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Syrup Toronto Premiere July 12 GAT PR Press Summary
September Cover Star Amber Heard on Sex in Cinema & Evading the Media Courtney Shea http://www.flare.com/celebrity/meet-‐amber-‐heard-‐our-‐september-‐cover-‐star/
Amber Heard drives a powder-‐blue 1968 Ford Mustang. She’s driven it for nine years—it was one of the first things she bought when she moved to Los Angeles in 2004. She keeps pictures of it on her iPhone. When she talks about it, she sounds like a proud mom. The car is also recognizable, which wouldn’t be such a big deal if Heard hadn’t recently earned a spot on the paparazzi’s mostwanted list. Of course, she could retire her long-‐serving companion—become one of the pretty young things who make their way around L.A. in chauffeur-‐driven, black SUVs—but navigating the city on her own terms is not something she’s willing to give up. “At a certain point, you just have to say, OK, I’m not going to let other people dictate how I run my life,” she says. Heard, 27, has been acting professionally for almost a decade—her first notable role was a bit part in the film Friday Night Lights; then came small but memorable appearances in cult favourites like Pineapple Express and Zombieland. In 2011, she won the female lead in The Rum Diary, opposite Johnny Depp. It was the role that every 20-‐something starlet in Hollywood yearned for (Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley also auditioned), and the buzz established her as an industry it-‐girl with her pick of projects. Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) chose Heard for the only female lead in Paranoia (out Aug. 16), a post-‐millennial corporate thriller costarring Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman. Robert Rodriguez cast his fellow Texan as a gun-‐slinging southern beauty queen in Machete Kills, his latest grindhouse homage (out Oct. 4). Her roles have both the star power and the variety that all young stars covet. Keeping her love life out of it has been a bit more irksome. For those who don’t get their news via TMZ or Us Weekly, Heard has been dating her Rum Diary leading man, Johnny Depp. She won’t discuss him directly: “It’s not part of my professional life,” she says firmly. “I want to be an artist. I don’t want to be a celebrity.” While she’s certainly not the first of her ilk to deliver the “Woe is me, I’m famous” speech, with Heard you get the sense that she might actually mean it: “You can find pictures of me [on the Internet] pumping gas, picking up dry cleaning, walking my dog,” she says, “but nowhere are you going to find pictures of me hanging around at some nightclub.” I meet Heard for our interview at the West Hollywood eatery Little Next Door. She chose the charmingly casual sibling of the adjacent star-‐stuffed French restaurant The Little Door; the cozy stained glass and ivy-‐darkened roof create a rustic, romantic hideaway. She does a quick scan of the patio before suggesting we go inside. “That’s where I normally sit,” she says, pointing to an occupied outdoor four-‐seater, bordered on the street side by a wall of five-‐foot shrubs. It’s the only spot on the patio that isn’t visible from the sidewalk…and vulnerable to the paparazzi. As we settle into a quiet table in the back, I ask if she has other strategies for keeping a low profile. She laughs, and slings the first of many ripostes: “You think I’m going to tell someone in the media my strategies for staying out of the media?” (Artist: 1. Reporter: 0.) Earlier that same day, I had stopped in at the cover shoot. In heavy makeup and a pair of five-‐inch stilettos, Heard was scary-‐pretty, like a Russian Bond villain. Aram Rappaport, who directed her in the independent film Syrup (out on DVD this October), says Heard has a face that doesn’t need the technical tricks of the trade: “We shot her in Times Square
using just a couple of handheld lights. Even with the most beautiful actors, that just doesn’t happen.” The movie, based on the 1999 Max Barry novel, is a modern-‐era morality tale about the advertising industry. Heard plays Six, the living embodiment of the “sex sells” concept. At dinner, most of her makeup is gone, the shoot’s elegant winter pales swapped for a more comfortable rocker-‐ chick uniform of a black cotton tank, dark skinny jeans, leather booties and a few chunky rings. Heard is not keen to talk about her appearance, since doing so always seems to backfire, she says: “Someone will ask me a question about my looks, like something about my hair, and then in the magazine it sounds like I came in and said, ‘You know, what I’d really like to talk about is my hair.’” Rappaport says he knew he had found his leading lady when he noticed Heard at a mutual friend’s birthday party. “She was holding court and there was this entire group of people, older people, who were just hanging on her every word,” he recalls. Heard was having a debate about the shelf life of female actors in the movie business. “Of course we can all name the exceptions,” she says, getting out in front of my knee-‐jerk reaction to cite Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon and…Kate Winslet in 10 years. “We are both probably thinking of the same five women right now. Maybe not even five.” Challenging the status quo is Heard’s resting pose. “I was never interested in what everyone else at school was into,” she says of her early years in the rural part of Austin, Texas. “I hated the idea of school dances, hated whatever was going on in pop culture. I didn’t have any concept of celebrities or Hollywood. I was always reading, reading and listening to music. The only posters I had on my wall were Rosie the Riveter and Jimi Hendrix.” As a teenager, she didn’t dream of becoming an actress so much as just getting out into the world. “My mom always says that if something had wheels, I was obsessed with it—cars, bikes, planes too. I was always wanting to go somewhere.” That she did at 16, after completing her high-‐school equivalency test and spending her life’s savings photocopying head shots at the neighbourhood Kinkos. She launched a short-‐lived modelling career in New York, and hated it. “No one was interested in my opinion,” she says. Heard traded go-‐sees for auditions and landed Friday Night Lights just a few months in. Most aspiring actresses do cheesy, boy-‐meets-‐girl movies as stepping stones to weightier projects, but Heard says she made a conscious effort to go a different route, even if that meant days covered in sticky prop blood. “At least the female characters in horror movies fight back and do something for themselves. They’re not just sitting around waiting for a man to save the day,” she says of her decision to shoot gore over mush. In 2006, Heard starred as the (spoiler alert!) titular slasher in the horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and earned her some counterculture traction. (The Weinstein Company recently announced plans to finally distribute it in the U.S. this fall, in time to ride its star’s hot streak.) Heard also signed on to play one of the leads in the 2011 NBC drama The Playboy Club, based on the goings-‐on at Hef’s 1960s pleasure palace. Gloria Steinem lambasted the show for “normalizing prostitution and male dominance,” but Heard went head-‐to-‐ head with the mother of modern feminism in the media, saying at the time: “It takes [our generation] by surprise when the Steinems of the world criticize us, I think, because we are part of a generation of women who don’t have to choose between combat boots and an apron. We can do it in heels.” While still unabashedly sexy, Heard’s two new roles have her usual intelligent edge. Paranoia is a sleek, corporate espionage thriller about two rival tech companies. Heard plays Emma, a sarcastic, cutthroat Ivy Leaguer. “Paranoia was an interesting script. I loved how you’re dealing with a lot of old themes like greed and power, but it’s such a modern story. My character basically had to be smart enough to manipulate Liam Hemsworth’s character. Yes, there are sex scenes, but it wasn’t like she was falling at his feet.” When I ask her if her characters use their beauty and sexuality as a form of power, she says it can be a challenge to find just the right role—especially in a Hollywood that is all too quick to typecast: “[The script] doesn’t say that these characters are ‘sexy.’ I’m not picking them because of that,” she says. “I take roles that are interesting, and scripts that have female characters with depth. I’m working with what I’ve got.” I joke that maybe she should gain 20 pounds, Monster-‐style, and start wearing glasses. “Ha!” she says. “If only it were that easy!” She once said that she tells her management to put screenplays that describe a character as “beautiful” or “sexy” at the bottom of the pile, unless there are special circumstances…which is certainly the case with her other upcoming role, in Machete Kills. “Robert [Rodriguez] understood why this role was totally perfect for me. She’s a beauty queen from San Antonio, but she’s got this whole other side,” says Heard. She means that her Texas rose packs heat, and, by the way, so does she. Heard, who grew up hunting with her commercial contractor dad, owns several firearms and has visited gun ranges in L.A. “Gun ownership needs to be regulated, not banned,” she says. Heard is not easily
intimidated—in just a few years she has worked with a stable of industry titans, including Nicolas Cage and Kevin Costner, along with Depp, Ford and Oldman, that would have most ingenues shaking in their trailers, but, she says, “I’ve always just looked at that as part of my job.” Meeting one of her favourite authors—she cites George Orwell and Christopher Hitchens—would be more likely to leave her nervous and awestruck. Or if Salinger were to return from the dead—she loves The Catcher in the Rye and identifies with its infamously phoney-‐phobic hero, Holden Caulfield. Robert Luketic, the director of Paranoia, was impressed by Heard’s lust for knowledge. “Amber would just tear through all of these books on-‐set. It was things that I would never read—books about the social politics of Chile in the ’60s and ’70s.” Luketic recalls one evening in New York when he went to dinner with Heard and Ford. “The things that would come out of her mouth, and Harrison would look at me and go, ‘Wow.’ ” Of course, when it comes to co-‐ stars-‐of-‐ a-‐certain-‐age, there is a certain fedora-‐sporting, scarf-‐draped elephant in the room. Me: “Of all the actors you’ve worked with, is there someone with whom you had really amazing chemistry?” Heard: “You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”
Truth in advertising: an interview with Syrup director Aram Rappaport William Brownridge
http://thetfs.ca/2013/07/11/truth-‐in-‐advertising-‐an-‐interview-‐with-‐syrup-‐director-‐aram-‐rappaport/ Syrup is only the second feature film from director Aram Rappaport, but his unique style and visual flair is apparent in each moment of the film. The movie follows Scat (Shiloh Fernandez), a young business student and general slacker who comes up with a million dollar idea. When he presents the idea to Six (Amber Heard), an incredibly attractive and cutthroat business executive with a carefully created image, she quickly tries to take the idea for herself. Scat manages to sneak his way into a meeting about his idea, his relationship with Six, both professionally and personally, begins. Scat’s attempt to infiltrate the business world may mirror Aram Rappaport’s own journey to creating Syrup. “I fought for the book for a very long time, because I was a very new filmmaker who had done one small movie.” Releasing in 2013, Syrup has been on Rappaport’s mind for years. “I originally came across the novel in 2010, and got about halfway through it before I was completely mesmerized by the characters, and the way they were acting and reacting in this hyper reality, almost like superheroes.” Although Aram had quickly fallen in love with the characters living in the world of Max Barry’s novel, he had a bit of difficulty convincing Barry that this film needed to be made. “Max was leery after having 15 years with the book not being made into a film, and writers writing and rewriting, and negating his notes, and various things that left him with a salty taste about how the movie could be adapted. It took me a good six months of rewriting what he had already done, and collaborating with him very closely to prove to him that I would maintain the integrity of his vision.” Once Max Barry was convinced of Rappaport’s work, there was still the challenge of working with stars like Amber Heard and Shiloh Fernandez. “It was an uphill battle. Dealing with Shiloh and Amber, who were doing a few other big studio pictures at the time, to be able to fit their scheduling in, it was a slower process. For an indie movie to have that sort of up and coming cast that we were so thrilled to have, we had to make some scheduling sacrifices, but it ended up working out pretty well.” Aram’s previous film, Innocent, offered some drastically different challenges. That film, about a kidnapping, was shot in real time without edits, forcing Aram to film the entire movie all at once. Over the course of five days, he shot the film in its entirety multiple times, eventually choosing the best cut. The non-‐stop shooting of the film offered Aram some insight into the production of Syrup. “I utilized a similar steady cam method to keep the film moving. I feel like, in the marketing world especially, everything’s
moving, everything’s changing, so for me, with the film medium, the easiest way to do that is to keep all the shots moving and leave nothing static.” Max Barry’s original novel was published in 1999, almost 15 years ago, but the satirical look at marketing is as relevant now as it was then. Although the film takes full advantage of the similarities, there were some areas that Aram just couldn’t afford to look into. “If we had the budget, we might have changed a little bit more. We’re on the brink of what could be a social media revolution or implosion, depending on how you look at it. It would have been great to centralize the plot around something like that, like how social media works and how the new age of marketing is more individualized.” With a film centered on marketing, especially one that takes a slightly mocking tone at the whole process, I had to ask Aram what it was like having to use that marketing to sell this film. “It’s funny because it’s a fine line between, are we trying to send the audience away with a message, are we trying to let them make up their own minds, and ultimately, Max and I decided that we didn’t want to make decisions for people. Marketing’s not bad, marketing’s not good. We are just telling a story about two people who are caught up in image. I don’t think it’s as ironic that we’re using marketing to market it, but I think that it’s a movie that will be scrutinized no matter how it’s marketed because it’s about marketing.” With that mouthful of marketing behind him, Aram spoke a little about the film’s reception before our interview ended. “It’s been generally good for people who enjoy a wink at the audience and some sarcasm. Fans of the book have really liked it, and I think it’s because Max and I delineated between the book and the movie, so they’re not really comparing apples to apples. It really is almost a sequel to the book in story, while maintaining the characters, so fans of the book have been pretty thrilled about that.”
