Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 75 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Mama Weed’ Review: Huppert Slings Hash

      by

      Not even the greatest living French actress can redeem this witless crime caper.The police captain, on a date with a translator in his department, tries to compliment her with an observation about her “paradoxical” nature. She seems so small and fragile, and yet she possesses such extraordinary self-confidence!The poor guy, whose name is Philippe, doesn’t realize who he’s talking to. Not in the fictional universe of “Mama Weed,” in which the translator, Patience Portefeux, turns out to be something of a criminal mastermind. And certainly not in the world that the rest of us inhabit. Patience is played by Isabelle Huppert, who has that paradox printed on her business card. Philippe’s insight is so laughably obvious that it indicts the director, Jean-Paul Salomé, for lack of imagination.The list of charges against this watery café au lait of a crime caper is extensive — wearisome ethnic stereotypes, cop-movie clichés, awkward pacing, a labored plot — but the chief transgression is that it wastes the time and talent of one of the supreme screen actors of our time. Huppert’s craft and energy are faultless (Hippolyte Girardot, who plays Philippe, is pretty good too), but the script and the direction undermine her at every turn.Patience, the child of a Jewish mother (Liliane Rovère, the beloved Arlette of “Call My Agent”) and a long-gone Algerian father, works for the Paris police translating wiretaps and interrogations of Arabic-speaking subjects. A big shipment of hashish is making its way from Morocco, and when she learns that her mother’s caretaker (Farida Ouchani) has a son who is involved in the trafficking, she uses her linguistic skills and innate shrewdness to divert the cargo and save the young man from serious prison time.In sudden possession of 700 kilos of contraband, Patience decides to unload it. A widow with two daughters, constant money worries and a vague underworld family history as well as connections to law enforcement, she has both the motive and the resources to become, at least temporarily, a drug kingpin — or queenpin, as the case may be.She adopts the persona of an impatient, entrepreneurial North African matriarch — Mama Weed (“la daronne” in French) — putting on a hijab, garish jewelry and heavy lipstick and enlisting the services of Scotch (Rachid Guellaz) and Chocapic (Mourad Boudaoud), a pair of bumbling small-timers. She also strikes up an alliance with Madame Fo (Jade Nadja Nguyen), the all-seeing, criminal-minded matriarch of the apartment block where Patience is virtually the only non-Chinese resident.As the rightful owners of the hash close in, along with Philippe and his colleagues, the movie accelerates simultaneously toward melodrama, farce and shoot-em-up without arriving anywhere interesting. There are plenty of so-so movies that Huppert redeems with her presence, but this is just a bad one that she happens to be in.Mama WeedNot rated. In French, Arabic and Yiddish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 88 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Casanova, Last Love’ Review: Reappraising a Philanderer

      by

      Benoît Jacquot’s erotic costume drama envisions the Italian playboy as a weathered sad sack living in exile.The French filmmaker Benoît Jacquot (“Diary of a Chambermaid,” “Farewell, My Queen”) is a master of costume dramas with an erotic bent. He brings the European period piece down to earth by pitting aristocratic whimsy against the uglier experiences of the working class, and he’s never afraid to visualize the, uh, unseemly biological realities beneath all those pantaloons and hoop skirts.“Casanova, Last Love,” his latest foray into the world of powdered wigs and courtly intrigue, is no exception, though it pales in comparison to his fiery women-fronted films.Jacquot reappraises the notorious philanderer by depicting him not as a raucous pleasure-seeker but a weathered sad sack living in exile. In this world, playboys are pathetic and pitiable, which reads like a plea for modern audiences to cut maligned men more slack.
      Framed as a series of flashbacks, the film follows Casanova as he wanders phantom-like around the English court — a much more vulgar place than his usual stomping grounds. He falls for Marianne de Charpillon (Stacy Martin), an alluring but cruel prostitute who claims to have encountered him once before when she was an impressionable 11-year-old girl.Thus begins a desultory cat-and-mouse game that emphasizes the ambiguity of La Charpillon’s intentions, which are complemented by the cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne’s dimly-lit spaces and dreamy, velvet textures.The terrific French actor, Vincent Lindon, usually plays brooding types with a menacing streak but here he imbues his Casanova with subtle poignancy. It’s an interesting performance that nevertheless transforms Casanova to the point that he is no longer a believable womanizer.Perhaps that’s the intention: appearances and reputations are deceptive. Though Jacquot throws into question our presumptions about figures like Casanova, as well as vilified women like La Charpillon, he leaves it at that, leaving us wondering what exactly it was all for.Casanova, Last LoveNot rated. In French and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 175 Shares159 Views

