Red Deer Advocate, August 07, 2016 by Black Press Media Group

Rex Allen Jr. keeping Country & Western strong

AUGUST 5, 2016 CENTRAL ALBERTA’S GUIDE TO DIVERSIONS AND DISTRACTIONS

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Country & Western lives on LANA MICHELIN Advocate Reporter @lanamichelin

The son of Hollywood’s last singing cowboy believes the so-called death of cowboy music has been greatly exaggerated. “Western music has to reach outside of North America to remain alive,” said Rex Allen Jr. — and he believes that’s already happened. “It’s especially popular in the EU, in Japan” — even Down Under. The singer who followed his famous father, film star Rex Allen, into performing, will sing on Aug. 13, at the Daines Country Music Pick-Nic near Innisfail. His recent cover of the popular song Ride Cowboy Ride reached the Top 5 on country charts in New Zealand, Australia, as well as the U.K. Allen Jr. said, “They’re playing it all over Canada too …” While Country & Western music was never mainstream, it’s fallen in popularity in parts of the U.S., where country/rock or country/pop prevail on radio. Allen Jr. doesn’t think much of this trend, saying “Country music stinks right now.” He believes public taste are bound to swing back to more traditional country music, with its romantic and nostalgic associations. “Western music … is about man’s ability to deal with nature,” he added. “It’s very humanistic music, about man against the world … You think of somebody being out alone on the Prairies. That image of a cowboy riding off into the sunset is not one you’ll forget …” Allen Jr. is one of Rex Allen’s five children. His dad, who became a singing cowboy for Republic Pictures after Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, was a top Hollywood box-office draw in the early to mid-1950s. He later narrated Walt Disney’s nature shows. Rex Allen’s big-time success didn’t keep his son from catching the performing bug from his old man. Allen Jr. noted, “It wasn’t difficult for me (to follow in his footsteps) because in many ways, my dad was a reluctant recording artist. He only had two or three records. He was more focused on narration and films.” In contrast, the younger Allen dived into record-

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Rex Allen Jr. performs on Aug. 13 at the Daines Country Music Pick-Nic near Innisfail. ing. His string of 50 hits include: Goodbye (1974), I’m Gettin Good At Missing You (Solitaire) (1977), Lonely Street (1977), Two Less Lonely People (1977), With Love (1978), If I Fell in Love With You (1979), It’s Over (1980), Drink it Down, Lady (1980), and Cup of Tea (1980, a duet with Margo Smith). He’s also the singer/composer of the alternate state anthem, Arizona. Allen Jr. was a regular on The Statler Brothers Show on The Nashville Network in the 1990s, and hosted the spin-off series, Yesteryear. He also narrated the Jim Carrey film Me, Myself and Irene. “They were looking for a Rex Allen-type voice and someone suggested me,” he recalled.

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The singer, who was inducted into the Western Music Hall of Fame, is looking forward to renewing his acquaintance with Alberta by performing for the first time at the Daines Country Music Pick-Nic. He noted his father had brought him up to Canada when he frequently hosted the Calgary Stampede. “We have a lot of history in your country.” For tickets and more information about the festival with David Frizzell, Duane Steele, Marty Haggard and others, please contact the Black Knight Ticket Centre. lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

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Women rock climbers headline Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival BANFF — Two of the biggest names in rock climbing, American Lynn Hill and Catherine Destivelle of France, will headline the 41st Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, organizers announced. The women are known for trailblazing ascents of peaks including the Eiger and the Matterhorn in the Alps and for record-breaking speed climbs. The festival, to run from Oct. 29 to Nov. 6, will showcase more than 75 films. Its competitions, focusing on mountain subjects such as climbing and natural history, garner entries from around the world. Canadian climber Sonnie Trotter, U.S. snowboarder Jeremy Jones, Russian alpinist Denis Urubko and U.K. poet Helen Mort are among presenters lined up for the nine-day event, hosted by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. A selection of the films will later be packaged in the festival’s annual world tour.

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An exciting, intriguing tale NOAH HAWLEY LIVES UP TO HIS REPUTATION IN “BEFORE THE FALL” PEGGY FREEMAN Book Review

Before The Fall by Noah Hawley $31.50 Grand Central Publishing Here is an exciting novel for your fall list, the author is also a screen writer and producer. I’m pretty sure this will be at a theatre near you in the coming year. The characters in this story are very affluent, not all are honest, but hey maybe that sometimes goes with the rich part. The wife and children in this story spend the summer in Martha’s Vineyard in their posh summer home. The husband goes back and forth from New York to the vineyard doing what is necessary to keep the money rolling in. First we meet Maggie Bateman and her two children, nine-year-old Rachel and four-year-old

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J.J. David Bateman, husband and father is in the “entertainment” business, which means he runs a 24 hour Television News Network. The family boards their private jet to fly to New York, summer is over so it’s back to school and routine. With them on the plane are a couple of business friends, Sarah and Ben Kipling, and a security man in the employ of the family on ride along for obvious reasons. That’s seven people, plus the crew, two to fly the plane and one to serve the drinks, that makes 10. But there is one more. Scott Burroughs is an artist who lives on the vineyard in a modest house with a three-legged dog. His paintings feature catastrophe which may explain the lack of sales. Scott is a recovering alcoholic, so flying in a private jet is not his usual thing. He and Maggie have shared conversations at the market and she and the kids have visited his studio. Scott planned to catch the bus to New York, hoping for a showing. She offered him a seat on their jet. So that makes nine people. The plane is in the air 18 minutes, the ball game is on the tube, Dworkin, the catcher for the Red Sox is at bat.

