LIFESTYLE37 MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2015 Features

Syrian singer Assala waves during a photocall at the 14th edition of the music festival Mawazine.

“Happy” singer Pharrell Williams performs on stage at Morocco’s biggest music event, the Mawazine Festival, in Rabat, Morocco, Saturday. —AP photos

Review: Witherspoon on portraying Clinton, finding great roles for women eese Witherspoon offered plenty of encouragement to fellow producers on Saturday morning by stressing the need to focus on the female audience-as Rdemonstrated by her recent producing efforts, “Wild,” “Gone Girl” and “Hot Pursuit.”“Women make up 50 percent of the population,” she said. “We should make up 50% of the movies we see.” Speaking at the Producers Guild of America’s 7th annual “Produced By” conference on the Paramount lot, Witherspoon said the success of her Pacific Standard company stems partly from Hollywood knowing what to expect from the shingle. Witherspoon noted that she and partner Bruna Papandrea created the banner out of frustration with a lack of interesting roles for actresses. “It is great to have specificity because people know what to send you,” Witherspoon noted. “We are look- ing for great female parts.”

Something I love But Witherspoon also noted that Pacific Standard wants to succeed on the basis on story. “The films we make are not chick flicks,” she insisted. “‘Wild’ is just about a human being.” Speaking to a capacity crowd of more than 500 at the Paramount Theater, Witherspoon also addressed the question of whether she’d ever portray Hillary Clinton. She responded by saying that she’s been asked to do so several times and wryly point- ed out that she portrayed a young version of Clinton as Tracy Flick in 1998’s “Election.” “When I did meet Hillary Clinton she said, ‘Everybody talks to me about Tracy Flick in ‘Election,’” Witherspoon added. Asked by moderator Will Packer if they believed they had made any mistakes with “Wild,” Witherspoon responded: “Shooting 55 locations in This photo provided by Sony Pictures Entertainment shows 30 days was probably not the best way to start, but we were determined.” Both produc- Bradley Cooper, left, and Rachel McAdams in a scene from ers noted that they were also pregnant at the time. Papandrea said being a mother is not a disadvantage. “I make better decisions because when I’m leaving my children, I Reese Witherspoon Columbia Pictures’ “Aloha.” —AP want to do something I love,” she said. —Reuters Say goodbye, not hello, to Cameron Crowe’s‘Aloha’ ameron Crowe loves a good failure story, and specifically what happens after a disastrous fall from the top. If Crowe were a char- Cacter in his own film, the fiasco of “Aloha,” and nearly all of his post-”Almost Famous” movies, would provide the perfect intro. Unfortunately, “Aloha” is not part of some larger redemption narrative for Crowe (at least not yet). It’s just another fascinating mess from an earnest and occasionally excellent filmmaker who can’t seem to recreate the enveloping magic and charm of his earlier films. It’s an unfair stan- dard for anyone, but it’s hard not to hope for the best from Crowe, even if his past few films have taught us otherwise. “Aloha” was cut off at its knees from the start as one of the unwitting victims of criticism from sharp-toothed executives in last year’s Sony hack, leaving Crowe fans wondering just how bad the film could be. After all, he had a charming, of-the-moment cast, a compelling-on- paper story about a man reconnecting with a longtime ex while also falling for a pretty young thing and an idyllic location to work with. And yet in execution, “Aloha” is a meandering, needlessly confusing cacophony of story, performance, and spiritual blather. Not only does it feel inauthentic, it’s often downright alien. The story, briefly, is about the once idealistic Brian (Bradley Cooper) who sold his soul to a military con- tractor (a nearly comatose Bill Murray) and has returned to Hawaii for a job. There, he’s forced to revisit his failed relationship with Tracy (Rachel McAdams), who’s since had two kids and married a man of few words (John Krasinski). He’s also been tethered to the bizarre Air Force pilot/potential love interest Allison Ng (Emma Stone). How something that straightforward goes astray is a bit of a mystery. Crowe packs every moment with so many words, but very little coherent information. The discomfort of not knowing what’s going on rots the overall experience, especially when the odd satellite defense subplot takes over. It some- times feels like half the movie is missing.

Female characters At one point, probably 30 minutes in, Brian and Ng are together, going somewhere. The two characters talk and bicker at rapid speed. Queen Mathilde of Belgium poses with South Korea’s Lim Ji Young (fifth right) and the laureates after the final But they’re not really talking to each other, at least in the way that any session of the finals of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition 2015 at the Brussels’ Bozar. —AFP photos human might understand conversation to work with another human. It’s all cute turns of phrase and non-sequiturs. By the time they get to their destination - a settlement of native Hawaiians who want sover- eignty - you’ve fully forgotten, or perhaps never understood, why exact- S Korean violinist, 20, wins ly they are there. And it only gets more jumbled. Part of the problem is Ng Crowe has a knack for writing good female characters - Tracy comes pretty close - but the childlike Ng is not a per- son who has or will ever exist. The usually wonderful Stone, in a rare mis- Queen Elisabeth competition step, is lost here as the one-quarter Hawaiian F-22 pilot who calls Brian “sir” even after they’ve started to fall for each other. She speaks in a clipped, grating staccato that’s only ever softened when waxing poetic wenty-year-old South Korean violinist Ji Young Lim Seoul-born Ji Young Lim, who trained in her homeland, about her Hawaiian heritage and the spirituality of a clear sky. Her quirks has won Belgium’s prestigious Queen Elisabeth is the second Korean in as many years to win the competi- are meant to charm. Unfortunately they have the opposite effect. TInternational Music Competition. Ji’s interpretation tion, which alternates annually between violin, piano and There are some lovely moments of humor and depth that do suc- of Brahms’s violin concerto in D major landed her the top singing. Soprano Sumi Hwang won the 2014 edition of ceed - including a long-lead joke that is used to brilliant effect in one of prize of 25,000 euros ($27,470) and a four-year loan of a the contest, which has been running since 1937. Next the final scenes. McAdams and Cooper also have wonderful chemistry 1708 Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation, year’s competition will be reserved for pianists, with the the jury announced around midnight Saturday. Oleksii cello set to make its debut the in 2017. The winner and a deeply felt wistfulness over their romantic past. Their scenes Lim Ji Young of South Korea celebrates after the together are the film’s rare bright spot and a reminder of Crowe’s unique Semenenko of Ukraine and William Hagen of the United receives invitations to perform around the world. —AFP strength as an idiosyncratic voice. —AP States came second and third respectively. final session.