Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 881

A Viewer’s Guide to Weekend Movies: 'The Best Man Holiday,' 'Blackfish,' and Mike Tyson

It's the weekend, yet again, and you've got nothing but time ahead of you for two whole days. Please be sure to fill those two days with as much movie-watching as you can manage, ideally across multiple platforms, because you are living in 2013, and you take advantage of the opportunities The Future offers you.

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In Theaters

Fourteen years since Malcolm D. Lee's original romantic comedy, comes The Best Man Holiday, a sequel that reunites the cast, including Morris Chestnut, Sanaa Lathan, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Nia Long, and Terrence Howard. Just like the original, this one's gotten good critical reviews and will attempt to crack a marketplace that (hopefully) is ready to embrace an African-American ensemble comedy that doesn't have anything to do with Madea.

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In Limited Release

Nebraska, Alexander Payne's follow-up to The Descendants is getting a platform release, the better (one assumes) to position it for the year-end movie awards. It certainly stands a chance – our Richard Lawson says the film " feels strikingly real, even in the more heightened comic moments, and is commandingly anchored by Dern's riveting and gently, subtly heartbreaking performance." [Opens today in New York, at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Angelika Film Center; and in Los Angeles at the Landmark and ArcLight Hollywood.]

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Video On Demand

One of the year's top documentaries makes it to VOD, as Blackfish (iTunes link), Gabriela Cowperthwaite's exposé on the commercial marine park business – and in particular Sea World's practice of keeping killer whales in captivity for performance purposes – is now available in your living room. It's rabble-rousing of the first order.

In more broadly familiar news, giant summer blockbuster Man of Steel (iTunes link) will finally be available for all the puny humans – with their earthly concerns and non-Kryptonian constitutions – to consume. For a movie that's grossed over $660 million worldwide, it never felt like that much of a sensation, did it? This was the Summer of Obligation Blockbusters. "Oh I should see that World War Z, shouldn't I?" "Don't want to get left out of that Pacific Rim chatter." "I know everybody says The Lone Ranger looks bad, but I want to be able to make fun of it on Twitter." So now, if you managed to let Henry Cavil's performance as a Mr. Metropolis pageant contestant pass you by, now's your chance.

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Streaming Online

Well, I've held off as long as I can, but finally, here's the part where I holler at everybody to watch Frances Ha, now that it's streaming on Netflix. Director/screenwriter Noah Baumbach and screenwriter/star Greta Gerwig combined to give us one of the funniest, sharpest, most unobtrusively insightful films of the year. (Also? Pretty cool that you might have the chance to see two contemporary movies filmed in gorgeous black-and-white this weekend.)

Once you're finished watching Frances, you could always move on to the latest in the Bond franchise, Sam Mendes's atypically weighty Skyfall. Judi Dench has been playing around in her M clothes recently, in order to shame the MPAA into bumping her Philomena down from an R to a PG-13 (it worked!), so celebrate with Dame Judi this weekend, won't you?

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Movies on TV

Who wants to spend their Saturday night with renowned professional face-puncher Mike Tyson? Folks, it's either that or watch Lady Gaga on Saturday Night Live (which, honestly, you probably should do, if only because there's a chance Aidy Bryant might do something as funny as her Cartoon Catchphrase character from two weeks ago).  Back to Tyson, though: Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth is the filmed version of Tyson's one-man show from Broadway last year, directed by Spike Lee. Reads the official HBO.com copy:

Over the course of 90 riveting minutes, Tyson opens up about his troubled Brooklyn youth, landmark boxing career, key influences in his life, personal and professional controversies, time in prison, loss of family members and, most recently, his rehabilitation and redemption, forged by sobriety and a renewed commitment to family life.

In this case, "personal and professional controversies" refer to the time Tyson was convicted of rape and then later bit someone's ear off in a boxing ring. Enjoy your seminar!

