lifestyle MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015 Music & Movies Clooney goes back to future in ‘Tomorrowland’ ollywood heartthrob George Clooney straps on a jet Frank Walker, who found his way into Tomorrowland as a doing to the environment,” the 25-year-old actress said. “I pack again for Disney’s new movie “Tomorrowland,” young boy but became cynical and was thrown out by do think it’s all of these issues that provoke the post-apoca- Ha retro-futuristic spectacle mixing environmental Laurie’s character, David Nix. lyptic movies you see where the world is ending, whether themes with sci-fi wizardry-and some good old-fashioned it be environmental or technological,” she added. The fun. Clooney, who fired up his thrusters only two years ago Eiffel Tower spectacle Disney film is also a tribute to the studio giant’s founder, in Oscar-winning space drama “Gravity,” stars as a burned- The climax comes after some spectacular scenes, Walt Disney.”Walt was a futurist. He was very interested in out engineering genius in the film to be released next including one featuring the Eiffel Tower, showcasing com- space travel and what cities were going to look like and week, just in time for the summer blockbuster season. The puter-generated imagery by director Brad Bird, who won how transportation was going to work,” said Damon actor said the movie, which is difficult to categorize, was a an Oscar for animated film “The Incredibles” in 2005. It is Lindelof, who co-wrote the movie with Bird. “Walt’s think- courageous gamble by the studio giant, going up against unclear what Tomorrowland represents-some kind of col- ing was that the future is not something that happens to sure-fire box office hits like the latest “Avengers” sequel, lective consciousness of the future might be a best bet-but us. It’s something we make happen. And we really wanted “Age of Ultron.” “It’s a really bold thing for Disney to be will- the basic theme of the movie is that optimism should over- to take that baton and run with it,” he told industry publica- ing to do a film that isn’t a sequel and isn’t a comic book come cynicism.”What I loved about the film was that it tion Variety. — AFP and truly invest in a summer film of this sort of ilk,” he said, reminds you that young people (are) not... born and start presenting the film ahead of its US release on May 22. out their lives cynical or angry or bigoted, you have to be The movie’s plot has been shrouded in secrecy and, taught all of those things,” said Clooney. “I watch the world without giving away spoilers, it certainly provides a roller- now and think I see really good signs from young people coaster cinematic ride worthy of Disney’s Tomorrowland out there, and I feel as if the world will get better,” added George Clooney and Amal theme parks whose name it shares. It tells the story of the actor, whose previous sci-fi outings have included Clooney attend the ‘China: teenage rebel Casey, played by Britt Robertson, who finds 2002’s “Solaris.” Through The Looking Glass’ herself sucked into a mission to unearth the secrets of Robertson said climate change was also a key theme. Costume Institute Benefit Gala at “Tomorrowland,” a future realm ruled by a despot played “It’s us that’s creating that issue, it’s not anything other the Metropolitan Museum of Art. by British “House” star Hugh Laurie. Clooney plays inventor than the people and the environment and what we’re — AFP Cannes film review Amy Winehouse documentary ‘Amy’ elf-destructive” is the label commonly attached by arm- observations sometimes disguised by her cool, offhand delivery. chair pop psychologists to tragic figures like Amy In an early interview extract, she says that she “wouldn’t write any- “SWinehouse, the nervy, unruly and viciously talented thing unless it was directly personal (to her)”; it’s the kind of claim British jazz soul singer who died in 2011, aged just 27, from the made by many a more banal pop artist, but the film’s biographical cumulative effects of substance abuse. That term only tells half the findings often serve to flesh out this statement, revealing real-life story, however, in Asif Kapadia’s factually exhaustive, emotionally parallels for narratives already familiar from her songs. (In one of exhausting documentary “Amy,” which calmly identifies multiple many archive nuggets illustrating her mouthy, PR-averse wit, she collaborators-some with intentions better than others-in delivers a withering putdown of wholesome hitmaker Dido after Winehouse’s demise. Hardly innovative in form, but boasting the an interviewer suggests they come from the same school of same depth of feeling and breadth of archival material that made heart-on-sleeve songwriting.) Kapadia’s “Senna” so rewarding, this lengthy but immersive por- trait will hit hard with viewers who regard Winehouse among the great lost