of raising a child and being responsible.
What follows is a series of starts and stops to everyone’s sense of self-perspective. Now, as much as I’ve waxed poetic about things so far, this is where the movie derailed for me. I’m all for watching emotionally fragile people screw up and self-destruct, but due to the way things are set up here and to how they resolve, I found myself disconnected from the characters. Normally, I’d identify with a character like Kendrick’s, as she masks her emotional turmoil with drink, drugs, and sex. Here, she comes off petulant, almost spiteful, and practically unlikable … and for anyone who knows me, saying that about a character played by Anna Kendrick actually causes me some pain.
Swanberg’s character initially seems to be relevant to the story but quickly fades into the background and ends up less than fully fleshed out, with really only one scene where he gets high with his sister as a standout moment. Actually, as the movie progresses, it turns into a girl-power seminar as Lynskey, Kendrick, and Lena Dunham collaborate on the beginnings of a generic, cliché romance novel. The dynamic and conversations between the three feel genuine and I can appreciate what’s happening, but if it weren’t for their natural screen presence, most people not accustomed to this type of storytelling would wonder what the point of everything is.
And therein lies the downfall of Happy Christmas for me. Normally, films like this provide some element of a journey for the characters. I’m not all that sure anyone in the movie has really learned anything by the time the credits roll. One could easily counter that may be the point and there’s validity in that notion. However, without seeming to accomplish anything other than being a fly on the wall for these people’s lives for a few simulated weeks, I left the movie feeling hollow and largely dissatisfied in my choice to sit through it all. Perhaps I was too spoiled by the richness of the character development from Drinking Buddies. Maybe the flat trajectory of the plot and characters says something profound. I’m certainly not going to knock anyone for being able to relate here; it just didn’t happen for me.
If you’re a longtime fan of Swanberg’s work, or of this type of filmmaking, by all means, give Happy Christmas a watch. Anyone who needs a bit more structure to things and wants characters to have more recognizable and meaningful arcs should probably steer clear though.
GRADE: D+
Happy Christmas is rated R for language, drug use, and some sexual content.
“Why would you want to save the Galaxy?” asks Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a wise-ass, bounty hunter and talking raccoon. “Because I’m one of the idiots who lives in it,” yells Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a smart aleck, small-time thief who’s just about to become one of the galaxy’s new heroes in the sci-fi action comedy Guardians of the Galaxy.
Originally from Earth, young Quill gets abducted by space pirates right after losing his mother to cancer (talk about a bad day) and grows up to become a space outlaw stealing things for either his former boss Yondu (Michael Rooker) or for himself. When Quill steals a powerful and mysterious object known as the orb, he unknowingly becomes the focus of a massive manhunt. His former boss is on his tail, as are Rocket the raccoon and his pal Groot, a large walking and talking – only one sentence – tree (voiced by Vin Diesel). Gamora (Zoe Saldana), an assassin working for the evil warlord Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), is also hunting him down, determined to take possession of the orb.
After failing to sell the orb and having a minor altercation with Gamora and the two bounty hunters, Quill and those pursuing him get caught and imprisoned by the authorities on the planet Xandor. When they’re moved to a high-security space prison, Gamora confesses that she wants to stop Ronan from getting the orb because it contains an extremely powerful energy source that can annihilate an entire planet…hmmm, that seems vaguely familiar.
So with the fate of the galaxy in their hands, the four unlikely friends – no wait, make that five… It seems another inmate named Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) hates Ronan for killing his family and joins them in the hope they’ll lead him to Ronan. Anyway, the five misfits must break out of prison and find a safe place for the orb so Ronan will never find it.
Funny, action-packed, and visually impressive, Guardians of the Galaxy is wacky and entertaining, although ultimately, it’s an uneven, all too familiar space escapade. Chris Pratt is solid as the small-time, wiseacre space thief who deep down has the heart and soul of a true hero. He has solid chemistry with Zoe Saldana and plays opposite a CGI raccoon and tree extremely well.
Saldana looks great as the green skinned assassin who wants to save the galaxy from the terror of Ronan and can’t believe her bad luck at getting stuck with Quill and the others, underestimating the group’s true potential. Lee Pace is effective yet uninteresting as the major villain, Ronan. He’s a tall, blue-skinned bad guy whose deep voice is the only thing deep about the character.
The best element of the film is its look and the wonderful use of visual effects in creating the two best scene-stealing characters in the movie. Bradley Cooper is fantastic in bringing to life Rocket by giving him a tough, smart-aleck personality, stealing every scene he’s in. Vin Diesel is the voice of Groot, whose only line is “I am Groot.” Depending on how he says it, it means many things. Groot is the most lovable and likable character in the group and is Rocket’s only friend.