All eyes are on the game, except for J.J., who is asleep on a seat, and Scott who doesn’t care about baseball. “A sudden downward pitch … the stench of burning metal … screams … broken glass … Scott’s world ripping itself to pieces.” The plane has crashed into the sea, fire is all around, it’s dark and cold, there is Scott and there is a boy on a sponge seat, calling for help. Now the author gives us the back story of all these characters. There are two very rich men on this flight, the President himself has ordered an all out investigation. Bill Cunningham is a reporter on David Bateman’s all-night news show, he loves the idea of a terrorist attack. It’s that kind of radio station. The background of each of the nine lives is laid out, there are several reasons why someone could have sabotaged the plane of these very rich people. A satisfying and mysterious yarn. Noah Hawley has written four novels and has won many awards. Peggy Freeman is a local freelance books reviewer.

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’Arthur’ network ‘disappointed’ in explicit memes LOS ANGELES — The network behind the animated series Arthur is disappointed that social media users are combining images from the long-running children’s’ show with explicit situations and language. A spokeswoman for WGBH in Boston said in a statement Wednesday the Arthur network appreciates that several internet memes “have been created and shared in good fun” but are “disappointed by the few that are outside of good taste.” The bespectacled aardvark Arthur and his friends have been featured in an array of mature internet memes distributed over the past week casting the cartoon characters in various scenarios involving sex, drugs and race. While many users have employed an image of Arthur’s clenched fist to jokingly suggest frustrating experiences, such as splitting checks at a restaurant, others have used the show’s visuals to suggest an incestuous relationship between Arthur and his sister or other sexual situations. One clip dubbed a scene from the cartoon with sexual and racial language. “Our hope is that Arthur and his friends will be depicted in a way that is respectful and appropriate for all audiences, including young Arthur fans and their families,” said spokeswoman Ellen London.

FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 A5

A LOOK

Forward

To what's happening this week in Central Alberta FRIDAY, AUG. 5

of charge. See rdc.ab.ca/summercamps or phone 403-342-3526.

Red Deer College MusiCamp Alberta presents Faculty and Guest Recitals, Monday to Friday continuing until Aug. 5, 8 p.m. at Arts Centre Mainstage. No tickets required. Free

The Ellestad Wiik Duo will be performing at the Norwegian Laft Hus, 4402 - 47 Avenue, Red Deer Friday, August 5 at 6:30 p.m. Free; donations welcome. Seating limited;

please rsvp to Norwegian Laft Hus 404-347-2055 or norweiganlafthus@ gmail.com

SATURDAY, AUG. 6 Red Deer College MusiCamp

Alberta presents Feature Concert with David J. Peterkin Symphonic Band and Jazz Band – Dr. Milton Allen and Joel Gray, Directors — Aug. 6, 2 p.m. at Arts Centre Mainstage. No tickets required. Free of charge. See rdc.ab.ca/summercamps or phone 403-342-3526.

Pokemon statue mysteriously appears in New Orleans park NEW ORLEANS — Amid the craze over virtual characters in the smartphone-based “Pokemon Go” game, a Pokemon that people can touch in the physical world has mysteriously appeared in New Orleans. Someone put up a statue of the iconic Pokemon, Pikachu, at the centre of a broken fountain in a park over the weekend. Pictures show a defiant looking Pikachu with his arms folded standing on a cement base with a Pokeball on the side. The inscription “.POKEMONUMENT” is also written in the cement . Pokemon fans have been visiting the statue in the city’s upscale Lower Garden District, posing for photos with family and posting selfies with the statue on social media. One picture shows someone in a Pikachu costume posing with it. “The kids are fans and I’m just kind of amused at how something so heavy can appear so quickly,” said New Orleans resident, Jennifer Curry, who came with her two children to see the statue. A friend who lives around the corner

had told them about it. The statue of Pikachu — described by Curry’s daughter Kylie as similar to a mouse albeit one that can shoot electric lightning balls — stands atop a pedestal with its arms crossed, ears back and looking fiercely out over the park. Karon Reese, vice-president of the neighbourhood association that oversees the area, said she first heard about the statue Monday when a friend emailed her a photo. When she walked by that morning with her dog, people were already gathering. She has a neighbour who lives on the street where the park is located who is fairly certain it appeared sometime Saturday night. Since then a parade of moms with kids, young people after work, and elderly couples have come to see the statute. “The fun thing was that it was just bringing groups of people together. It was almost like a festival,” Reese said. “It was very much New Orleans.” Adding another layer of mystery was a man Reese encountered Monday evening. She spoke to him — he wouldn’t give her his name — and he said he’d been part of the installation, although he hadn’t created the statue itself.

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MARKET MUSIC

Allende novel doesn’t meet expectations KIRSTEN LOWE Book Review

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende Fiction Published: July 2016, Atria Books

Photo by MARK BRETHERTON/Advocate staff

Thirteen-year-old songstress, Tori Ginter of Red Deer, holds her audience in rapt attention at Red Deer Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, July 30. Tori loves to play in public, and wants to make music her career.

Irina Bazili is employed at Lark House Senior home where her duties require aiding the residents in whatever affairs (taking them to appointments, basic living essentials, etc). One thing she did not expect was one resident Alma Belasco, a wealthy woman due to her family name, approaching her and asking Irina to work two extra hours each shift to become Alma’s secretary. Over the next three years Irina has developed a close relationship with Alma, the other residents and Alma’s grandson Seth who is working on a book about the history of the Belasco family. Some love notes and tokens that are for Alma — the man always ends his letters with the name Ich, also intrigue Irina and Seth. When Alma was just a little girl the world was on the eve of the Second World War, her parents sent her overseas to San Francisco to stay with her Uncle Issac Belasco and his family. She meets Ichimei Fukuda, the son of

the family’s gardener. The two fell in love at a young age. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, those who had lived in America for years with their children and grandchildren were suddenly arrested and taken away. But Issac, Alma and the family stay loyal to the Fukuda family. Nonetheless, Ichimei had to break the news to Alma that he was leaving and might not be back for weeks, months, or even years. Ichimei and his family gave themselves up and were headed for a camp in Utah. When the war was over, something inside Takao snapped; he had fallen into a great depression and decided to return home to Japan and not San Francisco. Eight years pass and as Alma leaves to study design and painting in Boston she is still hell bent on marrying Ichimei, despite the fact that she hasn’t seen or heard from him in those eight years. When fate pulls them back together the two cannot be separated. Lovers for 58 years, the two never married. In The Japanese Lover, the two main characters must both face hidden parts of their past — forbidden love, death, betrayal — while moving on with their future. I’m not entirely familiar with Isabel Allende, but from what I gathered this book was not up to fans’ expectation. I mean it’s a good story but there is a huge lack of character dialogue and in most parts the story line becomes a tad too flat. It’s just a simple love story that just didn’t come to life for me.

