Animal Crackers in theatres, other coming attractions
Movies Big releases on Sept. 1: Animal Crackers; Tulip Fever.
Big picture: Well, I guess animators have finally run out of animals to anthropomorphize. Now they’re making animal crackers seem human. Literally. This cartoon stars the voices of John Krasinski, Ian McKellen, Emily Blunt and Sylvester Stallone. It’s all about a family gifted with a magical box of animal crackers they can use to save a rundown circus — by eating and, becoming, said animal crackers. Danny DeVito is a scene-stealer as a mildly creepy clown and keeper of the circus secrets. He’s like a PG version of Pennywise.
Meanwhile, 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, a married woman (Alicia Vikander), 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 to start a new life together.
Forecast: I predict a new rash of cookie-based films. Get ready for Pixar’s Chocolate Chip Cookie, set on the surface of a cookie and where each chip has its own personality and dreams. 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 Throne’s short-lived Oberyn Martell) returns as DEA agent Javier Pena, 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 tossedand-mixed in the band’s musical cauldron.
Meanwhile, everyone has covered Bob Dylan, but Joan Osborne one-ups them with a track-fortrack cover album of pop music’s greatest living bard. Listen as Osborne reinvents the likes of
Highway 61 Revisited and Tangled Up in Blue.
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 Stones’ songs: Jumpin Jack Flash and Sympathy for the Devil.