Aram Rappaport on the magical realism of satire in his new film ‘Syrup’ Rhiannon M. Kirkland
http://www.thegate.ca/spotlight/018065/aram-‐rappaport-‐on-‐the-‐magical-‐realism-‐of-‐satire-‐in-‐his-‐new-‐ film-‐syrup/
Aram Rappaport grew up in the hills of Los Angeles. His father was a screenwriter. Talking to him, you get the impression that he could care less about celebrity or fame. He didn’t grow up in that LA. He grew up in a world of artists who made movies because they loved it. Between his father’s friends projects, and his father’s writing, he spent a lot of time on film sets. This taught him an appreciation for the art of storytelling and filmmaking. He became enamoured of the craft, and in high school, he made his first movie. When I ask him what some of his favourite movies are, he has trouble coming up with an answer. Instead he tells me that he admires anyone who can put together a movie. Having tried himself, he knows how much work and how difficult it can be. Simply completing the task is admirable to him.
While at the Waterfront Film Festival in Michigan, Aram was asked to mentor high school filmmakers. “We watched all their short films, and we just were like, ‘dude you guys are in school full-‐time and yet you still go out and are trying to do this with no guidance or professional experience whatsoever and it’s awesome’,” remarks Aram. “We just didn’t know how to address even like partial corrective criticism. It was just great because they were doing it.” This passion is also balanced by the high standards he learned from his father. Rappaport knows that storytelling is an art, and that it takes a lot of effort to do it well. He talks about plot structure and repeatedly rewriting scripts. He remarks on watching movies and thinking ‘that’s great, I could never do that’. He is much harsher on his own work than that of others. He began acting when he was 16 and planned to become an actor, and his screenwriter father encouraged him to write his own material because then he would have more control over his own destiny–instead of auditioning and waiting for call backs he would be in charge of the project. In high school he wrote and produced his first film. It was a short film called One Line, about a kid who puts on a high school play. “It was very simple, just–you know–like a ten-‐page thing, but along with the writing, I ended up producing it and planning the logistics of it and finding someone to direct it,” says Aram. He started his own production company with the goal of writing and funding projects that he would be able to star in. He quickly changed his mind. Most acting jobs were short, lasting a month or two. He wanted to be able to devote his time and energy to a single project for two or three years. “I really liked the idea of being able to write something and then shoot it, and then be in the editing room with it, and then promoting that one thing and having this be the thing that you do for two years,” remarks Aram. He is also drawn to the leadership roll that directors play. They are responsible for exciting and motivating a crew. “That was always something that was a strength of mine,” says Aram. “Rallying the troops and explaining my vision and then letting other people execute it. I think that that leadership on a film set is something that you don’t necessarily learn, but you kind of develop.” His production company’s first film was a kidnapping thriller called Innocent. Based on a true story, it was shot in real-‐time in Chicago–a city that continues to attract Aram. Aram had written another screenplay that was set to go into production where he would co-‐star with Alexa Vega of Spy Kids. The money fell through just before shooting was set to begin, however. Innocent became his backup plan. He filmed it on the $70,000 they had raised, and Alexa, who is friends with Aram, agreed to star in it. A common theme also emerges in the movies that he’s drawn to on a story level. He likes magical realism and stories of redemption. Much like Syrup, the movies he loves–like Big Fish, Tim Burton films, and Life as a House–blur the lines between fantasy and reality. He also tends to work on thrillers. Aram has no formal training. The closest is what he learned from his father and from hanging around movie sets as a child. Otherwise he believes in the learn by doing method. Innocent was
his first movie and he refers to it as his film school. “I was kind of just learning how to do it and making mistakes and figured things out,” said Aram. Syrup is the second film Aram’s production company has made, and it’s a satirical look at the marketing world and image. In the story, a creative type falls in love with a marketing executive and is forced to question whether he is in love with her, or just her image. It is based on the book of the same name written by Max Barry, published in 1999. Several producers had expressed interest in doing an adaptation before Aram stepped onto the scene, but Aram’s determination won the day. He got Barry’s personal number and started calling him. Aram spent six months rewriting the script that Barry had done before winning the rights. Certain plot points were changed for budget reasons. Originally, the second half of the book covers a product placement deal in which Tom Cruise stars in a film where he kills aliens with Coca-‐Cola. Instead, the movie was driven by the decisions and motives of the characters. Preserving the integrity of the characters won Barry over (and Aram hopes will win over fans of the book too). “The through line is that people are still trying to inhabit someone else’s image–someone cooler, someone sexier–and that’s why you buy things for a lot of money, you know. There’s basics–you know, you need to wear clothes. If you’re cold, get a jacket, but why do people spend a thousand dollars on a jacket versus the $20 that they could just go to Goodwill and buy any jacket,” says Aram. Aram is now back in Chicago preparing for the filming of his third movie. It’s a political conspiracy thriller about the financial world written by Aram. “We’re setting it in Chicago because New York has sort of been shot ,as far as financial movies go, with the Wall Street and various movies like that,” observes Aram. “We figured Chicago would be sort of like a new visually stunning way to shoot a thriller because the whole city is situated on the lake and it’s very beautiful, and you know it is a financial city with the mercantile exchange and various boards of trade.”
Daniel Garber speaks with Aram Rappaport about his new film Syrup http://danielgarber.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/daniel-‐garber-‐speaks-‐with-‐aram-‐rappaport-‐about-‐his-‐ new-‐film-‐syrup/ Please follow the above link to listen to full audio interview.