SPOTIFY MOST STREAMED TRACKS

Spotify’s Top 10 most streamed tracks The following list represents the most streamed tracks on Spotify, based on the number of people who shared it divided by the number who listened to it, from Friday, July 22 to Thursday, July 28 CANADA 1. Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber & MØ, “Cold Water” (Mad Decent/Def Jam) 2. Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla, “One Dance” (Cash Money Records)

3. Drake featuring Rihanna, “Too Good” (Cash Money Records) 4. Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, “This is What You Came For” (Sony Music UK Ltd.) 5. The Chainsmokers featuring Daya, “Don’t Let Me Down” (Columbia Records) 6. Shawn Mendes, “Treat You Better” (Island Records) 7. Sia, “Cheap Thrills” (RCA Records) 8. Justin Timberlake, “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” (RCA Records) 9. Kent Jones, “Don’t Mind” (Epic Records) 10. Fifth Harmony featuring Ty Dolla $ign, “Work from Home” (Epic Records)

FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 A7

Jeff Ross on the art of roasting and new ‘Roast Battle’ series BILL BRIOUX On The Box

MONTREAL — Jeff Ross has an idea for how to resolve the contentious U.S. presidential election. “I would love to see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, two great minds, settle this not in a debate but in a roast battle,” says the comedian, who knows a thing or two about roasts. He’s been a major player in many of them, including celebrity TV roasts for Canadian-born entertainers such as Justin Bieber, William Shatner and Pamela Anderson. The New Jersey native, long a mainstay at Montreal’s Just for Laughs comedy festival, is back this year with Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle. The fournight, 16-comic tournament will be broadcast Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m. on The Comedy Network and simulcast on Comedy Central in the U.S. Ross road-tested the format in a tourney held last year in Montreal. This year, however, the hand-picked comedians — including Toronto-native K. Trevor Wilson (Squirrelly Dan on CraveTV’s Letterkenny) — are vying for a share in a $100,000 purse. “The money adds a little extra tension,” says Ross. Celebrity judges have also been added, including Kevin Hart, Whoopi Goldberg, Judd Apatow, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, David Spade and Anthony Jeselnik. The rules are fairly straightforward: four jokes/insults per round and anything is fair game. Original material only and each round must end in a hug. Ross knows all about Trump, having roasted the Republican contender in a celebrity special in 2011. “He’s a good sport,” says Ross. “He doesn’t always show it but he always comes back for more.” Just don’t assume Trump would crush Clinton in a roast battle. “Women are very competitive in that world,” he says. “Have you ever seen a woman lose an argument?”

In “Roast Battle,” Wilson is one to watch, says Ross. He was the top Canadian last year, coming in third overall. “He’s coming in with a bit of a swagger, which is fun to watch. “He’s also lovable,” he adds. Roasters are usually “spitting venom, but he has a heart under all those clogged arteries.” This is Wilson’s fifth consecutive year at Just for Laughs. A graduate of the Etobicoke School of the Arts as well as Humber College, his TV credits date all the way back to his child actor days on Goosebumps. His size helped land him a part on that series, he figures. “They needed a bully.” It will also offer his “Roast Battle” opponent — young American Olivia Grace in the opener — an easy target, but Wilson’s ready for that. “You gotta have a tough skin for this show,” he says. Last year, he got picked on by celebrity judge Wanda Sykes. She called him “the brother who was too fat for Duck Dynasty. Going up against a woman is tricky, he concedes. “You can’t be mean. You have to wait for them to make a couple of cracks about your size and then the door is open.” Listening — and zinging back — is a big part of winning in these kinds of tournaments, he feels. U.K. funnyman Jimmy Carr, who is back this year, won the previous tournament with his snappy comebacks. Wilson says it’s strange being recognized at airports and other places now for Letterkenny. Production on season 2 of the series has already wrapped with new episodes expected by the end of the year. The third season will shoot in Sudbury, Ont., next February. Series star and co-creator Jared Keeso figured it was “high time we did some winter scenes,” says Wilson. Wilson’s stand-up style is more of a storyteller than an insult comic, but Ross says the good comics can change. He’s seen comedians as diverse as Andy Samberg, Bill Hader and Aziz Ansari — and even the late Bea Arthur — adapt to the roast style. “It just goes to show you a funny person is funny,” says Ross, “whether they’re at a roast or a funeral.” Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.

Jeff Ross hosts the show Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle.

