The mother of all revenge flicks
Garner goes for broke as a grieving mom in Peppermint, Chris Lackner writes.
MOVIES
Big releases on Sept. 7: The Nun; Peppermint
Big picture: The Nun is a horror prequel from The Conjuring franchise. The movie tells the story of an evil, demonic, ancient nun tormenting a young, pretty, virtuous nun (Taissa Farmiga) at a gothic, European abbey. Helpfully, the demonic nun always wears black and the good nun sports white — just in case someone in the audience remains confused (you know, maybe they decided to drink shots of horse tranquillizer and hit themselves in the head with a stick before entering the theatre).
This spooky spinoff of
The Conjuring 2 is the fifth in the overall series. The audience tagline is “Pray for forgiveness,” but the Hollywood executive version is “Pray for franchise longevity.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer Garner will cause you to never look at a stick of peppermint gum the same way again.
She plays a deadly, vengeful mother who trains herself to be a lethal vigilante after her family is murdered by members of a drug cartel. She wakes up from a coma after the attack only to have corrupt cops and judges let her down. This mama bear proceeds to go off the grid for five years of hardcore re-programming. (Eat your heart out Jason Bourne.) When she’s finally ready to exorcise — and execute — her demons, justice is served swiftly and social media drives support for her as an antihero for our age.
Forecast: Garner’s vigilante will be more convincing than her ex-husband’s in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
TV
Big events: Next Gen (Sept. 7, Netflix); The 2019 Miss America Competition (Sept. 9, ABC); Kidding (Sept. 9, The Movie Network) Big picture: Next Gen is an animated film purchased for a reported $30 million at Cannes. (Which brings up the question: does Netflix have enough subscribers to pay this much for a single item in its catalogue?). Next Gen is about the special bond between a girl and cuttingedge robot — a connection that could save the planet when all other robot servants turn against their human owners (think Terminator, only a more familyfriendly robocalypse).
Meanwhile, tune into a new Miss America for the modern age. A ridiculous bikini competition will no longer be needed to help put a ridiculous tiara on a young woman’s head! The decision to cut the popular segment has been an endless source of debate, but did reformers go far enough? Does anyone really need a new Miss America? I predict a new consensus will emerge that it should have been re-born as a gender-neutral Captain America Competition. (Modern America needs a real Avenger, after all.)
Finally, Jim Carrey returns to television and reunites with director Michel Gondry in a surreal drama about Mr. Pickles, a troubled children’s show host. It’s like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood meets Sesame Street meets Punch Drunk Love meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey is masterful at delivering earnest lines like, “smiles are a little gift we give each other,” with bottomless sadness and frustration barely contained in his eyes. Forecast: Kidding ’s tailor-made role may bring Carrey more than just a smile; it could deliver an Emmy.
MUSIC
Big releases on Sept. 7: Paul McCartney (Egypt Station); Paul Simon (In The Blue Light); Lenny Kravitz (Raise Vibration);
St. Paul & The Broken Bones (Young Sick Camellia)
Big picture: Back to school week just happens to feature a musical master class. First, three Pauls for the price of one. For everyone’s favourite Beatle, it’s solo album No. 17. Meanwhile, Simon semicheats his way into solo album No. 14, which features new collaborations, lyrics and arrangements on 10 hand-picked “overlooked” songs. I’ll let him explain: “This album consists of songs that I thought were almost right.” Jazz icons, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and guitarist Bill Frisell join him to “modify” and, in some cases, “even completely change parts of the originals.”
St. Paul and Co. are a six-piece soul band; their third album keeps the soul train chugging along. Now that he’s officially done styling Hunger Games’ tributes, I guess Kravitz had time to go back to the studio to record album No. 11.