       

Watch Magic Bring Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston Together Again

We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cellphone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why, every day, The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

David Blaine has a lot of magic tricks. But bringing together Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul one last time might his greatest achievement:

We don't condone these methods to avoid a traffic ticket (but if they work, please let us know):

PlayStation, SchmayStation. The Super Mario Brothers will always have a special place in our hearts:

This is a corgi that can "twerk." This corgi is infinitely more watchable than Miley Cyrus's VMA performance: 

       

'Almost Human' Is Sci-Fi by the Numbers

It's been a while since network television had a good sci-fi show. NBC's Revolution has its moments, but that's really more of an action Western most of the time. The last great science fiction series on a broadcast network was probably Lost, though that show was anything but great toward the end. Which brings us to Almost Human, the new Fox series premiering this Sunday. It's a modestly ambitious series molded into a traditional buddy cop format. That's a clever way to blend sci-fi in with more typical television tropes, but the conceit winds up hobbling the series. Despite a couple of futuristic details, the feels too familiar; nothing is as wild or out-there as we want it to be.

Take the time period. Almost Human is set just 35 years in the future, far enough away to sort of convince us that hyper-realistic, sentient robots have been invented, but close enough that, y'know, the production designers can still use stuff that currently exists. There's nothing wrong with a tale set in the near-future, but the details need to be more thoughtful than they are in Almost Human, which hurries us along into its story without doing much exploration of the world that houses it. So, the story: I mentioned robots. Well, those robots (androids, cyborgs, whatever your fancy) are used by the LAPD to combat crime in a city that has spiraled into chaos. It's unclear what's caused this extreme spike in crime, but the city's a dangerous place, so each police officer is paired with a robot. Makes sense, right?

Most of the robots are, well, pretty robotic. Though they look human, they behave like machines, functional and without surprise. But, of course, one very special robot is a bit different. He's Dorian, one of an earlier model of helper bots that was decommissioned because they were too human-like. They had emotions, like later TNG-era Data, I guess. What this means for the show, and for the actor Michael Ealy, is that Dorian is pretty much a regular person, and behaves as such. Maybe there's a synthetically smooth tone to his speech, but beyond that he's just like us. He gets mad, he can be offended. Sucks for his partner then, a gruff ace detective named John Kennex (futuristic name!), played by Karl Urban, who doesn't trust robots after one's cold practicality resulted in the death of a fellow police officer. So an emotional robot who stands up for himself is the last thing he needs. Or is it exactly what he needs?

By the end of the pilot episode, that question is answered pretty predictably, though the show is not without its mysteries elsewhere. John was in a coma for two years following a terribly botched raid in which his entire squad was killed, and now that he's awake and back on the force, he wants answers. Who tipped off the bad guys? And who are the bad guys? There's some sort of shadowy cabal of criminals frequently referred to, so I suppose investigating them will be the series' larger arc while individual episodes work on a more procedural level. Which is fine, I just wish the mystery didn't feel so generic and half-baked. There's nothing terribly compelling about this supposedly chaotic future; in fact, it doesn't even seem all that dangerous. So why should we take the time to care, when we are already inundated with so many knotty serial shows to keep up with?

I suppose if you're hungry enough for some science fiction, that might be reason enough to stick with the show. But beyond that, nothing about Almost Human grabbed me. The world is underdeveloped and the cast is bland. Beyond Ealy and Lili Taylor, as Kennex's superior, there's no one to really connect with. Urban rotely plays a character we've seen a million times, Minka Kelly fails to convince as a detective, and poor Mackenzie Crook, late of the original The Office and some marvelous stage work, is stuck playing yet another nerdy lab geek. It's a role that's as boringly formulaic as the rest of the show, at least what I've seen of it so far. When the robot is the most dynamic thing on screen, that might be a problem. Unless Almost Human livens up soon, it will only be a show that's almost worth watching.

       

The Hilarious Boston Ladies of 'The Heat' Are Getting a Spinoff

The two women who were one of the best parts of The Heat are getting a spinoff—and, no, they aren't Sandra Bullock or Melissa McCarthy. (Though, they were obviously also great.) 

Paul Feig is continuing his trend of backing women-centric comedies by developing a project about Beth and Gina, played by Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin. Beth and Gina made a huge impression on the cop comedy as the trashy girlfriends of Melissa McCarthy's character's brothers. According to Mike Fleming Jr. at Deadline, who broke the news, their spinoff does not preclude a sequel to the movie. 

Denbo and Chaffin are a comedic pair whose origins go back to the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. Feig directed a pilot for Showtime featuring Denbo and Chaffin as their characters Ronna and Beverly, two 50-something Jewish mothers from Boston. Though the pilot never resulted in a series, they've taken their characters overseas to do a Sky Atlantic talk show. (Watch them harass Jon Hamm here.) Feig brought them on to The Heat. "When he got The Heat, he called us because he knows Boston is our thing. We basically either play Jewish mothers or we play Boston scumbags, nothing in the middle," Chaffin said in an interview with Xfinity. "And they were looking for two girls to play sort of scummy Boston characters."  