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TIFF lineup includes Dolan, Mehta BY THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO — Montreal director Xavier Dolan’s Cannes prize winner It’s Only the End of the World is headed to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, along with titles from Canadian filmmakers including Deepa Mehta and Bruce McDonald. The Canuck lineup unveiled Wednesday includes the North American premiere of Dolan’s drama, which won the prestigious Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Vincent Cassel and Marion Cotillard star in the story of a dying author. Another homegrown Cannes debut making its North American premiere in Toronto is the North Pole drama Two Lovers and a Bear by Montreal’s Kim Nguyen, starring Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan. Nguyen’s last feature film, Rebelle, got an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film in 2013. “The industry is absolutely healthy,” said Magali Simard, film programs manager at TIFF. “We see more (Canadian) films every single year than the year before and this year is no exception. We saw something like 270 feature films coming out of Canada.” Making its world premiere is Mehta’s Anatomy of Violence loosely based on the true story of a young woman who was gang-raped by six men inside a mov-

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ing bus in New Delhi. The film is a fictional dramatization of the lives of the rapists. “She literally went into New Delhi with a tiny camera and two people and did the film she wanted to make — never asked for funding,” said Simard. “This was a movie kind of made off the grid and to me, that speaks to the health of an industry — to know that this type of filmmaker, if they feel like it, they can do that.” Mehta is one of many female filmmakers who are well represented at this year’s fest. “Women, it’s nearly at parity for us and it’s not even like we tried to do that,” said Simard. “We’re conscious of these things, obviously, year after year. This year it came so extremely naturally…. It’s actually probably one of our strongest years for women in many years.” In McDonald’s black and white Weirdos, also a world premiere, a 15-year-old hitchhikes through the Maritimes with his girlfriend in 1976. The cast

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includes Dylan Authors, Julia Sarah Stone, Molly Parker and Allan Hawco. Teen lovers on the run are also the focus of the coming-of-age thriller Mean Dreams by Toronto’s Nathan Morlando, which was also at Cannes. It stars Josh Wiggins and Sophie Nelisse, who is one of this year’s TIFF Rising Stars (the others are Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki and Mylene Mackay). Documentaries on the docket include The River of My Dreams by Academy Award winner Brigitte Berman, which profiles the life of actor-writer-director Gordon Pinsent. He is also seen in Nguyen’s film. Esteemed First Nations documentary maker Alanis Obomsawin will premiere We Can’t Make the Same Mistake, about a landmark discrimination complaint against Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada concerning aboriginal children. “It’s one of the most powerful and affecting movies I’ve seen all year, or in the last couple of years, really,” said Steve Gravestock, senior programmer at TIFF. “I really think it might be her masterpiece.” There’s also an animated film in the Canuck lineup: Window Horses by Ann Marie Fleming, a story of a poet featuring the voices of Sandra Oh and Don McKellar. The fest runs Sept. 8 to 18. Other world premieres include: — Chloe Robichaud’s Boundaries, starring Emily VanCamp in a story of three women whose paths cross in a small isolated island. — Nelly by Anne Emond, which is inspired by the life and work of late writer Nelly Arcan. — Below Her Mouth by April Mullen, about a passionate weekend affair between two women — one a roofer, the other a fashion editor. — ARQ, by Orphan Black writer Tony Elliott, stars Robbie Amell and Rachael Taylor in a futuristic story of a global energy battle. — Hello Destroyer by Kevan Funk, about a young junior hockey player caught up in an act of violence.

FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 A9

Arc Productions faces financial emergency BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO — The Canadian animation studio behind Thomas & Friends and the Elton John-produced film Gnomeo & Juliet has locked out its staff as it turns to the courts to deal with a “financial emergency.” Arc Productions, once considered one of the rising stars of the country’s animated film industry, had a letter posted outside its downtown Toronto headquarters on Tuesday saying the company was facing “significant financial difficulties and a liquidity crisis.” Chief executive Tom Murray told staff in the letter that Arc’s lenders went to court last week to request a court-appointed monitor to oversee control of the business. The move pushed the company into receivership under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Since then, Deloitte’s Canadian restructuring division has been appointed to oversee Arc’s finances, says Deloitte spokeswoman Emily Richardson, and it will seek a permanent appointment to that role in a court appearance slated for Thursday. Richardson added that Arc Productions has not filed for bankruptcy. The financial troubles come seven years after Arc — then known as the Starz Animation Studio — received funding from the provincial government to grow its business. Dalton McGuinty gave the animation studio $23 Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS million as part of the Next Generation of Jobs Fund in 2009. In this film publicity image released by Touchstone Pictures, Gnomeo, voiced by James McAvoy, left, and At that point it had already produced hit chil- Juliet, voiced by Emily Blunt, center, and Featherstone, voiced by Jim Cummings, are shown in a scene dren’s programs like VeggieTales and modest box-offrom “Gnomeo and Juliet.” The Canadian animation studio behind “Thomas & Friends” and the Elton Johnfice successes including 9 and Everyone’s Hero. In the years afterwards, the company would be produced film “Gnomeo & Juliet” says it has filed for bankruptcy and locked out its staff. renamed to Arc Productions with the U.S. cable channel Starz still holding a minority stake in the business. Arc continued to take on bigger projects under the Marvel and Lego banners with films such as Dolphin Tale and Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. It still has a number of projects set for future release, including Tarzan and Jane for Netflix. “On a personal level, I want you to know how proud I have been to work with all of you and how much I have appreciated your commitment to our clients and loyalty to the company,” Murray wrote in the letter. “I am so sorry that, in spite of all of the efforts, I have been unable to reGREAT THINGS HAPPEN WHEN YOU GO NORTH solve this crisis and apologize for that failure.” 7713377H5

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A10 FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016

Hines talks Nine Lives, Curb BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO — Cheryl Hines was already a pro at handling animals going into the filming of Nine Lives, out Friday. The Curb Your Enthusiasm star plays the ex-wife to Kevin Spacey’s character Tom, who winds up trapped inside the body of a cat he buys for his daughter (Malina Weissman). Co-stars include Christopher Walken as a mysterious pet-shop owner, Jennifer Garner as Tom’s current wife, and Toronto native Robbie Amell as his son. Hines felt right at home with the star feline: growing up in Florida, her family had as many as 17 outdoor cats at a time in their suburban backyard playhouse. “There were times when we would have to put ribbons around the kittens’ necks and then put them in a wagon and take them around the neighbourhood to try to get rid of the kittens,” she says. “Really, looking back on it, the neighbours couldn’t have loved it.” These days, Hines doesn’t have cats but she does have two dogs (including a puppy), an emu and five tortoises. She says her daughter and her husband, environmental activist and author Robert Kennedy Jr., are huge animal lovers. The emu lives outdoors. “Although our bigger dog knows how to open the back door,” says Hines. “So he opens the sliding-glass door

