Via Christy Lemire comes word of a new series of commercials from the aging enfant terrible of Nordic cinema and the director of “Dancer in the Dark,” “Breaking the Waves,” “Dogville” and this year’s genital-mutiliation smash-hit, “Antichrist.”
Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
How do you say “The Onion is freakin’ awesome” in Danish anyhow?
Last night began the rounds of “American Idol” in which we as Americans have our turn to vote on the talent, and specifically which twelve contestants go home over the next three weeks, and which twelve make up the finalists. And what I saw last night was a case of the judges having done a bad job of delivering us talent. Because there weren’t many women who stood out from the twelve that performed on Tuesday, and yet the judges kept going on and on about how loaded this year’s crop is. Um, not really. At least not where the female contingent is concerned. Let’s recap what we saw, and let’s say that I agreed with almost everything Simon Cowell had to say….
Another night under the Klieg lights.
* Nikki Finke is obviously in a nasty mood over it, but Rachel Abramowitz at the L.A. Times has a fairly interesting piece on Angelina Jolie‘s upcoming portrayal of best-selling mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta. Even though this will be character’s first appearance on film, they’ve decided to preboot the character by starting with an new “origins” story for the medical examiner character. (Was she bitten by a radioactive pathologist, perhaps?)
* You may think Sundance has been over for a few weeks now, but Anne Thompson details hows it’s not even close to being so simple as she describes how the indie film world is doing its business. One takeaway point: though indie filmmakers are making the most of new media with VOD and slightly older media with DVD, you still need “robust” theatrical to be in the mix if you’re hoping for significant bucks. (H/t Mr. Ebert’s Amazing Twitter feed.)
* The Coen’s have found the young, female lead to play opposite Jeff Bridges’ Rooster Cogburn in their sure-to-be interesting nouveau “True Grit,” and it’s 13 year-old Hailee Steinfeld. Mike Fleming has the scoop.
* Pulp loving writer-director Shane Black of “Lethal Weapon” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is going to be helming a new cinematic take on Doc Savage writes Renn Brown of CHUD, via Variety. Brown admits to not knowing his Doc Savage, but I myself went through a pulp phase and read several of the good doctor’s adventures as a youth. I can tell you that “Scooby Doo” is not really the first thing that comes to mind. He’s really more of a non-superpowered Superman, or a much more clean living and nonviolent James Bond, but with the mental faculties of an Indiana Jones and a touch of Jesus Christ. (He has hangs out with a bunch of somewhat more flawed guys who help him to do his various earth-shattering good deeds. He’s so tough, however, he only needs five of them.) Buckaroo Banzai owes his very existence to Doc. Pretty much the only thing Doc couldn’t do was to get through a day’s work without ripping his shirt into shreds. In the world of pulp heroes, he was definitely the daylight yin to the dark yang of “The Shadow.” The character has foiled filmmakers before, but I think Black may be the man for the job.
I’ve never been a big fan of the Jack Shepherd character (neither as the heroic leader or the depressed drunk), but tonight was probably one of my favorite Jack-centric episodes. Though it might have seemed a bit lame to give him an estranged teenage son, it was a good way of showing just how different Jack is from his own father. Sure, it may have taken him awhile to recognize just what he was doing wrong in the relationship (that kind of ignorance can rub off on somehow who hasn’t exactly had the best parenting experience), but at least he was able to mend the relationship between him and his musical prodigy son before it was too late. With that said, however, I hope we never have to see that moody brat ever again.
Of course, while that subplot took up a majority of the Earth-2 action, there were a few other tidbits that caught my attention as well. First, it’ll be interesting to see how the discovery of Claire’s name in Christian’s will is going to play out further down the road, because I don’t remember that information getting out in the Earth-1 timeline, and I’d be curious to see how Jack’s mom takes the news. I also thought it was pretty sneaky of the writers to slip that small conversation about Jack having his appendix taken out when he was kid, because he clearly doesn’t remember it. Is that scar really from a childhood operation like his mother says, or a remnant of his Earth-1 life? And if it’s the former, then why would she lie?
As we’ve all come to expect by now, the Earth-1 portion of the episode was infinitely more interesting, with Hurley playing a large part in Jack’s storyline. Let it be said that if you die on “Lost,” you’re never really dead, because even if the writers don’t bring you back in a flashback, a flashsideways, or even as a completely new character (see: Terry O’Quinn), they always have Hurley as back-up. After all, the dude can see ghosts (no wonder he gets along with Miles so well), so it’s as easy as a character visiting him from the afterlife to resurrect them – even if it’s only temporary. Hurley has been seeing quite a lot of Jacob lately (his latest appearance no doubt squashes the rumor that he’s taken over Sayid’s body), and this time around, he wants Hurley to go with Jack to a lighthouse near their old stomping grounds to help a forthcoming visitor find their way to the island.
This mysterious figure (who I’m guessing is either Desmond or Charles Widmore) isn’t going to find it any easier now that Jack has smashed the mirror inside the lighthouse. Okay, so that was probably a bit rash on his part, but seeing as how he could see a reflection of his childhood home in the mirror when the dial was turned to his personal number (yep, the names and numbers are back in play again), it wasn’t exactly out of character. Jack used to be pretty freaked out about the idea that it was destiny that brought him to the island, and now that he’s finally warming up to the possibility that it may be true, he discovers that Jacob has been spying on him all this time. Jacob in turn tells Hurley that he needed Jack to see the reflection in order for him to understand how special he is, but I can’t imagine Jack would ever agree to help Jacob after this debacle. I’m guessing he thinks it’s worth the risk, because he admits to needing Jack and Hurley away from the temple before someone bad arrives.
He’s probably referring to Smokey, but he could just as well be talking about Jungle Claire, who helps Jin out of the bear trap and sews up his leg at her camp. She also brings along the surviving Other that she just shot to interrogate him about the whereabouts of Aaron, who she believes was kidnapped by his people. Jin tries to tell her the truth (that Kate took him off the island three years ago), but she’s so far off the reservation that there doesn’t seem to be any hope of saving her. And I love it. They took the most innocent character on the show and turned her into a squirrely psycho who doesn’t so much as hesitate to swing an axe into her enemy’s torso. That’s what happens when you make friends with Smokey.
It would be easy to discount “Soul Eater” as just another quirky shonen for the kiddies, but despite the show’s decidedly immature sense of humor, there’s a lot more to the anime than silly pratfalls and goofy faces. Set at the Death Weapon Meister Academy in Death City, the series follows three teams of students as they battle supernatural forces in an attempt to collect the souls of 99 evil beings and one witch, thus making them powerful enough to become one of the Grim Reaper’s personal Death Scythes. Each team consists of a Meister and a Weapon, and while Maka and Soul (who transforms into a razor-sharp blade during battle) could be considered the main protagonists, they’re also joined by friends like Black Star and Tsubaki, as well as Grim Reaper’s son, Death the Kid. It’s a concept that could have easily fallen victim to a monster-of-the-week formula, but thankfully, it has an overarching story that holds your interest beyond just the fight sequences. The show does take some time to get going (it spends four episodes introducing its large cast of characters), but once all the niceties are out of the way, “Soul Eater” moves at such a brisk pace that you’ll be left wanting more. It’s still mostly targeted towards the teenage set, but thanks to some Tim Burton-esque aesthetics (think “A Nightmare Before Christmas”), there’s no reason you won’t enjoy it as well.
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