It ended up being a great call. Denbo and Chaffin were hilarious in the movie (do yourselves a favor and check out the extras on the BluRay for lots more Gina and Beth), and we can only hope they hit the mark again in this movie. Watch the infamous dinner table scene from The Heat here. 

       

China's Labor Camps Could Just Continue Under Another Name

Among a raft of reforms China announced today was the abolition of its “education-through-labor” camps, known as laojiao. The measure, alongside others like reducing the use of the death penalty, responds to growing outrage in China at the often arbitrary and harsh criminal-justice system.

Officials first began promising reforms to the labor camp system last October, after some 30 million bloggers protested the imprisonment of a woman whose 11-year-old daughter had been raped and forced into prostitution; the mother was locked up for raising a stink about policemen who had shielded her daughter’s attackers. Accounts of life in the labor camps include being fed excrement, getting beaten, receiving electric shocks, and countless other dehumanizing measures.

Laojiao is one of the most enduring signs of China’s revolutionary origins. It began in the 1950s in emulation of the Soviet gulags as a way to bring wayward party leaders and regular citizens to heel. (The father of Xi Jinping, China’s current president, was fired as vice premier and held in a labor camp for seven years during the Cultural Revolution.) Today, the camps are used ostensibly as a way to “correct” the behavior of petty criminals through work while also avoiding clogging up the court system; but they are often used to imprison dissidents, Falun Gong petitioners, and citizens airing their grievances against local governments. According to government statistics, there were about 160,000 people held in the camps as of the end of 2008; others have said the figure ranges between 500,000 and 2 million (pdf, p. 18).

The question now is what exactly abolishing laojiao will entail. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the government has considered replacing it with another system, which also allows long-term detention without trial but with some new rights like access to counsel. “It is therefore unclear, after the government ‘stops using’ the system, whether it will be reformed, abolished, or replaced by another administrative detention system with a different name,” HRW said in a statement in January.

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There’s a sign that’s what will happen. In today’s announcement the government calls for “expanding the country’s correctional community” to replace the laojiao camps. For years, local authorities have been able to forcibly commit criminals as well as protesting citizens to mental asylums—the government passed a law in May that does little to stop the practice. Local governments use secret detention centers known as “black jails” to prevent petitioners from formally lodging complaints against them with Beijing. ”The difficulty is that they could be pushed into dark corners which are invisible,” Fu Hualing a law professor at the University of Hong Kong told the South China Morning Post (paywall) earlier this month. ”I’m concerned that if there was a political need [to maintain stability] before [this reform], there must be the same need now and that hasn’t changed.”

Others say little can be done to reform the penal system without political reform. Academics note how Taiwan only abolished its use of a similar system decades once it established a constitutional court and various branches of government, decades after martial law ended. “As long as there is no independent judiciary, [China] will still be a police state,” said (paywall) human rights lawyer Teng Biao.

    

The Time Boehner Wanted Someone Fired for Supporting Gay Rights

In the U.S., there are 29 states where you can fire someone just because they're gay. The entire nation thinks this is unacceptable. And yet, House Speaker John Boehner, the guy who could fix this by allowing a vote on the Employment Non Discrimination Act, sees "no basis or need for this legislation." Boehner made that comment while talking to reporters on Thursday and he was asked whether or not Republican leadership would allow the Senate-approved measure a vote in the House. Boehner painted a bleary picture for the measure, because he doesn't believe there's a specific "need" for it. Here's his full quote:

... People are already protected in the workplace. I’m opposed to continuing this. Listen, I understand people have differing opinions on this issue, and I respect those opinions. But as someone who’s worked in the employment law area for all my years in the statehouse and all my years here, I see no basis or no need for this legislation.

Boehner telling you there's no need for discrimination protection is like watching a horror movie where the calls are coming from inside the house. To say there's no need for that kind of legislation would be to ignore all his party has done to say gay people aren't equal. He'd also have to ignore himself. 

In 2009, President Obama appointed Harry Knox, who is gay, to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Part of the council's job is to identify "best practices and successful modes of delivering social services."  The council was first started by President Bush, and its main responsibilities include dealing with federal grants and advising the White House on social policy. Each member serves a one-year term, which Knox completed.