and then the emu likes to come inside. “It’s just a circus at my house.” As for the blue-eyed furball in Nine Lives, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld of the Men in Black films, Hines reveals there were actually a few of them. “One of them … his fur wasn’t quite as full as the other ones, so they had a little fur collar that they would put on him. So he had to wear a weave,” she says with a laugh. “I imagined it like a giant scrunchie — a very soft, fluffy scrunchie.” Hines says she was attracted to the project because she’s a huge fan of Sonnenfeld’s work. She was also pleased to take on a project she can enjoy with her 12-yearold daughter. “When she saw this film, she said, ‘Why am I not playing your daughter?”’ says Hines. “I said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were an actress.’ She said, ‘I could do that, I could play that part.’ “I said, ‘I think it’s slightly more complicated than you think it is.”’ “She hasn’t really been that excited about some of my past projects,” adds Hines. “She’s not a huge Curb Your Enthusiasm’ fan but she did like Suburgatory. Speaking of Curb, HBO has said the show will return in 2017, six years after it last aired. Hines, who plays the wife of a curmudgeonly Larry David, says the two have exchanged text messages about it. “I said, ‘Am I going to be in the next season?’ and he said, ‘Uh, yeah, if you’re not too busy,”’ she says. “It was

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Cheryl Hines arrives at the 17th Annual Women’s Image Awards held at Royce Hall on in February, in Los Angeles. Cheryl Hines was already a pro at handling animals going into the filming of “Nine Lives,” out Friday. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star plays the ex-wife to Kevin Spacey’s character, Tom, who winds up trapped inside the body of a cat he buys for his daughter. a very vague response but I will take that as a ‘yes.’ I would love to do it.” And what does a text from Larry David look like? “Very short,” says Hines. “There are no LOLs coming from Larry David. It’s usually one word: ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ ‘Stop bothering me.”’ The biggest challenge with returning to Curb is trying to fit it in with everyone’s schedules, says Hines. For her, that means trying to juggle it with her upcoming new live-action/animated sitcom Son of Zorn, in which she plays the ex-wife of Jason

Sudeikis’s cartoon character. Hines says she has to act opposite actor Dan Lippert, who wears a muscle suit and stands in for Zorn. “He rehearses with us and then when it comes time to shoot, he steps out and then we have to just talk to the wall. It’s weird,” says Hines. “You don’t get a lot of feedback, so you have to just imagine what Zorn would say and how he would react, and then I have to react to how I think he would react. It’s a little trippy.”

FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 A11

‘Step Sisters’ film drawing backlash over racial humour ATLANTA — The dance comedy Step Sisters won’t be in theatres until next year, but the film is already drawing a backlash from the African-American community because of subject matter deemed racially offensive by some. The plot centres on a black sorority sister named Jamilah, who in order to get into law school, has to teach black Greek-stepping to a group of white sorority sisters whose charter is about to be revoked. On its face, the story line suggests a dubious effort to get some laughs out of racial stereotyping and cultural appropriation. But the film’s participants believe the public is getting the wrong impression. “I think people will come away being pleasantly surprised that the takeaway message is actually the opposite of white people culturally appropriating the black culture,” said Megalyn Echikunwoke, who plays Jamilah. “The messages are a lot different, and a lot more profound.” Yet a description of the film making its way around the internet has disturbed many blacks. “The way it was presented to me, it just put me off,” said Candice Frederick, a film blogger. “A lot of my readers and followers kind of felt similarly, and a lot less diplomatic. … There are a lot of (black) people not excited about this movie.” Frederick and others have sent messages to Echikunwoke and to one of the film’s producers, Lena Waithe, through blogs and social media. Waithe, who is black, has responded that the film isn’t an attempt to portray black fraternities or sororities in a negative light. She told one person the film is in good hands with fellow producer Benjamin Jones and writer Chuck Hayward, both of whom have black fraternity backgrounds. Frederick said Waithe reached out to her directly and said she would never work on a project involving cultural appropriation and that Step Sisters was “really smart and funny.” Frederick said she’s open to the movie Waithe is describing, “but this is really about how this movie is being presented.” Echikunwoke said Step Sisters, in a comedic way, actually takes issue with stereotypes of both blacks and whites, along with society’s lack of racial progress. She compares the context of the film to the 2014 movie Dear White People, a satire about race relations. “The comedy, stereotypes and the

social references are meant to be thought-provoking,” Echikunwoke said. “It’s definitely meant to be provocative. It might be offensive to some people. It’s not like we are trying to be offensive, but I think we’re definitely pushing it a little in a good way.” When director Charles Stone, who is black, was first pitched the film, he was opposed to helming it. But after he read Hayward’s script, he liked how the story explored the grey areas of crossing cultures, the fear of cultural appropriation and humour in racial stereotypes. Stone expects some initial backlash, saying the hook line will “immediately get people up in arms.” But he said black Greek-stepping is the “perfect” stage to tackle racism and discrimination. Stepping is a popular dance routine used mostly by African-American fraternities and sororities in competitions on college campuses. Routines typically involve a rhythmic, beat-driven mixture of foot moves and hand claps. “White and black Greek systems are separate,” said Stone, who directed the 2002 film Drumline. “They really don’t mix together. In the African-American Greek world, it embraces being separate because they are protective of their rituals for the fear of appropriation and another culture profiting off of it. It’s a very real fear and concern.” But Stone also noted that crossing cultures isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He said the film references black sisters Serena and Venus Williams’ breakthrough in the predominantly white sport of tennis, and white rapper Eminem’s rise in hip-hop music, which was ignited in the black community. “We’re all human beings, despite the fact we live in a world where there are biases, prejudice and gender inequality,” he said. “ Here’s an opportunity where we all can embrace a common goal in working together regardless of cultural and societal differences.” Eden Sher, who plays white dancer Beth in the film, said she never attempted step dancing until her role in Step Sisters. The actress said she doesn’t have a problem with both cultures learning from each other. “It would be awesome if we could step without taking anything away or without taking ownership,” she said. “We can honour someone’s roots … but let’s share. Keeping it totally separated, it just perpetuates this weird modern day segregation.”

Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Director Charles Stone III poses for a portrait on the set of his new film “Step Sisters” in Atlanta. The film is about a black sorority girl who agrees to teach Greek-stepping to a group of white sorority girls in order to get into law school.

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A12 FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016

Godzilla comes back to Japan, in fresh ways BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO — Godzilla is back in its homeland of Japan after a 12-year absence, still breathing fire and mercilessly stomping everything in its way. The Associated Press noted four ways the new film Shin Godzilla, or New Godzilla, breaks from its past, and other ways it is reassuringly familiar. It’s now showing in theatres in Japan and is promised for the U.S. and other countries later this year. WHAT’S DIFFERENT: — The Americans: Japan’s most important ally sends scientists and other advisers, their participation depicted at times as a nuisance. A Japanese-American special envoy, played impudently by Satomi Ishihara, asks where the nearest Zara store is, but mainly mediates between Japan and the U.S., which is worried Godzilla might reach its shores. She resists a U.S. proposal to nuke Godzilla. “Is Japan going to have the atomic bomb dropped for the third time?” she asks mournfully. Given that the 2014 Hollywood Godzilla helped Toho film studio decide to revive the series it originated, the U.S. has proved a true ally for Godzilla’s silver screen survival. — The man behind the monster: Godzilla is not a man wearing a rubber suit, like in the 1954 original. Toho used motion-capture technology based on the movements of Mansai Nomura, an actor in traditional Kyogen theatre whose casting was a secret until opening day. The centre of gravity is kept low during Kyogen moves, similar to Noh dance, except that

Kyogen specializes in comedy. Nomura said he was honoured to be chosen for the role, stressing that he hoped to communicate the spiritual and the ghostly in Godzilla. “ I am thrilled that the DNA of Kyogen, which has more than 650 years of history, will now be part of the DNA of the pride of Japanese cinema — that life called Godzilla,” he said in a statement. — The 2011 Fukushima disaster: Godzilla is no longer a result of nuclear testing. Instead, the monster recalls the March 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that devastated northeastern Japan. In the film, people measure the radiation around them and share information on social media, as they did five years ago. News conferences and meetings are filled with confusion and jargon, and government officials on screen even use the same word that was used to describe how unprepared Japan had been for the tsunami, “soteigai,” or “beyond expectations.” Scenes of people fleeing from torrents of water, and later huddled in gymnasiums, bring back heartbreaking memories of the 2011 disaster. — Defending itself: Post-World War II Japan has repeatedly stressed it will abide by pacifism. When Godzilla crashes onto its shores, Japan debates how far it can go in defending itself. That reflects a modern debate over using Japan’s military beyond its self-defence role. Bureaucrats try their best to find Japanese-based solutions, treating Godzilla as a crisis requiring military might and vowing the nation can be rebuilt from scratch — as it was after World War II. The original monster symbolized the tragedy of nuclear power

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The poster of “Shin Godzilla,” or “New Godzilla”, is displayed under the monster’s head at a movie theater in Tokyo. Godzilla is back in its homeland of Japan after a 12-year absence, still breathing fire and mercilessly stomping everything in its way. and, through it, the ability of humankind to destroy itself. Now the threat we perceive could be anything, but is almost certainly a horror we brought on ourselves. WHAT’S FAMILIAR: — The monster: Godzilla at first looks like a snake or an eel slithering through the cityscape. Nearly an hour into the movie, it stands upright like the Godzilla we know, with protruding scales lining its back and a giant tail lashing uncontrollably. As it was, with the way the 1954 original was scripted, Godzilla is more about our anticipation, the nightmare that reflects our deepest fears. The new Godzilla glows red as though embers electrified by atomic power flicker beneath its jagged skin. — The destruction: The new film is inspired by the storyline of the 1954 original, more than the rest of Toho’s 28-film series that had Godzilla battling oversized moths, evil robots and other fantastic creatures. It smashes the same landmarks as all the other Godzillas, such as Tokyo Station, the Parliament building and the Wako department store with the clock tower. And all that the masses of people can do is run from it in sheer terror. The sounds: That same eerie screech, created by scratching contrabass strings, is heard. And this film pays homage to the original music. When the credits roll, with Nomura’s name closing the 329-strong actors’ lineup, it’s the same composition by Akira Ifukube that plays, a fitting ending for the Japanese comeback Godzilla.

FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 A13

A poignant tale of everyday drama LITTLE MEN BY LINDSEY BAHR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS When a generous patriarch dies, the lives of two families are altered in Ira Sachs’ beautifully poignant slice of life drama Little Men . In the film, Brian Jardine (Greg Kinnear), a struggling actor, his wife, Kathy (Jennifer Ehle), a psychotherapist and the breadwinner of the family, and their 13-year-old son Jake (Theo Taplitz) uproot their Manhattan lives and move into Brian’s late father’s home in Brooklyn. On the ground floor of the residence is a tiny store that sells handmade dresses. The owner, a Chilean woman, Leonor Calvelli (Paulina Garcia) also has a young son, Tony (Michael Barbieri), who Jake quickly befriends. Jake is an old soul with an artist’s eye and sensitivity. Tony is a charismatic neighbourhood kid with a thick Brooklyn accent and acting ambitions. They’re both angling to get into the same art school too. Their friendship is pure, immediate and quite charming — these two kids are some true talents. But there’s an unspoken tension lingering below the surface in Leonor’s interactions with the Jardines. She knows what’s coming even if the audience can’t quite see it yet. They live side-by-side in relative peace for a time, and then the conversation happens: Brian tells Leonor that she needs to sign a new lease and pay more rent. Leonor had been shielded from the changing tides of the neighbourhood under the charity and protection of Brian’s father. They were friends, and he liked the “glamour” of having the shop there, she explains. But Brian is not his father and he and his sister are thinking practically about the space. What do they owe this woman, after all? And hasn’t she gotten by for longer than she would have under any other circumstance?