Guardians of the Galaxy, however, has two big problems. First, the uneven tempo and tone of the movie. At times it’s very tongue-in-cheek, not taking itself seriously and this is when the film is at its best. But then it quickly changes to being serious and trying to be heartfelt before going back to being cute and silly, followed by a quick change again to serious and ominous.
The film’s tone is, unfortunately, all over the place. The second problem is the film lifts too many ideas and character traits from two great space sagas: Star Wars and Star Trek. There’s nothing really original here except for the talking tree and fighting raccoon. It’s all been done bigger and better before.
That said, even with its shortcomings, Guardians of the Galaxy is a zany, enjoyable space adventure that will have audiences rooting for Quill, Rocket, Gamora, and Groot against Ronan until the credits roll.
In a bit of inspired voice casting, Jon Favreau’s tapped Bill Murray to play Baloo in Disney’s The Jungle Book. Murray joins a cast that is led by newcomer Neel Sethi and includes Christopher Walken, Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o, Giancarlo Esposito, Idris Elba, and Scarlett Johansson.
Sethi will be the only live-action actor on the screen. Walken’s playing King Louie, Esposito is Akela, Kingsley is Bagheera, Nyong’o is Raksha, Idris Elba is Shere Khan, and Johansson is Kaa.
Justin Marks wrote the script and Disney’s aiming for an October 9, 2015 release date.
Lionsgate has released the final trailer for what’s most likely not the final film of The Expendables franchise. The Expendables 3 opens in theaters on August 15, 2014, and the new trailer features bridge explosions, trains, planes, boats, and people jumping out of helicopters. There’s not much in the way of a story laid out, but then again this is an Expendables movie so it’s not expected.
The Cast:
Sylvester Stallone (Barney Ross), Jason Statham (Lee Christmas), Antonio Banderas (Galgo), Jet Li (Yin Yang), Wesley Snipes (Doc), Dolph Lundgren (Gunnar Jensen), Kelsey Grammer (Bonaparte), Terry Crews (Hale Caesar), Randy Couture (Toll Road), Kellan Lutz (John Smilee), Ronda Rousey (Luna), Glen Powell (Thorn), Victor Ortiz (Mars), Robert Davi (Vata), with Mel Gibson (Conrad Stonebanks), with Harrison Ford (Drummer), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Trench)
The Plot:
In The Expendables 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables — but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.
Grant Bowler and Julie Benz in ‘Defiance’ (Photo by: Ben Mark Holzberg / Syfy)
Julie Benz says she loves playing the flawed season two Amanda on the Syfy series Defiance, joking at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con that she does drunk, addicted, and damaged women really well. The Amanda we see in season two is definitely addicted and damaged, and Benz says it’s been a real challenge to get into the character this season.
Last season Amanda was the strong, confident leader and this season she’s the one in need of help from her friends. “For me, it was great to move away from speeches and talking about railroad rights or whatever they were, to move into some of the more emotional side of the character,” explained Benz. “I think season one we saw a lot of the veneer of Amanda and we didn’t really get to see the underbelly of her. In season two, she’s just on her back with her legs splayed showing her underbelly.”
Defiance airs on Syfy on Thursday nights at 8pm ET/PT.
Julie Benz Defiance Interview
Will she ever fully recover?
Julie Benz: “We saw in this last episode that she had quit the Adreno for two weeks. She’s definitely trying to pull her life back together. She’ll never give up the scotch though.”
Was there a little more of Amanda’s backstory revealed to you?
Julie Benz: “Yeah, we definitely get to see some more in some upcoming episodes, and then, as Kevin [Murphy, writer] said, if we get a season three, he plans on exploring Amanda’s story, her backstory in season three.”
How much do you relate to Amanda?
Julie Benz: “I relate to her drive and just being so driven career-wise. I’ve had a career since the age of three. I was a competitive figure skater, then I became an actor. I made huge sacrifices in my life to get to where I am, so I relate to that. As far as the addiction part, I don’t have personal experience with addiction but it’s amazing the research you can find on YouTube and what you can see. I have friends that have had struggles with addiction and spent some time speaking to them as well and listening to their stories and listening to how do drugs affect you physically. It’s not just that.
