Scents and Sensibility
Romance is not always quite so tied to flowers, Chris Lackner writes.
MOVIES
Big release: Tulip Fever (opening Sept. 1 in Toronto and Vancouver, with other cities to follow in coming weeks).
Big picture: The romantic period drama Tulip Fever is like Romeo and Juliet meets The Nature of Things meets Titanic meets The Affair. There are two kinds of people: Those poised to unleash squeals of joy when reading that description, and those who feel ill.
Set in Amsterdam in 1634, the film follows a married woman (Alicia Vikander) who begins an affair with a portrait artist.
The star-crossed lovers hatch a plan to leverage the booming market for tulip bulbs to raise money and start a new life together.
Forecast: Who knew tulips could be sexy and dangerous? I predict a new phenom of flower power on the silver screen. It won’t be long before Transformers 6: Enter the Perennialbots, Pixar’s A Garden’s Story, or the R-rated, edgy romcom The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees.
TV
Big events: Narcos (Sept. 1, Netflix).
Big picture: Pablo Escobar is gone, and so is the actor (Wagner Moura) who deftly played him for seasons 1 and 2 of this international series. But cocaine cartels are like monarchies. There’s a succession. The day Pablo went down, the Cali cartel became public enemy No. 1. While Pablo was a charismatic, unpredictable thug, the show’s new top dogs in Colombia are described as “Cocaine incorporated” run “like a Fortune 500 company.”
Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones) returns as DEA agent Javier Peña, once again stuck in a deadly battle that forces him to commit more than a few evils to stop the bad guys.
To take down the Cali cartel, you’d have to be “crazy, stupid, brave and lucky all at the same time.” Best of luck, Javier.
Forecast: Narcos is always a time for great-TV lovers to feel high.
MUSIC
Big releases on Sept. 1: LCD Soundsystem (American Dream), Joan Osborne (Songs of Bob Dylan).
Big picture: Breaking up is hard to do. After a five-year disband, LCD reunited this year to put out a fourth studio album. American Dream comes out as the U.S. seems to be living anything but. Maybe another dose of James Murphy and company’s addictive dance-rock is just what the continent needs. Rock, punk, disco, dance, funk and so forth are once again tossed and mixed in the band’s musical cauldron.
Meanwhile, everyone has covered Bob Dylan, but Joan Osborne one-ups them with a track-for-track cover album of pop music’s greatest living bard.
Forecast: Osborne will start a trend. I predict Miley Cyrus (Songs of Elvis), Justin Timberlake (Songs of Johnny Cash), and Nickelback (Songs of ABBA). Honourable mention:
Motörhead (Under Cover). The venerable English rockers put out a cover album of diverse artists, including David Bowie, Metallica, Judas Priest, the Ramones, and two of The Rolling Stones’ songs: Jumpin Jack Flash and Sympathy for the Devil.