POP FORECAST
What’s new in movies, TV and music
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” 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 release on July 22: Star Trek Beyond. Big picture: After two reboot films in which the crew barely made it out of Earth’s orbit, Beyond could easily be a spa day on Pluto. But Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine) and company finally go “where no one has gone before” in their third cinematic voyage: uncharted space. A few standard Trek plot lines ensue: a rescue mission gone wrong, “millions of lives” at stake, and yet another Enterprise crashing or blowing up. (At this point, Starfleet must have a hanger of backup ships just waiting to be christened the next Enterprise).
Instead of a vengeful, superhuman villain named Khan, this film offers a vengeful, super-alien villain named Krall (Idris Elba). As he warns Kirk, “This is where the frontier pushes back.” It’s also where the final frontier gets Fast & Furious. Justin Lin, a man largely famous for directing Vin Diesel and exploding cars, directs this franchise outing.
On the plus side, it’s co-written by Simon Pegg (who knew Scotty had the time to be an engineer and a screenwriter!?). Fingers crossed that Lin stayed true to the source material. If it’s all action and no intellect, he might as well have cast Vin Diesel as Spock. The Vulcan’s new lines like, “We all find hope in the impossible” could have been replaced by eloquent grunts. Forecast: My prediction? This film will lead to all-new James Bond casting rumours that Elba will play Bond … in his Krall makeup. Imagine an intergalactic spy with a licence to kill (with William Shatner as the new M)! Meanwhile, Star Trek Beyond will be a fitting tribute to the late actor Anton Yelchin, who returns as Chekov.
TV
Big event: BoJack Horseman (July 22, Netflix). Big picture: It’s partially a testament to lazy summer TV scheduling that the “big event” this week is the season première of a largely unknown, very adult cartoon about a talking horse actor. In Season 3, BoJack is on the cusp of Hollywood superstardom — making him question why he’s so unhappy and still a jackass (or at least a close relation). Will Arnett impeccably voices BoJack; it makes me hope the actor gets cast as Silver in the next reboot of the Lone Ranger. (Amy Sedaris, Aaron Paul and Alison Brie ably bring BoJack’s animated co-stars to life). Forecast: No horsing around, BoJack may be the best animated adult comedy in today’s crowded field.
MUSIC
Big release on July 22: Look Park (Look Park). Big picture: Sure, the band name and album name sound painfully uninspiring. But they’re not a random pairing of verb and noun; they’re an actual park in Northampton, Mass. This is a new solo project from Chris Collingwood of Fountains of Wayne. The musical edition of Look Park is home to psychedelic rock, a rhythm section, harmonies, keyboards, reverb and plenty of mellotron. Most importantly, it’s easier to dive into than Fountain of Wayne. Forecast: Collingwood’s solo path is on solid ground. Meanwhile, the album could inspire Drake to include even more Canadian references in his next output. With his Toronto tribute album, Views, behind him, I expect a five-song EP tribute to the Great Lakes — mainly as a poor excuse for the hip-hop star’s label to film a parade of champagne and bikini-filled yacht videos.