Jennifer Lopez gets involved with The Boy Next Door
“You don’ t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” Bob Dylan sang. But these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the coming week.
MOVIES
Big Releases on Jan. 23: The Boy Next Door; Mortdecai
Big Picture: If Jennifer Lopez was a middle-aged man, she’d just buy a fancy wig, a fancy sports car and start dating a cocktail waitress. Instead, the 45-year-old’s mid-life crisis finds her starring in the movie The Boy Next Door. Lopez plays a sexy, widowed school teacher who “accidentally” sleeps with the disturbed, hunky, teenage son of her new neighbours. Worse yet? He enrols as a student in her high school class? Worse yet? She used to star in movies like Selena and Out of Sight.
Meanwhile, in other downward - t rending news, Johnny Depp — sporting an ironic moustache — mugs for the camera as a roguish art dealer caught up in espionage and an international heist. Imagine Willy Wonka mixed with Captain Jack Sparrow mixed with someone you “instinctively want to punch in the face.”
That’s Mortdecai. Gwyneth Paltrow and Ewan McGregor co-star in the action-comedy.
Forecast: Don’t worry neighbours, Lopez is still Jenny from the Block. (But be sure to lock up your teenage sons).
TV
Big Events: The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Jan. 19, Comedy Network); Backstrom (Jan. 22, Fox/ City)
Big Picture: Nothing can replace the brilliant political satire of The Colbert Report. (If I could only save two people from a zombie invasion, I’d take Stephen Colbert and my wife … in that order. You need laughs at Armageddon). But Larry Wilmore, another Daily Show alumni, has the talent to carve out his own comedic path. Jon Stewart’s former “senior black correspondent” will step into Colbert’s slot following his ex-boss.
Meanwhile, TV needs another brilliant misanthrope like it needs another Kardashian. But another new series finds Rainn Wilson (The Office) playing Everett Backstrom, an unorthodox, self-destructive, “offensive” but “brilliant” cop. Backstrom’s character acts like he’s possessed by the spirit of Hugh Laurie’s House (Hmmm, I kind of like the sound of that premise for an actual series). Hart Hanson (Bones) helms this predictably “unpredictable” comic crime procedural based on the Swedish book series by Leif G.W. Persson. (On City, it moves to Thursdays after premiere).
Forecast: Wilmore describes his show as a hybrid of The Daily Show and Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect. Sounds like nightly viewing to me. Backstrom would be better if Steve Carell played the police chief.
MUSIC
Big Release on Jan. 20: The Decemberists (What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World)
Big Picture: The album title says it all. Precious. Ironic. Whimsical. Portland’s The Decemberists are like a musical drug for hipsters. But don’t let that turn you off. They’re also a damn fine band, consistently innovating and evolving. Colin Meloy is also one of the best lyricists — and voices — in the business. His tunes tell actual stories — a novelty in this day and age. This is literate folk-pop music. The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons of the world are in grade school; Meloy has a PhD. Who else can make songs about sea mariners and “chimbley sweeps” appeal to a mass audience?
Forecast: The Decemberists make the world far less terrible. Their last album, The King is Dead, unexpectedly ended up topping the charts. This seventh studio effort recaptures that magic.