Syrup’s slick pitch fails to sell: review Bruce DeMara
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/07/11/syrups_slick_pitch_fails_to_sell_review.html
For a movie called Syrup, there isn’t much sweetness. Based on Max Barry’s popular novel of the same name,Syrup is an unsatisfying blend of romantic comedy and scathing social satire, slamming the high-‐stakes games of product marketing and sales. But what may work as a satire in print doesn’t easily translate to the screen, resulting in a film chock full of attempts at wisdom and uncomfortable truths about our modern consumerist society — to wit: “Perception is reality” and “Sex is biology, sex appeal is marketing” — melded with a rather clunky and unconvincing battle of the sexes. Ultimately, it’s a concoction that fails to deliver a satisfying fizz. Based on his premise that “every person has three million-‐dollar ideas in their life,” young Scat (Evil Dead’s Shiloh Fernandez) is desperate to get into the marketing game, desperate enough to pull a fire alarm to get a sidewalk meeting with a wiz kid exec called Six (Amber Heard). His concept: a new energy drink whose name is the F-‐word spelled with two Ks. This provides ample opportunity for flagrant use of the f-‐bomb throughout, including a silly and rather pointless cameo by pseudo-‐celeb and former Jenny Craig spokesperson Kirstie Alley. Alas, Scat’s slacker roomie, named Sneaky Pete (Kellan Lutz) — who hasn’t spoken a word in years — steals the idea with the connivance of Six. The haughtily impenetrable Six pretends to have a lesbian lover to deflect the attentions of her male counterparts. Yet this doesn’t stop Scat from continuing to pursue Six, a plot point — one among many — that strains credulity. Fernandez, sporting the longest forelock in Hollywood, is appealing enough as the ambitious yet morally conflicted go-‐getter Scat, and Amber Heard is amply suited (in a series of body-‐hugging designer outfits) to play cynical careerist Six. But the chemistry between the two is laughably minimal. Juvenile mentalities may enjoy the salty language but they’re unlikely to pick up on Syrup’s main theme: that all of us, as consumers, are shamelessly manipulated through slick marketing to seek out and buy the next new and improved gadget or product. The movie and the message is one the rest of us will swallow with a bored and rueful shrug.
Syrup reviewed: Truth in advertising is a stiff drink Nathalie Atkinson
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/07/12/syrup-‐reviewed-‐truth-‐in-‐advertising-‐is-‐a-‐stiff-‐drink/ Imagine an episode of Under the Influencewhere host Terry O’Reilly first drank a case of Red Bull. This scenario isn’t your brain on advertising, it’s Syrup. Scat (Shiloh Fernandez, Evil Dead – andyes that’s really the character’s name) must listen to O’Really’s CBC punditry, too. The slacker-‐marketer has realized, where so few have, that popular sodas and energy drinks are just syrup water plus marketing – image in a can. “I’m assuming you’re after the young, cynical, image-‐conscious consumer?” Welcome to the first of Scat (and the movie’s) zillion all-‐too-‐knowing asides, voice-‐over narrations (of marketing course topics), monologues and constant exposition. Just a few minutes in and already Syrup feels like a bad parody of a bad satire of corporate marketing.
Twilight hunk Kellan Lutz is Scat’s inscrutable roommate Sneaky Pete while Amber Heard (Zombieland) plays his nemesis-‐slash-‐love-‐interest, a brittle young marketing executive who works at a Coco-‐Cola-‐like behemoth. Her name is Six (sounds like sex, get it? Marketing 304: Persona Creation) and as Scat pitches her his million-‐dollar drink idea, it’s love at first sight. “She’s like a rose dipped in poison – she sells herself better than anyone I’ve ever met!” I can’t fathom what Scat sees in her except possibly the reflection of himself. Like him, Heard’s take on Six is one-‐note – pursed crimson lips channeling some sort of composite of Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and any one of the blank-‐eyed guitar girls in that Robert Palmer video. “Don’t confuse me with a consumer,” Six lectures. “I don’t buy anything.” “Exactly. It’ll be like drinking irony!” Ugh. Dear reader, she bought it. And It shall be called Fukk. Just like Richard E. Grant in How to Get Ahead in Advertising –only, completely not like that, even if they were selling zit cream in their dreams == unless they can figure out a fantastic marketing campaign, like, overnight, they’re both fukked. Get it? (If you don’t yet, you will: that F-‐bomb joke was apparently so good it gets reworked more often than JT’s “I’m Lovin’ It jingle.) The only truly inspired bit is a glimpse of the dailies of Kirstie Alley (playing herself as Fukk’s shill) rehearsing her lines. Other than that, Syrup and its sarcasm spill and make a mess for another archly sneering hour and a half. The movie is so fast-‐talking, so utterly pleased with itself, so glib and gratingly sardonic that I started to wonder if it wasn’t in service of some larger postmodern exercise. But no, like many creative slogans, it must just have seemed really clever on the page. Directed by Aram Rappaport, the movie is based on the 1999 satirical novel by Max Barry, whose latest Lexicon has topped many Must Read lists this summer (including mine – it’s good!). Barry’s debut novel cannot have been this bad, although it’s hard to know since it would take some pretty cunning marketing for Syrup to make anyone want to revisit the story again.
Syrup: A moral parable for the advertising age Geoff Pevere
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-‐entertainment/syrup-‐a-‐moral-‐parable-‐for-‐the-‐ advertising-‐age/article13146595/ It’s tempting to say that Aram Rappaport’s Syrupsticks, but it’s also true. Based on Max Barry’s novel, the story of how a callow slacker – named Scat and played by Shiloh Fernandez – comes up with a million-‐dollar idea for an energy drink named FUKK, is a moral parable for the advertising age, a cautionary tale of how the soul must suffer for the sale to clinch. Advertising is, of course, the art of creating a need where none exists, and at this Scat – he thinks it sounds like jazz, but to others it evokes animal poop – is something of a master. It probably has something to do with all that time couch-‐surfing and staring at the ceiling. But when he realizes what he himself needs – the girl in the power suit – he finds he’s all empty calories and no real juice. While not quite as acerbic as Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three or as ambitious as Mad Men, Rappaport’s movie is at least idealistic, positing as it does that love – in this case for Amber Heard’s ruthless glass-‐ ceiling smasher of an ad exec – is the only antidote for the perfect pitch.