      in Movies

      James Gunn Nearly Blew Up His Career. Now He’s Back With ‘The Suicide Squad’

      by

      The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director talks about the Twitter controversy that got him temporarily fired from Marvel, and his crossover to the DC franchise.One day in July 2018, James Gunn discovered that he was trending on Twitter and not for a good reason. Gunn, the filmmaker behind Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” science-fiction series, had tweeted many deliberately crude jokes about the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, AIDS, pedophilia and rape. Now they had been resurfaced, steering waves of criticism his way. Gunn was fired from a planned third “Guardians” movie and he believed his career was over. “It seemed like everything was gone,” he said recently.Gunn publicly apologized and his “Guardians” stars, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, rallied to his defense in an open letter. In March 2019, Gunn was hired back to the film franchise.Gunn had spent the months after his firing reflecting on himself while also working on an unexpected opportunity: Warner Bros. had tapped him to make a movie in its own superhero universe based on DC Comics characters. His entry, “The Suicide Squad,” which he wrote and directed, chronicles a motley team of criminals, including the marksman Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and the saboteur Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), selected by the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to complete a seemingly impossible mission.“The Suicide Squad,” which will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, follows the 2016 film “Suicide Squad,” written and directed by David Ayer, which was a commercial success but not well received by critics. Gunn’s take preserves the violence while adding further layers of outrageousness and absurd characters like the Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the fish-human hybrid King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and a malevolent alien starfish called Starro.As Gunn explained, “There’s a sort of magical realism that we come into this film with. Yes, it’s weird to see a walking shark. But it’s not as weird as it would be in our universe.”Gunn, whose credits include the low-budget genre satires “Slither” and “Super,” spoke in late June in a video interview from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is working on “Peacemaker,” a TV spinoff of “The Suicide Squad” starring that jingoistic adventurer played by John Cena.The 54-year-old Gunn has let his spiky hair go white and grown a tidy accompanying beard, giving him a look that’s more mad scientist than industry upstart. But he remains chastened by his brief exile from Marvel. Speaking of “The Suicide Squad,” he said, “There’s dark humor in it, but the emotional part is there, too. I feel as if I was communicating my whole being.”Gunn discussed his firing and rehiring by Marvel, the making of “The Suicide Squad” for DC and his perspective on the two superhero franchises. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Gunn with Idris Elba among the cast and crew of “The Suicide Squad.”Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros.How did you first learn that you had been fired from Marvel?It was conveyed to me by Kevin Feige [the Marvel Studios president]. I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, “Is this a big deal?” And he goes, “I don’t know.” That was a moment. I was like, “You don’t know?” I was surprised. Later he called me — he himself was in shock — and told me what the powers that be had decided. It was unbelievable. And for a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone. I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. That’s what it felt like.Did the experience make you more careful about what you say, whether on social media or in general?Yes and no. I’m more considerate of people’s feelings today. I had talked about this a lot before those tweets were [resurfaced]. They are awful things, that’s what my sense of humor was back then. But before this ever happened, I realized that I had closed myself off to things I thought were schmaltzy because I didn’t want to be vulnerable. This attitude — I can make a joke about anything, look how great I am — that’s just not the fullness of me as a human being. And I learned that long before I got called out for the tweets.The term wasn’t as prevalent at the time, but do you think you were a victim of what people now call “cancel culture”?I understand people’s preoccupation with that term. But it’s such a bigger issue than that. Because cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled. People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled — most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets — they’re the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. It’s painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. It’s just about finding that balance.When you see someone else now