CONSIDER A TUNE UP WITH CARS 3 OR BLOOD DRIVE
Talking vehicles amuse kids; adults face ‘ravaged civilization,’ writes Chris Lackner.
MOVIES
Big releases on June 16: Cars 3; Rough Night.
Big picture: In our era of climate upheaval and empty — or broken — environmental promises, perhaps it’s only fitting that a Disney film franchise about talking race cars has become a blockbuster trilogy. Cars 3 is like Rocky Balboa with talking cars. The legendary Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), finds his track supremacy tested by a group of younger, shinier, faster models. Lightning quickly does his best Rocky impersonation — “I decide when I am done” — and trains harder than ever to prove he’s not one fender bender away from a junkyard scrap heap.
Meanwhile, Rough Night is essentially The Hangover meets Weekend at Bernie’s meets Bridesmaids. When five female college friends (Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz), reunite for a Miami bachelorette party weekend, the night starts with scoring “coke from the bus boy” — and takes a walk on the wild side.
McKinnon plays crazy-eyed scene-stealer (as she did in Ghostbusters, and does every weekend on Saturday Night Live). When the girls gone bad accidentally kill a stripper (that’s no spoiler, it’s in all the trailers), the night goes downhill fast — but the dark comedy somehow keeps the laughs coming.
Forecast: People shouldn’t judge a book by its cover — and won’t judge a movie by its mediocre name. Rough Night, huh? Seems like a screenwriter must have had a “rough night” coming up with that title.
TV
Big events: Superhuman (June 12, Fox); Blood Drive (June 14, Space).
Big picture: Reality TV is one step closer to exposing real mutants and super-humans in this one-hour competition series for “ordinary people with extraordinary abilities.” In every episode, five contestants “who possess a distinct, nearly superhuman ability in fields such as memory, hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight” will contend for a $50,000 grand prize. Let’s just hope nobody invited Wolverine, or things could become a bloody mess.
Speaking of the red stuff, Blood Drive take campiness and Grindhouse-style to an almost unhealthy new level in this postapocalyptic thriller about an America in which, “a global fuel shortage has ravaged civilization … but instead of going green we went red.” True to form, each week the series promises a healthy mix of “cannibals, monsters, cults, lawmen, nymphos, and amazons.”
Forecast: Set in the not-too-distant future, Blood Drive is probably already dangerously close to becoming Donald Trump’s official domestic policy. (But am I the only one who would have preferred Cars 3: Blood Drive?)
MUSIC
Big releases on June 16: Fleet Foxes (Crack-Up); Lorde (Melodrama).
Big picture: Fleet Foxes don’t seem to move quickly, but the beloved folk-rock band returns just in time to harmonize your summer. The band went on self-imposed hiatus after their first two critically acclaimed albums of medieval- and gospelfuelled indie folk; but whimsical frontman Robin Pecknold and company returned to the studio. This time around, they play mad-scientist with tempos, and even fuse bits and pieces of songs (it’s their Abbey Road minus the breakup).
Meanwhile, Lorde was crowned a music-industry queen at 16 when her debut album (Pure Heroine), went triple platinum. For her sophomore effort, she writes about her personal penchant for Melodrama. Given the album’s breadth, the 20-year-old New Zealander has apparently lived multiple lifetimes in her two decades.
Forecast: I feel like Fleet Foxes almost started a band-name craze with their 2008 debut, and dynamic Helplessness Blues (2011). This time, they will push it over the top.
Expect to be introduced to an endless parade of “adjective/ animal” named bands: Homely
Hummingbird, Ardous Anteater, Slovenly Sloth, Harrowing Hippo etc. Neither folk rock or the animal kingdom will never be the same.
Honourable mention: Steve Earle (So You Wanna Be an Outlaw). The outlaw life isn’t for me, Steve. But I’m thankful your countrified folk-rock always helps me fill that void.