Toronto 18 Science Fiction
SCENE
metronews.ca WEEKEND, July 12-14, 2013
Thriller
Comedy
Pacific Rim
Byzantium
Syrup
Director. Guillermo del Toro
Director. Neil Jordan
Director. Aram Rappaport
Stars. Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi
Stars. Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan
Stars. Shiloh Fernandez, Amber Heard
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Director Guillermo del Toro has made an end-ofthe-world scenario fun. In Pacific Rim the planet is threatened by Kaijus, colossal beasts with an appetite for destruction. Giant robots called Jaegers, operated by pilots like Raleigh Becket (Charlie “Sons of Anarchy” Hunnam) are the last hope to fight the beasts and save the world. Add to that Ron Perlman in a colourful cameo, huge-scale martial arts and Roger Cormanesque science theories and you’ll have a geek freak-out.
Make no mistake, director Neil Jordan’s hypnotic Byzantium is indeed a towering, blood spattered and feverishly erotic work of high art. In it, Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan star as lost girls, mother and daughter vampires who hole up in the titular seaside hotel running afoul of an ancient bloodsucking sect. Only a dip into convention at the climax hampers this beautifully shot film; otherwise it’s a must-see.
RICHARD CROUSE
CHRIS ALEXANDER
A satirical comedy about a marketing-school-drop-out (Shiloh Fernandez) who pitches a risqué energy drink to a big-name soda company — via its sexiest and most unscrupulous young executive (Amber Heard). Syrup wants to be scathing but its claws aren’t quite sharp enough. The script’s reminders that advertising is all about image are about a half-century too late. And while it conjures up a credibly nasty tone, it feels like the film is trying too hard. ADAM NAYMAN
Drama
Drama
Diaz — Don’t Clean Up This Blood Director. Daniele Vicari Stars. Claudio Santamaria, Jennifer Ulrich
ɄɄɄɄɄ Based on a true story, Diaz focuses its lens on a savage police raid on holed-up protestors during the G8 summit in 2001. Capturing the sheer tragedy of the events, filmmaker Daniele Vicari’s take does not relent — pummelling the audience as badly with cinematic violence as the Italian cops destroy the demonstrators. It may be an important film but at over two hours, Vicari’s point will still feel unnecessarily beaten into your brain. STEVE GOW
Man! I feel like a woman
Fondi ’91 Director. Dev Khanna Stars. Raymond Ablack, Mylène St-Sauveur
ɄɄɄɄɄ In Dev Khanna’s comingof-age story, tensions among a New Jersey high school soccer team come to a head during a two-week tournament in Fondi, Italy. When Anil (Raymond Ablack), a brooding outsider teased relentlessly for his Indian background, fails to intervene during a troubling incident between his teammate and a local girl, all sense of right and wrong is thrown into question as he tries to live with the brutal consequences. MANORI RAVINDRAN
“It was at that moment I had an epiphany, and I went home and started crying. Talking to my wife, I said, ‘I have to make this picture,’ and she said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I think I am an interesting woman when I look at myself on screen. And I know that if I met myself at a party, I would never talk to that character because she doesn’t fulfil physically the demands that we’re brought up to think women have to have in order to ask them out.” Dustin Hoffman, in a candid interview with the American Film Institute about his role in the 1982 film Tootsie.
tickets to the advance screening of
SANDLER JAMES ROCK SPADE
COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS A HAPPY MADISON PRODUCTION A FILM BY DENNIMUSIC S DUGAN ADAM SANDLER “GROWN UPS 2” KEVIN JAMESMUSIC CHRIS ROCK DAVID SPADE SALMA HAYEK MAYA RUDOLPH MARIA BELLO NICK SWARDSON SUPERVISION BY MICHAEL DILBECK BROOKS ARTHUR KEVIN GRADY BY RUPERT GREGSON-WILLIAMS PRODUCED WRITTEN DIRECTED EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS BARRY BERNARDI ALLEN COVERT BY FRED WOLF & ADAM SANDLER & TIM HERLIHY BY ADAM SANDLER JACK GIARRAPUTO BY DENNIS DUGAN Not recommended for young children, Crude content.
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Syrup taps out Norman Wilner
http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=193497 When you’re making a movie out of a novel – or any script, really – you need to ask yourself one important question: what will it look like with real people in it? This question badly needed asking during the production of Syrup, which takes Max Barry’s satirical novel about a young man trying to succeed in the cutthroat, image-‐conscious world of New York drink marketing and turns it into a smug, nearly unwatchable celebration of sociopathy. Maybe on the page its savvy, self-‐aware narrator came off as less of a dick than he does in the form of Shiloh Fernandez. (In fairness, Fernandez was sympathetic and likeable in that Evil Dead remake, which might have led director Aram Rappaport to think he didn’t have to direct his star.) Instead, Fernandez’s sneering hipster – who must come up with a new product to impress an even more self-‐aware executive (Amber Heard) when his roommate (Twilight’s Kellan Lutz) steals his million-‐dollar drink idea – is so repellent that I found myself hoping he’d be hit by a truck every time he crossed the street. The rest of the movie is pretty vile, too, burying potentially interesting observations about the amorality of advertising under a layer of bullshit posturing that makes Mad Men look like cinéma vérité.