being punished for things they’ve posted online, are you sympathetic?Even when the person has done something terrible, I still feel sympathy for that person. Because I’m a compassionate person and it’s part of my faith. Sometimes things get taken out of context. And sometimes somebody did something when they were in college — it’s 20 years later, they’ve lived a great life, it’s just too much. And then sometimes you read, oh, well, what he did was pretty awful.When did you start to realize that things weren’t quite as dire? Did the public support of your “Guardians” actors make the difference?You do not understand the immensity of it until you’re in the middle of it. For a guy who feels like he’s done most things by himself and hasn’t had a lot of backing from anyone, ever, and has had to claw my way from B movies to where I am today, you don’t expect people to have your back. As somebody who does have a difficult time taking in the affection or the love of others, to have everybody around me — my girlfriend, my parents, my family, my manager, my publicists, all of the actors I’ve worked with — to have them come to my side and be there for me, that was an eye-opener for me. I felt really fulfilled and loved in a way that I had never felt in my entire life. And when Warner Bros. comes to me on the Monday after it happens and says, we want you, James Gunn, you think, wow, that feels good to hear.Asked about the nihilistic feel of “The Suicide Squad,” Gunn pushed back: “For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections.”Alana Paterson for The New York TimesSo while you’re in the midst of this potential scandal, Warner Bros. comes to you and asks if you might be interested in Superman, their flagship DC character?They proposed that to me. Toby Emmerich [the Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman], he works out with my manager, and every morning he would say, “James Gunn, Superman. James Gunn, Superman.”How did you land on “The Suicide Squad” instead?At that time I said I can’t commit myself to something right now. It was traumatic. I had to deal with myself. I just have to take a step back. So I took the different possibilities of projects I could work on, and for a month, every day I worked on a different project. I really wanted to make sure that whatever I was going to write was going to be a great story, and if it worked out and I felt like directing it, I could. “Suicide Squad” was just the one that came to life immediately.Were you a fan of the comics?I really loved [the writer] John Ostrander’s take, which was taking these Z-grade villains and throwing them into black-ops situations where they were totally disposable and they wouldn’t come out alive. I loved “The Dirty Dozen” as a kid. It’s that same concept, mixed with a DC comic.How much were your choices defined by what you’d seen in the previous “Suicide Squad” film?Not at all. I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to David’s movie would make it the shadow of David’s movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely. When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing. They said, listen, we would love it if Margot’s in the movie but she doesn’t have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters.The previous film had a few big stars who aren’t returning. Did you explore bringing back Jared Leto as Joker or Will Smith as Deadshot?Joker, no. I just don’t know why Joker would be in the Suicide Squad. He wouldn’t be helpful in that type of war situation. Will — I really wanted to work with Idris. It is a multi-protagonist film. We go off for a while with Margot, and Daniela [Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2] is the heart of the film in a lot of ways. But if there’s one protagonist, it’s Idris. And I wanted somebody who had that gruff, “Unforgiven”-type feeling about him. This guy who had been reduced from being a bigshot supervillain — he took Superman out of the sky — who is now scraping gum off the floor at the beginning of the movie. He absolutely doesn’t want any part of it — he just has accepted this is his life. And I just think that character is Idris Elba.“The Suicide Squad” features a motley team culled from the DC universe, including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, second from right), all led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, center). Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. This will be the third film, after “Suicide Squad” and “Birds of Prey,” to try to find a place for Harley Quinn in DC’s movie universe. How do you see the character?For me, Harley Quinn belongs on the wall next to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk. Most of my career has been writing characters who existed in the comics but weren’t well-defined personalities, and having to create their cinematic personalities, whether it’s Star-Lord or Drax or Groot, who were all very different in the comics. Harley was pretty incredibly written by Paul Dini from the beginning, and so to be able to capture the essence of that character — her chaotic, sweet nature — and give her her due as the trickster and allow her to go wherever she wants, was surprising even to me as a writer.Did you take a certain pleasure in bringing back Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and letting her get her hands as dirty as some of the superhero characters?She has no qualms about doing that whatsoever. She’s just the sweetest person in the world and Waller is scary. When she’s on set and that turn happens, I am literally afraid to come in and give her a note because of the look in her eyes. It is incredibly intimidating. She comes up to here [holds hand at height of his neck] on me. But it is. She’s amazing.There’s a built-in dispensability to your concept of “The Suicide Squad” that cuts against a studio’s desire for repeatable franchise films. Was it your goal to make the most nihilistic superhero movie of the modern era?I don’t think it’s nihilistic. For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections. My mission statement was just to make the most fun film I could and not balk at anything. I knew I had a chance that very few filmmakers have ever had, which is to make a huge-budget film with no holds barred in terms of the plot, the effects, the sets. I felt a responsibility to take chances.What if, after a yearlong pandemic, mass audiences aren’t ready for a movie with so much wanton death and destruction?I actually think the emotion and the humor help to even off the harsher aspects of it. I think it’s a perfect movie for now. It’s just a matter of where are we going to be with Covid and being safe. [“F9”] did great, so I’m hopeful there’s a real appetite for it. I was talking to my 80-year-old mother this morning. She wants to come see it. I’m like, Mom, this movie has a lot of sharks ripping people in half in it. [Gentle voice] “I know, I don’t care, Jimmy.” She’ll love it.Does it seem strange that the DC films can encompass movies like “The Suicide Squad,” which unabashedly earns its R rating, and also movies like “Shazam!,” which are more family-oriented?I think it’s great. That is the one of the ways in which DC can distinguish itself from Marvel. What I do is very different from what [the “Ant-Man” director] Peyton Reed does, it’s very different from what [the “Iron Man” director Jon] Favreau did, it’s different from Taika [Waititi, the director of “Thor: Ragnarok”]. But not as different as “Shazam!” and “Suicide Squad,” however. I think the current batch of folks over at Warner Bros. are really interested in building out a world and creating something that’s unique to the filmmakers. We’re in a strange time, so anything can happen.Gunn with Michael Rooker (as the blue-skinned Yondu) on the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel/DisneyYou’re the first director who’s made films for both Marvel and DC —[Fake cough] Joss Whedon. I’m the first one to receive a directing credit on the Marvel and DC movies. [Laughs.]Do you see major differences with how Marvel and DC approach their film franchises?Yes, but not as many as people probably think. There’s no doubt Kevin Feige is way more involved with editing than people are at Warner Bros. He gives more notes. You don’t have to take them and I don’t always take them. Then again, I had more problems. If you saw the first cut of “Guardians” 1, it had more problems, because that was my first time making something so gigantic and there’s some learning to what works and what doesn’t, carving away the excess stuff. The truth is, as Marvel goes on and Kevin Feige starts to amass ownership of half of all film in general, he’s more spread out.Are you free to make more films for DC going forward or are you exclusive to Marvel?I have no clue what I’m going to do. For me, “Guardians 3” is probably the last one. I don’t know about doing it again. I do find, because of the ability to do different stuff in the DC multiverse, it’s fun. They’re starting to really resemble their comic books. The Marvel Universe has always been a little more cohesive, and DC has always had more great single runs. They had The Dark Knight Returns. They had Watchmen. They had The Killing Joke. They had Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. The fact that they did “Joker,” which is a totally different type of movie, that to me is cool. I’m very excited about Matt’s movie [“The Batman,” from Matt Reeves]. They’re getting some really good filmmakers involved. They’re always going to be hit or miss — I just don’t want them to get boring.You got your start in the world of low-budget cinema. Do you think you might return to something that’s smaller and faster to make?I love toys and the explosions and the cameras, frankly. I love to be able to work on a big playing field. If I had a smaller, more intimate thing that I wanted to do, I would definitely do that. Right now I really just want to nap, but I still have another major motion picture to make before that. I can’t wait to see the Marvel gang again — those people are my family. It’s so much different than people on Twitter. Everybody is significantly nicer. More