voices not just of a generation, but of an entire musical genre. Enduring local fascination ensures soaring returns when “Amy” arrives in Blighty this summer; across the pond, A24 should find success in a lower key. The positioning of “Amy” in the Midnight Screenings strand at Cannes is arguably misleading, implying a lurid, cult-seeking streak to Kapadia’s film that isn’t there-even if its methodical chart- ing of its subject’s personal decline is akin to a horror narrative without any possible escape route. Absent are any sensational (From left) French actress Emmanuelle Bercot, French actor Vincent Cassel, French actress and director Maiwenn, French gimmicks or theories here: Instead, with its absence of guiding actor Louis Garrel, French screenwriter Etienne Comar and French producer Alain Attal attend a press conference for the perspective and strictly linear rise-and-fall structure, the pic could film ‘Mon Roi’ (My King) at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France yesterday. — AFP be likened to an extended, abnormally intelligent episode of “Behind the Music.” What elevates it from such territory is the access Kapadia has gained to private materials, including voice- Video editor Chris King and director Asif Kapadia pose for mails and disarming homevideo, astutely selected and seamlessly photographers during a photo call for the film Amy, at the integrated by editor Chris King. 68th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday. — AP ‘Mon roi’ Coincidental distinction Even at her most disarranged, Winehouse presented a highly ometimes the hardest thing in life is to recognize that Tony sees Georgio on the dance floor, she’s simultaneously mannered image to the public; in deepening and humanizing Unashamed opportunist a relationship has run its course-or more difficult still, drawn to and turned off by him: He’s charming, over-gener- that indelible pop-culture brand, the intimacy of Kapadia’s One example of that ruthlessly reflective songwriting is “What Sthat the match may not have been healthy in the first ous and spontaneous, a recovered womanizer (or not) and a approach places the film alongside Brett Morgen’s recent anato- Is It About Men,” a scathing meditation on infidelity (“I can’t help place. In her fourth film as director, French actress-turned- potentially addictive personality. By contrast, she’s rational, my of an icon, “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.” Like Cobain, of but demonstrate my Freudian fate / My alibi for taking your guy”) helmer Maiwenn is concerned first and foremost with her guarded, insecure (no thanks to her ex-husband), a lawyer course, Winehouse is a member of the so-called “27 Club,” the inspired heavily by her own father’s domestic negligence. An characters, who rank among the most vividly realized of any who fights for lost causes. No match-making algorithm group of prodigious popular musicians who died at the same ten- unashamed opportunist who parlayed his daughter’s fame and to have graced the screen in recent memory, but behind would pair them, and Solal is right to be skeptical from the der age. It’s typical, however, of Kapadia’s avoidance of pat myth- subsequent downfall into tabloid-celebrity status-complete with that is the pain and heartache of fighting for a love that’s moment they meet, and yet, the connection is clear, para- making that this coincidental distinction isn’t once mentioned in an unauthorized reality show, “Amy: The Untold Story”-Mitch ultimately damaging to both parties. doxical and not necessarily doomed from the start. the film. From its first appearance on the soundtrack-a teenage Winehouse is presented here as one of two key male influences Despite a well-deserved track record in Cannes (where It’s an ineffable paradox, one that audiences either rec- rendition of “Happy Birthday” for longtime friend Lauren Gilbert- who inadvertently assisted her decline, with a cavalier attitude to her previous feature, “Polisse,” won the Jury Prize), Maiwenn ognize or reject, later described by the principle, “You leave that richly cracked, merlot-hued voice will be identified even by her long-term bulimia and initial denial of her need for addiction remains under-appreciated by the critical community, but people for the same reason that attracted you in the first those passingly acquainted with Winehouse’s music. treatment. The other is her ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, whose that will change after the world experiences “Mon roi,” a place.” Though her method encourages improvisation, There’s a jolting disconnect in such early footage, however, toxic on-off relationship with Winehouse was the driving force movie that may sound anti-romantic, but is just the oppo- Maiwenn has adopted a strategy very much in vogue with between the voice and the physical presence behind it.