Syrup doesn’t quite pop Bruce Kirkland
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/11/syrup-‐doesnt-‐quite-‐pop TORONTO -‐ I almost really liked the movie Syrup, despite its stupid title. It is almost a good satire on marketing, consumerism and corporate greed. But “almost” is not clean. It is not effective. It is not complete. What a shame, because American writer-‐ director Aram Rappaport was really onto something here in his adaptation of Australian novelist Max Barry’s sardonic novel. In the Barry book (which he published in 1999 when he still called himself Maxx, before losing a letter), young hipsters reinvent themselves with cool names. They cop a pose, adopt a wardrobe and soar to fame, fortune and sometimes disaster in the marketing of banal products. The movie takes the same line. The product here is soda pop. It does not matter what carbonated “syrup” is put in a can, sales are driven by desire. Desire is created by advertising. Advertising is brainstormed by young punks like our chief protagonist Scat (Shiloh Fernandez), his impossibly sexy femme fatale 6 (Amber Heard) and his villainous roommate Sneaky Pete (Kellan Lutz). Novelist Barry shows up in a cameo as a waiter in a restaurant scene. The plot is actually simple: Scat invents a new soda he names Fukk; marketing guru 6 is impressed and ready to adopt a campaign to make it big; and Sneaky Pete steals the copyright on the name so he can take over and score the big bucks. A revenge plot is set in motion. Murky romantic stuff sends Fernandez into a frenzy over 6. The actors are good at the cool — and at occasionally showing what rests beneath the tiresome facades. Fernandez is not only the flawed hero, he is our narrator, so we mostly get his point-‐of-‐view. As a movie, Syrup also breaks down the normal narrative structure that movies use, although its actual story is no where near as daring. Nor as cool as the characters. But I still found myself involved throughout, until the climax and the denouement. The satire ultimately fell flat and the energy sagged. Even the conventional melodrama was undercut. While Syrup almost worked, “almost” is not quite good enough.
Syrup Robert Bell
http://exclaim.ca/Reviews/Film/syrup-‐directed_by_aram_rappaport Taking its source Max Barry novel of the same name a little too literally, Syrup opens with a spirited voiceover from Scat (Shiloh Fernandez), an assumed image-‐projection of a name, about the nature of business — marketing, in particular. Doling out a litany of standard observations — ones that Barry would have racked up while working in marketing for Hewlett-‐Packard — he denotes, mainly, that selling oneself is akin to hawking a product: the quality isn't as important as the presentation and sense of identity a consumer, or employer, might get from indulging. Inevitably, this fairly rote metaphor is thrust upon a relationship between Scat and young business hotshot Six (Amber Heard). He pulls a fire alarm to get some face time with her, pitching a new cola — ostensibly just syrup and carbonated water, as the title suggests — called "Fukk:" a black-‐label brand for cynical, anti-‐consumerist undergrad types. Just as the product is being described by demographic appeal, Six's image is deconstructed as the perfect blend of virgin, slut, mother and bitch, leaving men confused (unable to pigeonhole her as any type), forced to take her seriously. This premise, wherein the superficiality of selling desire and, ideally, the concept of love are assessed through corporate and interpersonal templates, does possess some emotional weight, having inherent implications about our relationship with people and products. But Rappaport, unlike his fantasy girl projection, tips his hand far too early, revealing his secrets and the thematic trajectory and intentions from the get-‐go. This leaves Syrup to play out as a formula, rehashing the same demographically conscious consumer appeal that it smugly criticizes. It's less clever than it thinks (products called "Fukk" and "Cokk" taking the world by storm is a little too on-‐the-‐nose and puerile), regurgitating well-‐known facts about the marketing landscape while itself dwelling on the insincerities of relationships forged in a business world where everyone is merely a projection of desired success. There's a late effort to inject a bit of reality into the text — a consumer outside the lexicon of hipness a cutting edge product limits itself to takes his life — but it plays as merely a slight concession for a work that miscalculates its image. While Heard is perfectly cast as the immaculately dressed and groomed vessel of shrewdly defined desire, Fernandez doesn't fit in at all, lacking the physical appeal to hold up against his co-‐star and being too snarky and low class to convince as a brilliant businessman. Along the way, some of the incisive commentary about consumer culture proves amusing, but beyond this, Syrup merely plays out as a waiting game for the inevitable, pre-‐destined conclusion, which sells the idea of sincerity and moral righteousness to a populous sitting in theatre seats specifically because of commercials and marketing.
Syrup Review Andrew Parker
http://dorkshelf.com/2013/07/11/syrup-‐review/
Farce is hard, but when the players in a given story are all artifice and image to begin with the job it just becomes a matter of actually making the comedy somewhat funny. Thankfully, Aram Rappaport’s adaptation of Max Barry’s cutting novel Syrup gets the ratio of flavour to water just right. In what could have easily been a top heavy and tough to sit through send up of modern marketing culture, it’s instead a fast paced, stylish, well acted, and strangely humane piece of work built around some inherently unethical people. Scat (Shiloh Fernandez) is an unfortunately self-‐monikered budding marketing executive in desperate need of a job. In a fit of inspiration he comes up the concept of a new energy drink named Fukk, which is completely centered around the image it conveys and not even remotely about the product inside. The potential million dollar idea gets the attention of soda company marketer 6 (Amber Heard), who not only tries to snake the deal from beneath Scat, but also ends up getting screwed over by Scat’s conniving and mute roommate Sneaky Pete (Kellan Lutz). Together the duo conspires to come up with ways to claw back to the top of the sugary drink game. Syrup has a low budget for a film about skewering image conscious consumerism set in New York City, but it doesn’t harm the material or what Rappaport and Barry – who adapts his own work for the screen here – are doing with it. It seems that part of the appeal of Syrup is for everything to move so fast that the artifice becomes substance. There’s a craftiness that comes into play with Barry’s screenplay even in the somewhat forced bits of narration. He’s like a magician pulling back the sleeve to show the audience all the cards up it, but he’s keeping the other sleeve hidden for the final trick. Even the bits that feel like a lecture are ultimately in service of the film’s deliberately off kilter structure. It works and while some of the punchlines are a bit on the nose and telegraphed from quite a ways off, the amusement and energy level rarely flags. A lot of that has to do with the excellent casting of the two leads. Fernandez does some fine work a uniquely naive Type-‐A personality. He has the strength of his convictions and a cocky swagger indicative of potential for success, but he also has a massive amount of faith in people that alternatively needs to be crushed and that those around him can learn from. He brings the
humanity the film needs to succeed and stay grounded, or else the who endeavour would come across as just being mean and bitchy for 90 minutes regardless of Rappaport’s tight direction. Heard, on the other hand, delivers another noteworthy performance as a character that’s even more of a cipher than Scat. He entire role hinges on beats and calculation. There isn’t a single angle that she hasn’t already thought of moments before someone gets around to their point. It makes her the smartest and often most deceptive person in the room, but on the rare occasions when she’s outsmarted, Heard makes 6 act like something deeply traumatic just happened, cowering slightly and getting flustered to the point where she seems incapable of work. Her chemistry with Fernandez is splendid, with both cipher-‐like characters learning a lot from each other along the way, acting as perfect romantic and professional foils. Overall there is some unattainable ambition to Syrup, but given the subject matter and its source material, it’s kind of a wonder it could even get made in the first place. Some of the jokes fall flat, but overall it sticks together nicely. Those looking for its specific brand of humour – sarcastic and misanthropic without being overly hateful and demeaning outside of skewering how the world is so screwed that it doesn’t need any help in that respect – should find this easy to swallow.
