Zooey Deschanel is best known for her performances on screen in Almost Famous and 500 Days of Summer, however she’s also very much into music. She’s a singer/songwriter and part of the band She & Him, and this summer she’ll be heard – but not seen – lending her vocal talents to the soundtrack of Winnie the Pooh. Deschanel contributes plenty of tunes to the film’s soundtrack, including the “Winnie the Pooh” theme song. She and her She & Him bandmate M Ward also perform “So Long,” which Deschanel penned for the film.
“This has been one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had,” said Deschanel in a press release announcing her involvement. “And I’ve just been thanking my lucky stars that I was able to work on this movie because it’s delightful.”
“She was the perfect choice to do the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ song—a classic theme from the Sherman Brothers,” said Winnie the Pooh director Don Hall. “Her music actually embodies the underlying spirit of the movie. We’re taking something that has vintage roots in the sixties but spinning it in our own way and updating it. If you listen to Zooey’s music with She & Him — that’s their sound to a tee.”
Adds director Stephen Anderson, “It’s a perfect way to start the movie, letting the audience know right off the bat that this is Winnie the Pooh like you know him, but it’s something for today. We wanted to keep the same charm as the original, but give it a fresh spin, a contemporary feel, and she opens the movie with so much freshness, so much energy.”
“It’s always fun to have a contemporary artist rediscover a classic, and that’s exactly what Zooey did,” said producer Peter Del Vecho. “She brought her own personality to the song—when she sings about introducing the individual characters, it’s as though she’s known them her whole life—and she has.”
“I’m a big fan of Winnie the Pooh and all his friends,” says Deschanel, who also plays the ukulele in the song. “It’s really hard to pick a favorite: Winnie the Pooh is so special, he loves honey and he’s just cool. Eeyore is amazing, I love Eeyore. And Piglet is so small. It’s really a four-way tie between Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger.”
“When I was writing ‘So Long,’ I just held the images for the end credits in my mind,” Deschanel added. “I spent a number of days tinkering with ideas, melodies and chord progressions that I thought would fit the images, the new music being written and the original Sherman Brothers stuff– but still be my own thing. The song definitely has its own feel, but also pays respect to the original.”
Funny People is about funny people, obviously, but it’s not just a comedy movie. Writer/director Judd Apatow’s third film as a director is a poignant piece about a lonely, dying comedian (played by Apatow’s college roommate, Adam Sandler). It’s an Apatow film, so of course, there are profanity-laced jokes and multiple mentions of penises. There are a lot of crude jokes, but they’re appropriate due to the fact the film’s centered in the world of stand-up comedy.
With Funny People, Apatow – and Sandler – go deeper and deliver a touching piece that’s a totally different beast than Knocked Up or The 40 Year-Old Virgin.
The long-time friendship between Apatow and Sandler seems to have brought out something unique in both of them. Under Apatow’s direction, Sandler delivers his best performance yet. And Seth Rogen, who’s been one of Apatow’s regular players since getting his start in the Apatow TV show Freaks and Geeks, also gives his best performance to date as Ira Wright, a struggling stand-up comedian who Sandler hires as his assistant. Rogen has lost a lot of weight over the past few years, and some of the funniest lines from Funny People come as a result of his new slim body. Some of the biggest laughs are had by scene-stealer Jonah Hill making fun of Rogen’s noticeable weight loss.
Hill and Jason Schwartzman play actors/comedians with better careers than Rogen’s Ira Wright. Their stinging put-downs and jealousy over each other’s success not only provide the audience with the chance to feel like flies on the wall inside any struggling actor’s Hollywood apartment but also adds a lighter touch to matters when things get too dramatic. And Apatow, despite the heavy subject matter, does a superb job of reining in the pathos by tempering it with gallows humor.
The Story:
George Simmons has a career that echoes Adam Sandler’s, and it looks as though he’s got the world on a string. Outside appearances would suggest life couldn’t get any better. But George has no real friends. He only has acquaintances and comedians he enjoys the company of. He’s estranged from his family, and he cheated on the only woman he ever loved (played by Apatow’s wife, Leslie Mann). There’s no one person he can turn to to confide in. And when the doctor delivers devastating news – he has a rare form of leukemia – there’s not a soul on earth who he can share his grief with.