    • 88 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ Review: The Ladies Who Punch

      by

      This neon-lit, female-led Netflix shoot-‘em-up tries way too hard to be cool.At one point in “Gunpowder Milkshake,” Navot Papushado’s slick, homage-heavy Netflix crime picture, Michelle Yeoh has a raucous fist fight with a Russian mobster that culminates in her strangling him to death with a length of steel chain. Now, this is important information, because Yeoh is one of the greatest screen martial artists of all time and, now at 58, is rarely afforded opportunities to pummel bad guys with gratuitous flair. Papushado lets her wreak carnage — alongside the great Angela Bassett, who wields a pair of claw hammers — and for that we can be grateful.I would have liked to have seen an entire movie about Yeoh and Bassett, who play the Librarians, assassins who operate a space that serves as both a sanctuary and an armory for others in the profession. The two are infinitely more interesting than the actual hero of the film, a young assassin named Sam (Karen Gillan) who finds herself embroiled in an elaborate kidnapping plot that involves a shadowy underground crime syndicate known as the Firm. Gillan, blithely quipping as she dispatches waves of anonymous henchmen, seems totally flat in comparison to the magnetic stars with whom she shares the screen.Papushado, who garnered acclaim as a co-director of the blackly comic thriller “Big Bad Wolves,” is clearly a movie buff, and “Gunpowder Milkshake” feels like a composite of cinephile-friendly references. The splashy, neon-hued aesthetic draws from Michael Mann’s “Thief” and Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive,” while the sprawling, complexly choreographed action sequences riff on the Hong Kong shoot-‘em-ups of the 1980s and ’90s, chiefly John Woo’s “The Killer” and Johnnie To’s “Running Out of Time.” Perhaps unavoidably, thanks to its real-time plotting and complicated underworld mythology, it feels strikingly similar to “John Wick.”The filmmaking favors the kinds of showy stylistic flourishes — slow motion dollies, split diopter shots — that, when used tastefully, can make action dazzle, as in the films of Brian De Palma. But Papushado’s flamboyance feels cocky and indiscriminate, as if he’s simply trying really hard to make every image seem cool. While this may guarantee the movie a long Twitter afterlife through GIFs and screenshots, it doesn’t make for particularly savvy or sophisticated cinema.Gunpowder MilkshakeRated R for graphic violence and some inappropriate language. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      Parents Who Never Stopped Searching Reunite With Son Abducted 24 Years Ago