But even at a discount, Leonor can’t afford the new rent. Leonor lashes out in her reserved, but piercing way, telling Brian that she was more his father’s family than he was. She was there the day he died. She was there every day. Brian responds appropriately — that that’s a ridiculous thing to say. Both are right, and both are wrong, but the die has been cast and there is no turning back from this. Alone, it’s a good story, but it’s the very different-on-paper little men at the centre, Jake and Tony, who give it that extra weight of tragedy, as they watch their parents unravel with greed and pride and vow to stop speaking to them until they work it out. It’s not about gentrification, Kathy tries to tell Leonor. They aren’t the ruthless rich, colonizing a new neighbourhood. Brian doesn’t make any money and hasn’t in a while and they need the rent money from the store, she says. Again, it’s partially true and partially not. You get the sense that the Jardines would be OK. The stakes for the Calvellis are so much higher. But you also can’t necessarily fault the Jardines for wanting to claim the full value of what is now rightfully theirs. The adult actors are all excellent — Kinnear especially — delivering elegant lines from Sachs and his longtime co-writer Mauricio Zacharias (Love is Strange,“Keep the Lights On) with a lived-in realism. Little Men unfolds like a play in a taut 85 minutes. Its smallness makes it grand and moving. These are the things, these little moments, decisions and consequences that most human lives are made of, after all. Little Men, a Magnolia Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for “thematic elements, smoking and some language.” Running time: 85 minutes. Four stars out of four.

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Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

This image shows Theo Taplitz in a scene from, “Little Men.”

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A14 FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016

Winfrey picks Whitehead novel for book club BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey has a new book club pick, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad a historical novel that imagines the network of safe houses and passages that helped slaves escape to free territory is an actual train. Winfrey told The Associated Press during a recent telephone interview that she knew from the first sentence that she would want to share her passion with her audience, an impulse she has relied on with uncommon success for 20 years. “I was blown away by it,” Winfrey said. “‘Blown away’ is an often-used expression, but with this book it was to the point of sometimes putting it down and saying, ‘I can’t read anymore. I don’t want to turn the page. I want to know what happens, but I don’t want to know what happens.”’ The Underground Railroad was scheduled to come out in September, but after learning of Winfrey’s decision, Doubleday moved up the release date to Tuesday and more than doubled the announced first printing, from 75,000 to 200,000. An interview with Whitehead appears in the September issue of Winfrey’s magazine, O, which comes out next week. Winfrey’s website, Oprah.com, will include a reading guide and Winfrey’s comments, and “Underground Railroad” will be featured on the social media site Goodreads (Goodreads.com/OprahsBookClub). Whitehead, 46, is the author of highly regarded novels such as The Intuitionist and John Henry Days, and a fi-

nalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award. In The Underground Railroad, his sixth novel, he imagines that the network of safe houses and passages that enabled slaves to reach free territory is an actual train. The book was already highly anticipated, with the trade publication Kirkus Reviews calling it “startlingly original” and praising Whitehead for examining “race mythology and history with rousing audacity and razor-sharp ingenuity.” Winfrey said the novel was so vivid she double-checked her history books to make sure the rail system didn’t exist. During a recent telephone interview, Whitehead said that he swore out loud — while on a plane — when he learned his book had joined Winfrey’s pantheon of favourites. “I was in high school when her show became national,” he said. “She was an ambassador from black America and, obviously, a huge presence.” Winfrey started her club in 1996 with Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean, and laughs as she recalls her early doubts that you could use a television show to talk about a novel. Her choices would sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and sometimes millions, but Winfrey originally saw the club as an extension of what she did in person, when she handed out copies of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple to passers-by near where her program was taped in Chicago. “I would walk home across Wacker Drive every evening,” she said. “I would take my backpack full of books and say, ‘Excuse me, have you read The Color Purple? This is a great book.”

FILE Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Oprah Winfrey has a new book club pick, Colson Whitehead‚ “The Underground Railroad,” a historical novel that imagines the network of safe houses and passages that helped slaves escape to free territory is an actual train. Her criteria, books she feels compelled to talk about, has remained constant. But the club has evolved often. At first, she announced a new book every month, a pace she acknowledged was unsustainable. She suspended the club briefly in 2002 and for a time only picked older works, such as John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. She suspended it again after her syndicated television program ended in 2011. Whitehead’s book is Winfrey’s fifth pick since she relaunched her club in 2012 as “Oprah 2.0,” calling it “an interactive, online club for our digital world.” Although she has boosted

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sales for Cynthia Bond’s Ruby and other works, Winfrey acknowledged that her choices don’t have the same effect as when she revealed them on her show. (When she chose Anna Karenina, in 2004, Penguin announced a first printing of 800,000.) “There is a diminished sales impact because I don’t have the platform to reach millions of people at one time,” she said, adding that she had to “let that go” and appreciate that what mattered was getting more people to read. “I’m an exposure agent, trying to get the word out. I feel that the language of books and what they represent in our lives is important in our culture.”