As more of a diversion than a need to entertain, George goes to a stand-up club for an impromptu performance. There he spots Ira, a guy whose self-deprecating humor guarantees he’ll never be a hit with women. George likes him – or at least finds him interesting – and hires Ira to be his personal assistant and to write jokes for his new stand-up act. Ira jumps at the opportunity and is willing to do anything George asks of him. He’s not happy about being the only person who knows George is seriously ill, but he’s not one to question George’s decisions – yet.
As their relationship grows, Ira becomes more sure of himself and less sure of George’s life choices. And George, thanks to this new perspective on life offered by Ira, now sees this life-threatening illness as a second chance, a way to undo some of the bad choices he’s made on the road to fame and fortune.
The Acting:
Apatow packed Funny People with not only good comic actors, but good actors in general. Sandler, Rogen, Hill, Schwartzman, and Mann are all terrific. Eric Bana doesn’t enter the film until the last 45 minutes or so, but when he does, he gives a wonderfully funny and touching performance. Bana’s performance is so good it begs the question: why did it take so long for him to make an entrance in the film and why hasn’t he been in more comedies?
The Bottom Line:
Spoofing stupid mega-blockbuster comedies, as superstar comedian George Simmons Sandler appears in Re-Do, a film which has Sandler’s adult head placed on a baby’s body. He’s also Merrman, a grown man with a mermaid tail. The made-up films within Funny People look totally ridiculous, yet they’re not that far-fetched. Hollywood’s put out worse crap and seen dollar signs ringing up to the tune of millions and millions.
Although Apatow’s prior films as a producer or director haven’t been as ludicrous (well, maybe with the exception of Drillbit Taylor), Re-Do and the Merrman movie represent the sort of enormously silly movies that used to be Sandler’s bread and butter. Entertaining, yes (for some audiences), but frivolous. I’m not slamming frivolous comedies – they have their place and are great for escaping the real world. But Sandler’s grown out of that, and Funny People allows the audience to see what he can do when he’s given the perfect material to use as a springboard.
Apatow’s been credited with making it possible – and profitable – for studios to greenlight R-rated comedies, and his fellow comedy filmmakers often bring up his name in glowing terms. And Funny People has the same heart, and naughty language and adult situations as Apatow’s Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But this film mines its comedy from a much darker area.
Still funny, Funny People shows a new side of Apatow and his gang of actors. Apatow’s growing and evolving, and where he’ll take his next project after Funny People is anybody’s guess. No matter what he tackles next, it’s all but guaranteed to entertain.
GRADE: B
Funny People was directed by Judd Apatow and is rated R for language and crude sexual humor throughout, and some sexuality.
So, barely into 2009 we’ve had our share of women in love, lust, or some other sort of relationship that doesn’t necessarily show the female gender in the most positive light. Bride Wars served up life-long friends who tore each other to pieces after accidentally booking the same wedding date. New in Town found a corporate exec looking down her perky nose at the fine folks of Minnesota before ultimately realizing they are actually people – gasp! And then He’s Just Not That Into You showed how women tend to be helpless and hopeless when it comes to matters of the heart.
That’s a lot of female-driven films to enter theaters just six weeks into 2009. And, of course, that’s not a bad thing – we women deserve to have Hollywood tune into the fact we will buy tickets to movies if they interest us. But we do deserve better than we’ve been offered thus far this year.
Now, opening over Valentine’s Day weekend comes Confessions of a Shopaholic. Based on the bestselling books by Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic is out of touch with the current financial market and the overall state of the economy. I can’t imagine many moviegoers nowadays breaking out in a “You go, girl,” chorus as the film’s lead character spends, spends, spends without thinking of the consequences. There is sort of a ‘credit is bad, don’t spend above your limits’ lesson in Confessions of a Shopaholic – if you turn your head sideways and squint a little. But in many other ways, Confessions of a Shopaholic actually promotes buying pretty, sparkly items because buying new things makes one a happy person.