Review: ‘Syrup’ is a shady business Sarah Gopaul
http://digitaljournal.com/article/354176 A slacker marketing graduate conceives a million-‐dollar idea, but must trust his attractive corporate counterpart to get the concept off the ground. There's a certain perception of the communications industry – advertising, marketing, public relations. There's a common belief they don't have your (the public's) best interests at heart. All they care about is the bottom line and they'll spin anything to make their company look good. While this is not always the case, Syrup does nothing to challenge the stereotype but instead embraces it in an outlandish farce. Scat (Shiloh Fernandez) is not just a person, he's a brand. He's absorbed every word of his marketing text books and is living his life according to their writing. When he comes up with a million-‐dollar drink idea, he takes it directly to Six (Amber Heard) – sounds like "sex" – creative director of the No. 1 soda company. A couple of knives in the back later, they're a formidable team in the beverage marketing world and fighting to stay ahead of the competition and each other. Every aspect of this film's portrayal of the business world is extreme and/or exaggerated reality. Six's image is the ultimate corporate vixen, in her words combining the four categories in which men place women in one fierce looking package: mothers, virgins, sluts and bitches. The boys club she must infiltrate consists of the worst glass ceiling benefactors who jump at the chance to raise a lesser qualified man above her. Death is leveraged as free press and a great opportunity of which they should take advantage. Poaching the competition involves literal kidnapping. Human weakness and desire are their cash cows. But it’s not only the purveyors of this glitzy poison that are targeted, but the sheep-‐like consumers who blindly devour it. As shallow as this film's characters are, so is the overall story. There's the formulaic epiphany that all their work thus far has been a detriment to society, but no great insight into the "power" of advertising. The textbook theories and strategies quoted by Scat and Six for the audience provide explanations, but no great revelations. It's all a superficial exhibition of the many perceived evils of corporate advertising. It’s clear writer Max Barry is familiar with the subject, which is why the satirical marketing comedy hits its far-‐right mark so skillfully. Heard is severe in sharp business attire and deep rouge lips. Her appearance commands attention and respect, but her facade is barely supported by a voice that belongs to a woman constantly unsure of her position. Fernandez is almost her polar opposite. He's emotional, unkempt and a man of ideas – not execution. Kellan Lutz has a small role, for the majority of which he's silent. But he shows he can quietly be the centre of attention and look good doing it. The charade is fast-‐paced and never-‐ending. Rather than an intriguing tale of modern advertising, it's a lesson in invention – both corporate and self.
SYRUP REVIEW http://myetvmedia.com/film-‐review/syrup-‐review/ Based on the best-‐selling novel by Max Berry, “Syrup”, directed by Aram Rappaport, explores the critical difference between marketing and art. The story, revolves around the cut-‐throat world of marketing. Aram Rappaport is a promising young filmmaker whose prior work “Innocent,” is one of the first ever feature length films shot in one take. Syrup shot for an estimated $2.5 million, stars a breakout, young cast including Amber Heard (Zombieland, The Rum Diary, Paranoia), Kellan Lutz (Twilight), and Shiloh Fernandez (Evil Dead, The East). Scat (Shiloh Fernandez), like many college grads, wants a slice of the fame and glory that he thinks accompanies a successful career in marketing. It looks like he might get both when he develops an energy drink with a name that shouldn’t be printed here “FUKK”. Six (Amber Heard) is the perfectly manicured, steely-‐gazed ad executive and alleged lesbian that is cajoled into helping him carve out a career. But when Scat’s friend and roommate Sneaky Pete (Kellan Lutz) swoops in to trademark the product name, Scat has to go back to the drawing board, and Six might be game to help him. When it comes to acting, Amber Heard does the best job. Her Six is seductive and stone-‐cold, and she nails the delivery of her lines more successfully than Fernandez. Kellan Lutz’s performance is flat and irritating. At times, it feels as though Rappaport has difficulty deciding the tone of the film, succeeding when it’s focusing on satire, but considerably weaker when it tries to be a love story. An exhaustingly repetitive plot structure leaves you yawning at times. Is it worth watching? Yes, entertaining but not too deep.
