BLUTHS BACK IN BLOOM
Arrested Development back for more as Adrift hits theatres, Chris Lackner writes.
TV
Big releases: Arrested Development (May 29, Netflix); Reverie (May 30, NBC/Global); Succession (June 3, HBO Canada).
Big picture: TV’s most dysfunctional family is back for a fifth season. While the show’s 2013 comeback featured episodes centred on individual Bluths, the whole cast will appear in each episode of the cult show’s new season. From an unlikely award honour as Family of the Year to Lindsay Bluth running for political office, expect nothing to go right as usual. Gob Bluth’s catchphrase “I’ve made a huge mistake” might as well be the Bluth family mantra. Netflix is releasing half the season to suck in the binge watchers.
Meanwhile, Reverie is like Total Recall meets Inception meets a police procedural. Imagine a virtual reality world where humans live inside their “all-time favourite memory” — a place where, we’re told, “the impossible becomes possible” and “you’re put inside a waking dream of your own design.”
A former police hostage negotiator is hired to enter the Reverie to bring back people trapped inside their own dreams. Naturally, there are a few bugs in the program. Sarah Shahi and Dennis Haysbert star.
In Succession, Brian Cox plays the erratic, arrogant head of a global media empire (think the worst of Rupert Murdoch magnified by melodramatic TV writers) who finds himself in friendly crossfire from the offspring striving to succeed him.
Forecast: Succession will succeed. More seasons of Arrested Development are a huge mistake.
MOVIES
Big releases on June 1: Action
Point; Adrift.
Big picture: Sometimes, there is truth in advertising. Take these 11 words from Action Point’s promo, for example: “From the stars of Jackass. From the stars of Bad Grandpa.”
In other words, audiences walking into the action-comedy should know what they’re getting into: More over-the-top, crude Jackass-style stunts strung together by a wafer-thin narrative, in this case about an amusement park down on its luck that decides to win over visitors with a “no rules, no speed limits, just pure fun” mantra.
If by “fun” your definition is men in bear costumes being lit on fire, dudes getting hit in the groin in increasingly elaborate ways, dudes getting flushed down water slides with a high pressure hose and/or people being catapulted through the wall of a barn.
Johnny Knoxville plays the owner of the amusement park and the Jackass collective play members his staff of self-destructive, drunken misfits.
Meanwhile, Adrift is The Perfect Storm meets Castaway. It’s the true story of a couple (played by Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin) who, while sailing from Tahiti to San Diego, are nearly vanquished by one of the biggest hurricanes of all time — only to make a daring 2,000-mile Hail Mary sail to Hawaii to try to save their lives.
Forecast: Body parts were hurt in the making of Action Point; brain cells will be hurt watching it.
MUSIC
Big releases on June 1: Neko Case (Hell- On); Ben Howard (Noonday Dream), Joan of Arc (1984). Big picture: Indie goddess Neko Case heats up your summer playlist with her first solo album in five years. It features collaborations, including fellow New Pornographer A.C. Newman, k.d. lang, Mark Lanegan, Beth Ditto and Eric Bachmann. As Case told NPR: “I write songs from a feeling of solidarity with folks who feel alone or isolated. I think I’m trying to comfort people in this way.” Lord knows we need it.
Meanwhile, English singersongwriter Ben Howard gets caught daydreaming on his third album of hazy guitars and pseudo folk-rock. Finally, Joan of Arc. I’m not even going to research anything about this band because I’d prefer to pretend an ambitious producer discovered one of Pharrell’s giant hats was magical and went back in time to rescue the ill-fated French military hero and usher in her unlikely 21stcentury music career.
Forecast: The Case is closed: you need Neko’s new album. And you can look forward to other historical figures making music via time machines, or at least inspiring band names. I predict the likes of Isaac Newton (debut release: Gravity), Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde (how is this not an indie band already) and Napoleon (stage name Notorious S.M.A.L.L.).