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FRIDAY FORWARD Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 A15

Antiheroes prove no antidote for ‘Suicide Squad’ BY JAKE COYLE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The superhero movie is at a strange crossroads. It generally either takes itself too seriously (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman) or delights in not caring a bit (Deadpool). The choice, dear moviegoer, is yours. Do you prefer your costumed heroes to brood or to break bad? Right now, good is out self-proclaimed “edginess” is in and a cape might get you turned away from the nightclub. Riding the trend is David Ayer’s day-glo superhero circus Suicide Squad, a gleefully nihilistic, abysmally messy romp that delights in upending the genre’s conventions and tries desperately to, like, totally blow your mind with its outre freak show. It’s less of a movie than a long trailer that doesn’t provoke as much as it thinks it does. It’s stitched together by an endless jukebox of everything from House of the Rising Sun to K7’s Come Baby Come, a soundtrack gimmick taken straight from Guardians of the Galaxy (which more successfully gave the superhero movie new moves). It’s employed three times before the opening credits have even finished rolling, an early cue to the filmmaking talent at work. Despite the train wreck of Batman v Superman (the last DC Comics challenge to Marvel’s dominance), excitement is high for Suicide Squad thanks to a marketing campaign that rivals the presidential ones and the promise of some punk in the poppy, PG-13 realm of the superhero movie. But the nastiness of Suicide Squad is superficial, merely fetishized gestures of ultra-violence that will impress few beyond 13-year-old boys. (Sorry, that’s unkind to 13-year-old boys.) Based on the comic created by John Ostrander, the film is a cartoonish yet grim Magnificent Seven in which a desperate government — for the moment without the services of Superman or Batman — turns to a handful of villains, locked away in prison cells, to combat a yet greater supervillain running amok. There’s Will Smith’s sniper-for-hire father Deadshot, Margot Robbie’s psycho-in-pigtails Harley Quinn, Jay Hernandez’s fire-breathing gang member

El Diablo, and others. They’re a gruesome bunch, reluctant to fight anyone else’s battle, but forced to when the program’s leader (the imposing Viola Davis, the film’s steely backbone) implants an explosive device inside them. They bond in conversation over whether they’ve killed kids or not. Lovely stuff, really. The standout is Robbie’s Harley Quinn, the most dynamic presence of the bunch: a clown cocktail of mental disorder and cheerleader pep. Robbie pulls it off, but Ayer spoils the movie’s breakout character by continually reducing her to mere eye candy, ogling her as she bends over. Quinn is the demented girlfriend of the onthe-loose Joker (Jared Leto), who turns out to be a curiously small part of the film. That, however, proves to be a relief. Leto, working in the sizable wake of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, proves a massive disappointment in the role, lacking in both menace and wit despite the tall-tales of his Method extremes during shooting. The film, as a whole, is missing the humour and spryness that was promised. Its best laughs are unintentional (all I’ll say is that there are souls trapped in swords) and the charisma of Smith and Robbie are drowned out in Ayer’s turgid tale. Ayer’s previous film was the WWII tank drama Fury, an overbearingly bleak movie that similarly followed a harsh band of warriors and flipped the good-vs-bad dichotomy of Americans against Nazis into a less heroic story. In Suicide Squad, Ayer questions whether a killer can be a hero and vice versa, even equating psychopaths with elite soldiers. He would like to vanquish the triumphant superhero and reorder the comic universe for more complicated times. But the only thing he may have killed is the comic-book adaption. Watching Suicide Squad (which will nevertheless make hundreds of millions) is to see the superhero movie reaching rock bottom, sunk by moral rot and hollow bombast. Down, down and away! Suicide Squad, a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America One and a half stars out of four.

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Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

This image shows Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc in a scene from “Suicide Squad.”

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Aug. 5 to Aug. 11, 2016

Brooke Henderson is among the Canadian athletes competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics, which airs its Opening Ceremony Friday on CBC Television.

Canadians head to Brazil for the world’s greatest sporting spectacle — the Summer Olympics By Michael Korb © Zap2it You may have heard that things aren’t going particularly well in Rio de Janeiro. Infrastructure issues, crime, Zika, etc., have left a lot of people thinking maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. But when the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony airs Friday, Aug. 5, on CBC Television, many of those thoughts will go up in flames. Olympic torches tend to make all

of us refocus on the camaraderie and pure athleticism of sport. “I’ve been there. I know the venues are ready — I’ve seen them,” says CBC’s Scott Russell, who’ll be co-hosting the Opening Ceremony alongside Peter Mansbridge. “They’ve been tested out. Many of them are legacies of the 2007 Pan American Games, which were incredibly successful for Rio de Janeiro. So from a sporting standpoint, they’re ready to go. “But the legacy pieces that they wanted — the cleaned up water system, the advanced

mass transit systems — won’t pan out for them,” Russell adds. “However, the water will be cleaned up enough for athletes to compete. ... My take is that now the narrative shifts to athletic performance.” But before we start to cheer on our fellow Canadians, all eyes will be looking on the spectacle of the Opening Ceremony. “It’s Rio de Janeiro. You know it’s going to be a party,” says Russell. “I know it won’t be over-the-top because of the recession, but I think it’ll be colorful and reflect that for the

first time South America is hosting the Olympic Games. I think that in a lot of ways it’ll be a bit emotional for them.” CBC will provide a relatively short “pre-game” show of approximately 30 minutes prior to the actual Opening Ceremony due to the fact that it airs on Atlantic time. “And then we will see the nations arrive and give proofpositive that yes, the Olympic Games are going to happen,” says Russell. “The Opening Ceremonies will probably last about two hours with parade of

nations, the speeches and the cauldron being lit.” After the pomp and circumstance, Russell and Mansbridge will be part of a wrap-up show, giving analysis of what’s to come. They expect to be on-air for around four hours, so plan your snacks accordingly. “It’s a big night particularly because the Games will already be under way,” says Russell. “The Canadian women play soccer two days before that against Australia on Aug. 3. It’s a good chance for us to look ahead to the stories we’ll be following

throughout the Games and what Canadians can look forward to in terms of performance.” For example, Smith’s Falls, Ontario’s Brooke Henderson, as golf returns to the Games for the first time since 1904. (By the way, Canada is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in golf — George Lyon won gold in 1904 in St. Louis.) “She’s the hottest female golfer on the planet right now after having won the LPGA and her win in Portland,” says Russell. “She’s top 5 in the world. She’s 18 years old.”

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