At the time, Knox was the director of the Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program and was a former pastor of a United Methodist Church in Georgia. The HRC, of course, is one of the largest and most visible gay rights advocacy organizations. "The [gay and lesbian] community is eager to help the administration achieve its goals around economic recovery and fighting poverty, fatherhood and healthy families; inter-religious dialogue; care for the environment; and global poverty, health and development," Knox said at the time of his appointment. He had also taken public stands against the Vatican's views on condoms and the AIDS crisis. After Pope Benedict XVI had said that the use of condoms "aggravates" the AIDS crisis, Knox said that type of logic was "
    

The Time Boehner Wanted a Gay Man Fired for Supporting Gay Rights

In the U.S., there are 29 states where you can fire someone just because they're gay. The entire nation thinks this is unacceptable. And yet, House Speaker John Boehner, the guy who could fix this by allowing a vote on the Employment Non Discrimination Act, sees "no basis or need for this legislation." Boehner made that comment while talking to reporters on Thursday and he was asked whether or not Republican leadership would allow the Senate-approved measure a vote in the House. Boehner painted a bleary picture for the measure, because he doesn't believe there's a specific "need" for it. Here's his full quote:

... People are already protected in the workplace. I’m opposed to continuing this. Listen, I understand people have differing opinions on this issue, and I respect those opinions. But as someone who’s worked in the employment law area for all my years in the statehouse and all my years here, I see no basis or no need for this legislation.

Boehner telling you there's no need for discrimination protection is like watching a horror movie where the calls are coming from inside the house. To say there's no need for that kind of legislation would be to ignore all his party has done to say gay people aren't equal. He'd also have to ignore himself. 

In 2009, President Obama appointed Harry Knox, who is gay, to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Part of the council's job is to identify "best practices and successful modes of delivering social services."  The council was first started by President Bush, and its main responsibilities include dealing with federal grants and advising the White House on social policy. Each member serves a one-year term, which Knox completed.

At the time, Knox was the director of the Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program and was a former pastor of a United Methodist Church in Georgia. The HRC, of course, is one of the largest and most visible gay rights advocacy organizations. "The [gay and lesbian] community is eager to help the administration achieve its goals around economic recovery and fighting poverty, fatherhood and healthy families; inter-religious dialogue; care for the environment; and global poverty, health and development," Knox said at the time of his appointment. He had also taken public stands against the Vatican's views on condoms and the AIDS crisis. After Pope Benedict XVI had said that the use of condoms "aggravates" the AIDS crisis, Knox said that type of logic was "
    

In the 'Believe' Trailer, Justin Bieber Is Not a Boy, Not Yet a Man

The first full trailer for Justin Bieber's concert movie/documentary Believe has been released. Like Katy Perry's All of Me before it, Believe seems to be a big shiny ad for the wondrous and awe-inspiring cultural force — perhaps that's too small; cosmic phenomenon — that is Justin Bieber. Which, fine, that's your right, to tell the story of yourself the way you want to tell it, but it makes for a potentially boring movie.

At several points, Bieber, sporting a sprinkle of peach fuzz below his nose, does appear to address some of his bad behavior, like lashing out at a photographer who said something mean to him. But I can't imagine that we'll get any references to the time he peed in that janitor's bucket or his crew's wild automobile antics that have been plaguing his Calabasas neighborhood for some time now. We will see a contrite Justin, one who knows that he should react calmly and thoughtfully even when people are mean to him, but that's probably about it. Judging from this trailer, anyway.

Beyond that, there will be only rejoicing, at the glory of his stage show, about the crazy trajectory of his life, from Internet nobody to high prince of this realm and the next. You know, like his last movie, Never Say Never. That's what his screaming fans want, I guess. Though in a few years, when they're older and this particular mania has passed, they'll only dimly remember that they lined up to see this movie in the theater, plopped down allowance money so Justin Bieber could insist that they believe in him.

       

The Inconceivable Pace of the Flaming Lips

During an interview with The Atlantic Wire last month, the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd joked about the exhausting pace of life in the Oklahoma City rock band. "I'm just like, man, please," he said amidst discussion of the group's newest studio album, brand new Ender's Game-inspired LP, forthcoming joint EP with Tame Impala, and ongoing world tour. "I don't really like to work at that kind of pace."