      by

      Guo Gangtang’s cross-country, decades-long search for his son inspired a movie. Now, there’s an ending fit for Hollywood.For nearly 24 years, the father crossed China by motorbike. With banners displaying photos of a 2-year-old boy flying from the back of his bike, he traveled more than 300,000 miles, all in pursuit of one goal: finding his kidnapped son.This week, Guo Gangtang’s search finally ended. He and his wife were reunited with their son, now 26, after the police matched their DNA, according to China’s public security ministry.In a scene captured by Chinese state television, the trio clung to each other tearfully at a news conference on Sunday in Liaocheng, Mr. Guo’s hometown in northern Shandong Province.“My darling, my darling, my darling,” Mr. Guo’s wife, Zhang Wenge, sobbed as she embraced the young man. “We found you, my son, my son.”“He’s been delivered into your hands, so you need to love him well,” Mr. Guo said, trying to comfort her even as his own voice shook.The apparent happy ending captivated China, where Mr. Guo has become something of a folk hero. His cross-country odyssey, during which he said he was thrown from his bike at least once and slept outdoors when he could not afford a hotel, inspired the 2015 film “Lost and Love,” starring the renowned Hong Kong actor Andy Lau.After the reunion, Chinese social media filled with congratulatory messages. Hashtags about the Guo family were viewed hundreds of millions of times. “Today, ‘Lost and Love’ finally has a real happy ending,” the movie’s director, Peng Sanyuan, said in a video on Douyin, a social media app.Child abduction is a longstanding problem in China. There are no official statistics on the number of children kidnapped each year, but officials at the Ministry of Public Security said this month that they had located 2,609 missing or abductedchildren so far this year. Various reports estimate the number of children abducted annually in China may be as high as 70,000.Historically, child abduction was linked, at least in part, to China’s one-child policy. At the height of the policy’s enforcement in the 1980s and 1990s, some couples resorted to buying young boys on the black market to ensure they would have a son, according to research by scholars at Xiamen University in Fujian Province. Chinese society has traditionally favored sons.Andy Lau and Jing Boran in the 2015 film “Lost and Love,” which is based on Mr. Guo’s story. “Today, ‘Lost and Love’ finally has a real happy ending,” said the movie’s director, Peng Sanyuan.China LionAs the central government began easing enforcement of the policy in the early 2000s — before ending it in 2015 — reported abductions fell sharply. Technological advances such as a nationwide DNA database of missing children, stiffer criminal penalties and greater public awareness of child trafficking have also helped curb the problem, said Zhang Zhiwei, executive director of an anti-trafficking center at the China University of Political Science and Law.Still, the threat of abduction continues to weigh on many Chinese. On Monday, several police departments in the eastern city of Hangzhou issued statements denying viral rumors about attempted kidnappings.Mr. Guo’s son, named Guo Xinzhen at birth, disappeared on Sept. 21, 1997. He had been playing at the door of his home while his mother cooked inside, according to interviews the elder Mr. Guo has given over the years.A frantic Mr. Guo and his wife, along with family, neighbors and friends, fanned out across the region to search for the boy. But after several months, the effort waned. That was when Mr. Guo attached large banners printed with his son’s photo to the back of a motorcycle and set out to find the boy on his own.“Son, where are you?” the banners said, alongside an image of the boy in a puffy orange jacket. “Dad is looking for you to come home.”Over the years, Mr. Guo wore out 10 motorcycles, traveling from Hainan in the south to Henan in the north, chasing down any tidbits of information, he has said. Once, on a rainy day, a rock slipped off a truck bed in front of him, sending his motorcycle toppling. He had so many near-miss traffic incidents that he lost count. But he always set out again.“If I’m at home, the human trafficker is not going to deliver him back to me,” he said in a 2015 interview with state television.In 2012, Mr. Guo founded an organization to help other parents find their missing children, and he said he has helped dozens of other families find their loved ones, even as his own search remained unsuccessful. His story rose to national prominence with the 2015 film. Earlier this year he also began promoting anti-trafficking awareness on the social media app Douyin, where he had gained tens of thousands of followers even before his son was found.The actor Andy Lau promoting the film “Lost and Love” in 2015. Mr. Guo’s search rose to national prominence when the movie came out.Visual China Group, via Getty ImagesThe latest development in Mr. Guo’s story also seemed like something straight out of a screenwriter’s imagination.In June, law enforcement officials in Shandong received notice of a potential match for Mr. Guo’s son in Henan Province, according to the public security ministry. It was not immediately clear how officials had identified him, though they said they had used “the newest comparison and search methods.” Further blood work confirmed that the 26-year-old man, who some local news reports said was working as a teacher, was Mr. Guo’s son.The authorities later said that they had arrested a woman surnamed Tang and a man surnamed Hu. According to the state news media, Ms. Tang snatched the boy and delivered him to Mr. Hu, who then sold him. CCTV, the state broadcaster, said the two had confessed.Ahead of the reunion, a dazed Mr. Guo and his wife bought more than 1,000 pounds of candy to distribute to neighbors in celebration. Mr. Guo also cleaned out his home, tossing out old belongings to commemorate a new beginning.In an interview ahead of the reunion with Chen Luyu, a talk-show host, the parents veered between jubilation and paralysis. Sitting at their dining table, Ms. Zhang, Mr. Guo’s wife, broke down several times, wondering if their son would blame her for not watching him closely enough.Mr. Guo said he bore no resentment toward the couple that had raised his son. How his son would treat that couple going forward was up to him, he said.“If the child wants to be filial to his adopted parents, then you just need to openly and sincerely accept that,” he said.State media reports said that the younger Mr. Guo had said he would continue living with the couple that had raised him, who he said had treated him well. But he said he would visit his birth parents often.The elder Mr. Guo told Ms. Chen, the television host, that he was content with whatever the future brought.“Our child has been found,” he said. “From now on, only happiness is left.” More