‘Syrup’ is just empty calories David Voigt
http://www.examiner.com/review/syrup-‐is-‐just-‐empty-‐calories There's plenty of counter programming out there going up against the mega tent-‐pole blockbuster films. Opening today at the Carlton & Kingsway cinemas, "Syrup" is a sly little comedy about the double speak of the advertising game that forces its way into an attempted love story. Taken from the Max Barry satirical cult novel of the same name, "Syrup" takes aim at the world of brainwash-‐marketing, much as Network did in its day to primetime television. As Scat (Shiloh Fernandez) a self-‐serving marketing school drop-‐out who convinces a roomful of suits that he can sell anything to anybody. Scat’s assault on the marketing world is just as impressive as the corporate climb of 6 (Amber Heard), a stunning young executrix, whose choice of a number-‐that-‐sounds-‐like-‐sex for a name suggests she and Scat have a lot in common and plays a huge role in his early successes. Except that 6 claims to be a lesbian, but it could just be a contrivance for image purposes and as he falls in love with 6, he's forced to ask if he is actually falling in love with her, or merely the public image of her. An interesting borderline farce at the advertising world, "Syrup" never makes a real connection as the narrative moves way too fast making it hard to not only keep up with the story but also to genuinely engage with any of the characters. Max Barry's script crackles with some genuinely funny and subtle moments as it delivers some rather dry commentary on the nature of commercialism but it's not always the best idea for an author to adapt their own work as the line between the reality of the relationships along with the potential love story and the gonzo nature of the ad game were pretty blurred together. Director Aram Rappaport seems a little too concerned to get us through the story as quickly as possible, we never get a minute's rest to sit with and absorb any of the characters that were somewhat underwritten. Shiloh Fernandez as Scat felt very generic as the ambitious young go getter felt very bland and undefined. Perhaps that was the point in this story about how brands and marketing are overtaking the globe and deemed more important than the actual content, but it doesn't make for a very compelling protagonist. Amber Heard however was actually a bright spot as she played with her obvious sexuality while still keeping any real emotions at bay as her ability to not be able to turn off being "on" or in a sales mode got played rather tragically and she made it work quite well. Kellan Lutz as Sneaky Pete, barely said a word...and it actually worked, but ultimately it was all pretty hollow. I know it was supposed to be, but a story filled with those kinds of characters may work on the page but it doesn't translate for the screen. At the end of the day, "Syrup" might work as a scathing literary satire, but it lacks far too much to work on the screen despite some decent effort from all involved.
Syrup Courtney Small
http://www.bigthoughtsfromasmallmind.com/2013/07/syrup.html
If we are to believe the protagonist of Aram Rappaport’s latest film, then our entire life is based around marketing. Everything from the products we buy, the way we present ourselves at work, and even how we go about courting that special someone is calculated to evoke a precise image. Which is exactly what marketing is all about…creating an image. Enticing others to believe they will run faster in a particular pair of sneakers and get the girl if they drink the right beer. The cutthroat world of marketing is the focus of the satirical film Syrup. Based on the novel by Max Barry, who also penned the screenplay with Rappaport, the film follows Scat (Shiloh Fernandez) as he tries to make it big in the world of advertising. Scat has come up with an idea for an energy drink called “Fukk” that he believes will take the industry by storm. Of course Scat must convince one of the top corporate marketers, Six (Amber Heard) to buy into the concept. Cold, calculating and attractive Six’s mixture of advertising expertise and sexuality proves too intoxicating for Scat to resist.
Despite falling for Six, Scat is never quite sure if he can truly trust her. Deceit is not only prevalent in the dog eat dog world of marketing, but it is basically the principal goal of advertising in general. However, Scat must put aside his doubts and join forces with Six once his former roommate Sneaky Pete (Kellan Lutz) steals Scat’s idea and patents “Fukk” for himself. Quickly climbing ahead of Six up the corporate ladder, Sneaky Pete proves to be a bigger foe than either Scat or Six could have anticipated. Syrup offers some sharp commentary on the state of modern consumerism. At one point we see just how low a company is willing to go to keep their product in the forefront of the media. Characters routinely break the fourth wall to deconstruct how every aspect of life follows a particular law of marketing. Rappaport exploits this to comedic effect by having Six breakdown the ways in which seduction occurs within her relationship with Scat. Whenever you think that Six and Scat might give into their urges Rappaport quickly pulls the rug out from under the audience. Though this technique provides some genuine laughs, it also exposes how problematic the romantic subplot is in the film. It toys with the notion of “will they or won’t they” in regards to Scat and Six’s relationship, but never seems to know how to draw it out in a captivating way. The relationship is too disjointed and cannot find a genuine rhythm within the greater context of the story. This both hinders the overall flow of the film and takes away from the satirical commentary. Instead of trying to force a romantic angle, it would have been more interesting had Rappaport explored some of the other aspects of the corporate world that the film touches on. The most notable one being the way women are treated in regards to corporate hierarchy. Rappaport hits on some interesting themes of discrimination when he focuses on how easily Six is passed over for promotion in favour of grooming males like Sneaky Pete and Scat. However, the film never explores this in any great detail. The same can be said for Brittany Snow’s blink and you miss it supporting role as “Three”, Sneaky Pete’s assistant who is essentially a colder version of Six. At times the film feels like it is more interested in Six and Three’s sexuality than it is as them as real people. Fortunately, Amber Heard tries her best to bring some sense of depth to her character. Heard offers the best, and most consistent, performance of the bunch. Shiloh Fernandez is solid as well though the uneven plotting, especially in regards to the subplots, tends to hurt the overall impact of his character. The film simply tries to do too much and ultimately spreads itself thin in the character development department. Even Lutz’s Sneaky Pete, whose persona is to be mysterious and silent, jokingly admits to how limiting it is to play such a one-‐dimensional character. Like the products featured in the film, Syrup had the potential to be a truly memorable satire. As it offers some pointed commentary about the way marketing has consumed our lives. Unfortunately, the uneven romantic subplot and lack of true character development outside of Scat hurts the film. What we are left with is a product that will satisfy for a few hours, but will ultimately have you searching for something more fulfilling later on.
Addicted to Syrup Contest http://www.weraddicted.com/addicted-‐to-‐syrup-‐contest/ We had a chance to speak with the director of Syrup this week, Aram Rappaport, and we have watched the film starring (which stars Amber Heard, Kellan Lutz, and Shiloh Fernandez) but before we give our review and words from the man himself, we thought we would give you that chance to check the movie out for yourselves. Video Services Corp presents Syrup, a movie where ”the marketing world gets skewered in Aram Rappaport’s adaptation of Max Barry’s socio-‐comic novel”. If you will be in Toronto this friday, come join Addicted at the Canadian premiere of the new movie Syrup. Enter HERE today, and stay connected for our review of the Film and interview with the Director.
Contest: Win a Run-‐of-‐Engagement Pass to See SYRUP in Toronto! http://dorkshelf.com/2013/07/04/contest-‐win-‐a-‐run-‐of-‐engagement-‐pass-‐to-‐see-‐syrup-‐in-‐toronto/ Hello Toronto! It’s been a great day for us so far today, so let’s keep the good times going with one final contest for you fine people in our hometown! Enter for a chance to win one of four run-‐of-‐engagement passes to see the comedy SYRUP, courtesy of Dork Shelf and VSC.
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