There’s one scene – and I was so proud of this scene – where I go and ask Pottinger for the Adreno and my lip was twitching. It was like she wanted it so bad she could almost taste it. Someone had told me that that’s what it’s like when drugs are in front of you and you’re just waiting for that fix and you just want it. It’s like you can already taste it before it’s in you. I was really trying to create that need.”
What do you like about the character and what don’t you like about her?
Julie Benz: “What do I like? I like damaged Amanda. I like this dark underside of her. What I don’t like, I don’t like speeches. I’d be perfectly happy to never give another speech ever again in my life as Amanda. They’re not fun to have to do, and you’ve got to do them all day long. I hate speeches.”
What’s been the most challenging scene you’ve done so far?
Julie Benz: “The most challenging? All of them. So far that you’ve seen, I would say all of episode five was extremely challenging. The whole ego implant and the addiction and all of that, because there’s so many scenes within that. Even the scene with Pottinger where I reveal the rape. When you’re given a very dramatic story as an actor, sometimes it’s more heartbreaking if you play against the drama because if you play into the drama it becomes melodramatic.
To try and play against it and find those moments where she could smile, even though it’s so painful what she’s saying, to find that bit of hope within it. It was a real balance. Plus, we’re supposed to be high, so we’re high and I’m revealing this story. It was like a juggling act but very small. It was like little pressures here and there.
I remember our director Alan Kroeker was so amazing and we got to shoot it a lot and do a lot of coverage on it to get the right tone of it. I didn’t want it to be like, ‘Okay, now here Amanda’s going to launch into her story now.’ It had to really come from an emotional place and it had to be emotional. But at the same time, she didn’t have to relive it. It had to be alive and then they’re high. How do you put all those elements in it? It was great.
Then we were sitting in chairs that turned, that swiveled, so we were swiveling a little bit too in the right places, and trying to find the moments where you look away and where you make eye contact. It was fun but challenging. Scary.”
How about Amanda and Nolan’s relationship? Where is that going?
Julie Benz: “They’re like the Ross and Rachel of Defiance. They’re on a break. I think they’ll always have an attraction between the two of them. I just think it’s going to be a very complicated journey for them to really commit to being together. It would be boring if they hooked up and next thing you know they’re playing house and having a baby.
Nobody would watch the show. It’s so much more interesting to put them together, pull them apart, put them together, pull them apart and wonder, ‘Is this the episode they’re getting back together?’ It’s better to do that, so that’s what’s going to happen. I think eventually they’ll end up together, but I don’t know.”
Do you feel like sometimes you take her home with you, or are you very good about leaving her where she belongs?
Julie Benz: “I’m very lucky that I’m able to bring my dogs to work. That helps me reconnect in my life. It helps me. I go back to my trailer and there’s my puppies and they don’t know what I just did. They’re jumping up and down and they’re excited to see me. Then you got to take them for a walk and you got to clean up their poop and right back into real life.
I’ve been doing this, I’ve been an actor for 29 years now and I can turn it off. There’s times where you’re exhausted and there’s times where you might be a little bummed out, but I’m not a crazy person. I don’t use it as an excuse for bad behavior in my life. Just because I’m being an addict doesn’t mean I actually have to go out and become an addict. I’m not that kind of actor.”
Is there anything you took from working on Buffy or Dexter that helped you develop your role in Defiance?
Julie Benz: “Every job I have I learn from and I learn something new about myself. Characters teach me. It’s interesting. Characters inform me as much as I inform the character. There’s certain lessons you take away. Buffy and Angel was like being in graduate school. I was right out of college and I really felt like I was in the best graduate acting program ever working with Joss Whedon. It was amazing. The challenges that they put in front of me every week were different. Darla was such an epic, exotic character. She was 400 years old. They allowed us to play. They allowed us to make choices and if they failed, it was okay. It was like, you can just make a choice. Make a strong choice. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
Evolving from there into Rita, Rita’s obviously the most vulnerable character I’ve played but she helped me hone my craft on damaged women. Going from there into stronger female characters, I think every character ends up being… I feel like all the women I’ve played before are there with Amanda in the background. All their different elements and sides. I take away something from them, from each and every one.”
Shows like Buffy and Angel have such hardcore fan bases. How have you found the fan base for Defiance?
Julie Benz: “It’s a lot of the same fans. I like to joke around and say the Buffy and Angel fans grew up and became the Dexter fans and then they all followed me over to Defiance, which is awesome. I love that. It’s why I like working in genre shows is that the fans are just as passionate about the show as we are making it. They’re loyal and they’re faithful and they’re devoted, and I love that. It’s great. It’s been fantastic.”