    • 150 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      Paul Huntley, Hair Master of Broadway and Hollywood, Is Dead at 88

      by

      The many famous heads he worked on included those of Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Channing. Some actors requested him in their contracts.Paul Huntley, the hair stylist and wig designer who gave Carol Channing her expansive bouffant in “Hello, Dolly!,” Alan Cumming his plastered curl in “Cabaret” and Sutton Foster her golden bob in “Anything Goes,” died on Friday in London. He was 88. His death was confirmed by a friend, Liz Carboni, who said he had been hospitalized for a lung infection.Mr. Huntley left New York for London, his native city, in February, and made clear in an interview with The New York Times that his work on “Diana: The Musical,” which is to begin performances on Broadway in November, would be his last. The pandemic, he said, had dried up opportunities, and his fractured hip was hurting.In a 60-year career, Mr. Huntley styled hair and created wigs for more than 200 shows, including “The Elephant Man,” “Chicago” and “Cats.” He was so respected that Betty Buckley, Jessica Lange and others had contracts specifying that he would do their hair.“He put wigs on my head for every show except ‘Les Miz’ in London. He was the master,” the actress Patti LuPone said. “When I put on a Paul Huntley wig, I never felt anything but my character.”The costume designer William Ivey Long called him “by far the premier hair designer on the planet, hands down.”Mr. Huntley tried a wig on Sutton Foster in 2002 for her role in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” for which he sought to evoke New York City in 1922 with bangs, spit curls and finger waves.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesMr. Huntley’s output was prodigious, and he typically worked on several shows at once. In 2014 alone, he turned out 48 wigs for “Bullets Over Broadway” and more than 60 wigs and facial pieces for the Shakespeare Theater Company’s two-part “Henry IV” in Washington.In 2002, when he designed the hair for the Broadway musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” he also worked on “Morning’s at Seven,” “Hairspray” and the Off Broadway comedy “Helen.”For the show “Diana” — a version of which, filmed without an audience during the pandemic, is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on Oct. 1 — he created four wigs for the actress Jeanna de Waal to portray how the style of the Princess of Wales changed over time, from mousy ingenuousness to windswept sophistication.Paul Huntley was born on July 2, 1933, in Greater London, one of five children of a military man and a homemaker. He was fascinated at an early age by his mother’s movie magazines. After leaving school, he tried to find an apprenticeship in the film industry, but the flooded post-World War II job market had no space for him, so he enrolled at an acting school in London.He ended up helping with hair design for school productions and in the 1950s, after two years of military service, became an apprentice at Wig Creations, a large London theatrical company. He went on to become the main designer, working with the likes of Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich and Laurence Olivier.Mr. Huntley helped construct the signature braids worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 movie “Cleopatra.” Ms. Taylor introduced him to the director Mike Nichols, who a decade later enlisted Mr. Huntley to do hair for his Broadway production of “Uncle Vanya” at Circle in the Square. He eventually became the go-to designer for plays and musicals, including “The Real Thing,” “The Heidi Chronicles” and “Crazy for You.” More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘We Intend to Cause Havoc’ Review: Zambia Rock, Rediscovered