There’s undeniably a mixed message spouted by this romantic comedy, yet if we are being totally honest with ourselves, not many of us go to the movies (in particular, to a romantic comedy) to learn important life lessons. We go to be entertained, and Confessions of a Shopaholic is entertaining – mostly thanks to the adorable Isla Fisher who could be this generation’s Lucille Ball.
Fisher plays the shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwood, a vivacious young woman who hears the siren song of mannequins beckoning her to forget all else and succumb to the pleasures of purchasing designer togs. Rebecca goes deeply into debt, but she can’t help herself – she needs new dresses and boots and gloves and pants, etc., etc., etc, – the problem being she doesn’t have the financial means to support her habit.
With an ever-rising stack of credit card bills the elephant in the room she’s trying her best to ignore, Rebecca loses her job as a journalist at an outdoor magazine. But never fear – the handsome, serious-minded Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy) hires her (without checking her background) to write an advice column for his fledgling financial magazine which is struggling to establish its own identity.
Of course, Rebecca doesn’t want to be working at a financial magazine – her dream job is writing for a high fashion magazine – but she takes Luke up on his job offer, despite the fact she’s just about the worst person on the planet to be doling out advice on how to stay out of debt. Hounded by a debt collector she explains off by claiming he’s an ex-boyfriend stalking her, and knowing all the while she’s ill-equipped to dispense financial advice, Rebecca keeps up the pretense of being this ‘tell it like it is but in simple terms a 12-year-old could understand’ guru while longing for a gig writing about fashion. And to complicate Rebecca’s already mixed-up life, she falls for her boss who has no idea she’s $16,000 in debt.
The Cast
Fisher’s just fantastic as the shopping addict who hasn’t ever encountered a store she didn’t like. Fisher can handle the physical gags as well as the quieter moments in Confessions of a Shopaholic. When she tackles scenes we’ve witnessed time and again in romantic comedies (running around in high heels, enduring that awkward moment when the guy she likes introduces her to his date, disappointing her best friend by being thoughtless), she makes them seem fresh and unique.
Dancy’s a handsome Brit who has onscreen chemistry with Fisher. He’s not called on to stretch any acting muscles, but he does provide adequate support for Fisher to strut her stuff. Joan Cusack (who is only 13 years older than Fisher) and John Goodman are terrific, though under-used, as Fisher’s loving parents. Krysten Ritter, a talented actress who seems to be relegated to best friend roles, is perfectly cast as Fisher’s – you guessed it – best friend.
The Bottom Line
Yes, Confessions of a Shopaholic‘s release in theaters seems ill-timed due to the current disastrous financial predicament we find ourselves in. And yes, this shopaholic’s wasteful ways would have been better suited for a film released 10 years ago. But Fisher, under the direction of romantic comedy veteran PJ Hogan (Muriel’s Wedding, My Best Friend’s Wedding), makes us connect with this film that’s ultimately about taking responsibility and admitting your faults. But put aside what it’s about, forget trying to interpret the message, and just take Confessions of a Shopaholic for what it is – a goofy, likable enough chick flick.
GRADE: B
Confessions of a Shopaholic was directed by PJ Hogan and is rated PG for some mild language and thematic elements.
The twisted vision of suburbia circa 1988 that is Donnie Darko made quite an impact at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, becoming one of the festival’s most talked about films.
Donnie Darko is an incredibly entertaining and mind-bendingly bizarre drama that follows a teenager as he attempts to come to grips with the theory of time travel and get answers to the existence of God, all while possessing the secret knowledge that the world will soon end. Oh, and he’s also battling an assortment of hallucinations and delusions. The film’s a dark coming-of-age tale told through a provocative script and superbly acted by Jake Gyllenhaal, along with a highly recognizable cast of supporting players. It’s strange and twisted, yet charming, thought-provoking, and highly original.
Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal) is a confused, mentally unstable teenager. Skipping his medication, Donnie is paid visits by Frank, a figure in a hideous bunny suit who delivers fatalistic coded messages. In one such message, Frank informs Donnie that there are just 28 days left in the world. Donnie passes this info on to no one, as everyone he could possibly tell already knows that he’s got mental problems.