Which is frankly too bad, because that pace shows no signs of letting up. Gearing up for the Black Friday edition of Record Store Day, the Lips will be releasing (count 'em) three items, Rolling Stone reports: the previously mentioned EP with Tame Impala, a vinyl edition of the Peace Sword EP, and a full-length cover of the Stone Roses' entire self-titled debut. (The group's been planning that one for a while; you might recall their similarly minded reimagining of Dark Side of the Moon from 2009.) That makes for a hyperactive 2013 for the group. Please—be careful, Flaming Lips! Exhaustion from overwork is nothing to scoff at.

Of course, there is a dutifully psychedelic packaging component to this output, as frontman Wayne Coyne told the magazine: 

"It's all made out of chocolate, it's a life-size human skull, a life-sized human brain, and the brain is actually sliding out of the skull made with this brain fluid flavored hard-candy," Coyne tells Rolling Stone. "And there's a little magic coin inside that brain that you're supposed to dig out."

Which is—well, fun. But this is a band that has released a special edition of a collaborative LP pressed with actual samples of its contributing artists' blood, a band that has released a box set of four CDs meant to be played simultaneously, a band that has released an EP on a USB drive contained within an edible gummy skull. So let it go, Wayne. You've already staked your conquest upon the psychedelic possibilities of audio formatting. Try to move on. There isn't much territory left to explore—edible or otherwise. 

Except for one idea Drozd proposed in the aforementioned interview with the Wire: "Maybe the next thing is, you pay $50,000 and [Coyne] comes to your house and plays it for you on your record player in person." Start saving up for that one now.

       

Watch Make-A-Wish Turn San Francisco Into BatKid's 'Gotham City'

The whole world is tuning in to one of the most elaborate Make-A-Wish scenarios ever seen, as the city of San Francisco has turned into Batman's Gotham City and made a 5-year-old cancer patient into a superhero. The Make-A-Wish Foundation enlisted more than 7,000 volunteers, including local police, city officials, and the news media to help a young boy named Miles transformed himself into Batkid and the Bay Area into Gotham, for a day of adventure including some heroic "rescues." (With his little brother filling in as Robin.)

The local ABC affiliate has been following Miles around the city and live streaming his day, which you can watch here. Citizens and friends have come out to cheer him on and many more folks are following along on Twitter, via the #SFBatKid hashtag and a couple of accounts set up just for the show. Even the President is involved:

#FollowFriday RT @SFWish: Here he comes!!!! #SFBatkid pic.twitter.com/pMn3gRHcLo

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 15, 2013

Make-A-Wish put together a stunningly large production for Miles, including "battles" with Batman's notorious enemies the Riddler and the Penguin; a couple of "damsel in distress" rescues, and a trip to the mayor's office to receive the key to the city.

#SFBatKid saves damsel in distress! pic.twitter.com/BOjHxNN6kG

— Mike Pelton (@KRON4MPelton) November 15, 2013

 KRON TV mapped out the feel-good itinerary last night:

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The day began with the San Francisco Chronicle's front page transformation into the Gotham City Chronicle, sticking Miles to the top of the edition. The author of the article? None other than his jealous D.C. rival, Clark Kent.

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Miles was then driven around the city in two custom Batmobiles, each emblazoned with their own Batman symbol. 

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The event even brought out some specially-made Twitter accounts, such as The Penguin's San Francisco account, which posted the photo below:

A damsel in distress? That #riddler is so old school! Where's #SFBatKid? pic.twitter.com/tQ2HKimvFp

— The Penguin (@PenguinSF) November 15, 2013

But Batkid was quick to the scene to save the day.

#SFBatKid saves damsel in distress! pic.twitter.com/BOjHxNN6kG

— Mike Pelton (@KRON4MPelton) November 15, 2013

Of course, even superheroes need their food, and Batkid and his larger companion took a break for lunch at the Burger Bar.

Just a couple of superheroes eating lunch. #SFBatKid pic.twitter.com/VsKHVfUAPV

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsBayArea) November 15, 2013

San Francisco didn't totally transform into Gotham, though. For Miles, the day ends with a key to the city made of Ghiradelli chocolate, a local non-comic book favorite. Why be so serious when you can enjoy Miles' smiles?

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(Top image of Batkid and Batman from Patricia Wilson via Twitter. Image of Batkid from AP. Image of Batmobiles from ABC News. Image of Batmobiles from ABC7 News.)