      by

      This new documentary takes its title from the acronym of WITCH, a once-popular Zambian combo.“Zamrock” is the tag applied to the music of several rock bands from Zambia dating from the early 1970s into the ’80s. Once known as Northern Rhodesia, the country in southern Africa achieved its independence in 1964. Zambian rockers applied British Invasion psychedelic accents to infectious rhythms derived from both their own continent’s musical traditions and James Brown.A new documentary directed by Gio Arlotta, “We Intend to Cause Havoc,” takes its title from the acronym of WITCH, a once-popular Zambian combo. Arlotta, who is from Italy, came upon the band’s music by happenstance, then conducted a pilgrimage to find its makers. In the footage here, he travels with a couple of European musicians, Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskovic, who visit archives and studios and hook up with the only surviving member of the original group, the charismatic singer and songwriter Emmanuel Chanda, whose stage name was Jagari (after, yes, Mick Jagger).Chanda is now a fervent Christian who works at a private gemstone mine, hoping to earn not necessarily riches but sustenance for his family. The music business in the United States was never a picnic for artists, but in Zambia “distribution” was practically synonymous with getting ripped off by pirates. Chanda is not bitter; nor is the guitarist Victor Kasoma, once of the band The Oscillators. Both men are eager to jam with the enthusiastic and slightly callow visiting Europeans.The movie picks up when the narration shifts from Arlotta’s to tag-team Chanda and the knowledgeable Eothen Alapatt, the head of a label that reissues Zamrock. The music itself is exciting enough that it washes out some of the unpleasant taste of the film’s early “white people discovering stuff” tone. And Chanda himself is incredibly winning, especially when he takes the stage.We Intend to Cause HavocNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV and Altavod. More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      'Black Widow' a Hit in Theaters and Streaming on Disney+

      by

      There has been a lot of hand-wringing about the demise of movie theaters over the past year and a half, and for good reason. Most were closed for at least a few months during the height of the pandemic. Companies like the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and Viacom have started to prioritize streaming for their films, in part to bolster subscriber interest in their own Netflix-style platforms.Over the weekend came evidence that, at least for the biggest franchise films and with a carefully calibrated pricing strategy, theatrical distribution and streaming can coexist.At least for now.“Black Widow,” a long-delayed Marvel movie, collected about $80 million in the United States and Canada from Thursday night to Sunday for Disney. Overseas, the superhero movie sold an additional $78 million in tickets. That means that, in total, roughly 17 million people went to see the movie in a theater, according to Rich Greenfield, a founder of the LightShed Partners research firm. After giving theater owners their cut of ticket sales, Disney cleared about $98 million over the weekend, Mr. Greenfield calculated.Disney also made “Black Widow” available on its Disney+ streaming service, which has more than 100 million subscribers worldwide. Subscribers could instantly watch the film (and have permanent access to it) for a $30 surcharge. Disney said on Sunday that Disney+ generated about $60 million from “Black Widow” orders over the weekend. Mr. Greenfield said that figure equated to about two million transactions and about $48 million in revenue for Disney after streaming partners had taken their cut. (The benefit to Disney in the form of new subscribers to Disney+ is unknown; subscriptions cost $8 a month.)There are several takeaways. “Imagine being a theater owner and realizing studios need you less and less everyday,” Mr. Greenfield wrote on Twitter. “Leverage is shifting rapidly in the streaming era toward the studios.”On the other hand, the fact that 17 million people decided to leave their bubbles and go sit with strangers in a theater — amid rising coronavirus infections, the result of the Delta variant — when they could just push a button in their living rooms is nothing to sneeze at. For now, theatrical distribution remains a major revenue generator and cannot be ignored if studios want to make money on big-budget spectacles.“This is an extremely impressive theatrical opening,” David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy, said in an email. “Certainly the figure would be higher if every theater were open, if there were zero concern with Covid and if there weren’t a streaming option. For now, those impediments make the ‘Black Widow’ opening all the more impressive.” More