The film chronicles Donnie’s life as he counts down to Frank’s apocalyptic deadline. During what may be the last month of life on Earth, Donnie falls in love, escapes being killed when an airplane engine part crashes through his house and lands on the bed he should have been sleeping in – had he not awoken to follow Frank – searches for answers on the probability of there being a way to travel through time, and pays visits to his psychiatrist. With the impending end of the world looming large in Donnie’s mind, he also becomes an outspoken critic of the town’s self-help guru, Jim Cunningham.
In a scene that plays out like a smarmy infomercial, Cunningham (Patrick Swayze) manipulates Donnie’s high school peers and teachers alike into believing in his nonsensical rhetoric. Donnie – perhaps feeling there’s not much worse that can happen to him than the world ending – fires question after pointed question at Cunningham during a school assembly. Later that night, with Frank’s assistance, Donnie manages to bring down Cunningham, exposing him for the self-righteous fraud that he is.
What exactly is Donnie Darko? First-time writer/director Richard Kelly purposefully wanted Donnie Darko to be a genre-busting tale that would mean vastly different things to different people. Kelly offers this explanation of the film: “Maybe it’s the story of Holden Caulfield, resurrected in 1988 by the spirit of Phillip K. Dick, who was always spinning yarns about schizophrenia and drug abuse breaking the barriers of space and time. Or it’s a black comedy foreshadowing the impact of the 1988 Presidential election, which is really the best way to explain it. But first and foremost, I wanted the film to be a piece of social satire that needs to be experienced and digested several times.”
Donnie Darko is an extraordinarily unique vision of love, family relationships, and the secrets of the universe. Writer/director Richard Kelly has created a provocatively imaginative, yet poignant, first feature.
GRADE: A-
Donnie Darko is rated R for language, some drug use, and violence. It opened in limited release on October 26, 2001.
Sequels are tricky creatures. When you’re following up a film that not only scored big at the box office but had audiences completely entertained, you’re asking for trouble. You have to exceed all expectations or audiences will think you’re just cashing in on what once worked. But Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a great example of a sequel that not only lives up to its predecessor but actually improves on what made the original Madagascar so successful.
Pros:
– One of the rare sequels that’s as good as or better than the original
– Gorgeous animation compliments the entertaining story
– Loaded with bonus material (including a batch of extras just for kids)
Cons:
– None worth noting
Description:
– Featuring the voices of Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer and Chris Rock
– Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
– Rated PG for some mild crude humor
– DVD Release Date: February 6, 2009
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa DVD Review – Move It, Move Edition
The Story:
Former Central Park Zoo residents Alex, Melman, Marty, and Gloria return for another adventure in the wild in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Now, can you guess where they wind up this time? Obviously, our favorite animal gang – joined by King Julien, Maurice, and those pesky, perky penguins – ends up in Africa. Although they were trying to get home to Central Park, winding up in Africa turns out to be a life-changing experience for the escapees from the zoo as they all discover their roots after crashing land in the heart of Africa.
The Bonus Features:
Disc 1 – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
There’s an incredible amount of goodies to work your way through on this DVD. Directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath are joined by producers Mireille Soria and Mark Swift for a commentary track that’s dry but informative. The best of extras is the ‘Making of Escape 2 Africa’ featurette which explores the hows and whys of putting together this sequel. There’s also an entertaining bit on the voice cast and a piece on the research done in Africa to make sure this film looked authentic. If you’re ready for some toe-tapping, check out the MAD Music Videos (including Move It, Move It) which are a lot of fun for all ages. Kids will get a kick out of the ‘Test Flight of Air Penguin’ game.
Disc 2 – The Penguins of Madagascar
This disc is just for the young ones, and they’ll have a great time watching the new animated penguin adventures as well as checking out all the special material. Kids can learn how to dance like Alex the lion and get some interesting insight into real lions in Africa. Insert the disc into your computer to access more fun material for kids.
The Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Move It Move It DVD pack is a great addition to any DVD collection and will provide kids with hours of entertainment.
Disney/Pixar’s just released the first photos from the 3D animated short Hawaiian Vacation which will play before Cars 2 in theaters. Hawaiian Vacation features lots of the familiar Toy Story players, including Woody and Buzz Lightyear, in a short film released in Disney Digital 3D™ and IMAX® 3D.
Pixar offers up this description of the short: “Woody and Buzz lead a group of toys in giving Ken and Barbie the Hawaiian vacation of their dreams—but it has to be in a girl’s bedroom in the Midwest in the middle of winter because Ken badly miscalculated the travel arrangements.”
FilmNation Entertainment has just debuted the first photo of Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in a scene from Terrence Malick’s (The Tree of Life) love story, To the Wonder. The film’s heading to theaters in 2012, however, it doesn’t have a release date set as of April 2011.
The cast also includes Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, and Romina Mondello.
The Plot, Courtesy of the Venice Film Festival:
To the Wonder, written and directed by Terrence Malick, is a romantic drama centered on Neil, a man who is torn between two loves: Marina, the European woman who came to the United States to be with him, and Jane, the old flame he reconnects with from his hometown. In To the Wonder, Malick explores how love and its many phases and seasons of passion, sympathy, obligation, sorrow, and indecision can transform, destroy, and reinvent lives.
As To the Wonder opens, Neil and Marina are together on the French island of Mont St. Michel also known in France as The Wonder of the Western World (Merveille de l’Occident), and invigorated by feelings of being newly in love. Neil, an aspiring writer, has left the United States in search of a better life, leaving behind a string of unhappy affairs. Looking into Marina’s eyes as the Abbey looms in the distance, Neil is certain he has finally found the one woman he can love with commitment. He makes a vow to be true to this woman alone.
Marina, quiet and beautiful, with flashes of a mischievous humor, is divorced and the mother of a 10-year-old daughter, Tatiana. At 16, Marina left the Ukraine for Paris without a cent to her name. There, she married a Frenchman who abandoned her after just two years, leaving her alone with Tatiana in a studio apartment. Marina was forced to work a variety of temporary jobs to make her way. Having nearly given up hope, Marina is overcome with joy to be in love with Neil, her salvation from an unhappy future.
Two years later, Neil and Marina are living in a small town in Oklahoma, close to where Neil grew up. Neil, having given up his hopes of becoming a writer, has taken a job as an environmental inspector. Neil is happy with his work, but his love for Marina cools as she, for her part, is frustrated by the holding pattern she feels she is in with Neil. She fears her youth and happiness are slipping away. In spite of her anxieties about Neil, Marina initially feels at home in Oklahoma, embraced by the open space and sky and soothed by the sounds that come from the wind harp that animates breezes into songs.
Seeking advice, Marina turns to another exile in the community, a Catholic priest named Quintana. We learn that Father Quintana has come to grapple with his own dilemmas as he harbors doubts about his vocation. He no longer feels the ardor he knew in the first days of his faith and wonders if he ever will again.
Professional life throws Neil into conflict as well when he discovers that a smelting operation in town is polluting the soil and water and threatening the health of future generations. His concerns fail to persuade his neighbors, who depend on the smelter for their livelihoods. Under pressure to keep quiet, Neil must once again weigh the consequences of his actions.
Neil’s doubts about Marina intensify. This, coupled with the fact that Marina’s visa is soon to expire, leads her to return to France with her daughter. In her absence, Neil reconnects with Jane, an old friend. As the two of them fall deeply in love, Neil finds this new relationship far less complicated. Yet when word comes to him that Marina has fallen on hard times and her daughter has gone to live with her father and refuses to have anything more to do with her, he finds himself gripped by a sense of responsibility for her wellbeing and arranges for her return to the United States.
Neil’s entanglements with the two women in his life, and Father Quintana’s struggle with his faith, force them both to consider different kinds of love. Should the commitment they each made be undertaken as a duty, sometimes full of effort? Or should we accept that love often changes and doesn’t always last? Can sorrow bind lovers more tightly than joy?
