Movie Nation

Filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite was something of a “SeaWorld mom.” She’d taken her kids to the San Diego location of the popular theme park corporation, “planted us firmly in the Shamu splash zone and we all just ate it up.”
Then she read of SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau’s grisly death by orca in February of 2010. She “just couldn’t come to terms with it. I could not understand how a highly intelligent, beloved mammal could make that decision. I was confounded. Was he playing? Did she drown accidentally? The more I read, the more questions I had.
“And the more questions I had, the more I realized that if I have them, other people have them too.”
Cowperthwaite took her questions to eight former SeaWorld trainers, and their answers, on camera, turned into “Blackfish,” an acclaimed new documentary about killer whales, SeaWorld and the “incidents” that have occurred at such parks all over the world.
Dawn’s death was my portal into the whole subject of whether these animals should be kept like this,” Cowperthwaite says. “This is a place that we all thought was a happy place. It’s on every parents’ bucket list — take the kids to see Shamu. We all grew up calling them ‘Shamus.’ Shamu is embedded into the American experience.
“I wanted to come at it from my point of view, a little uncomfortable watching these trainers fly off the nose of these great whales. Yes, every face in that stadium was smiling, but I wondered how something that seemed to make everyone so happy could be so utterly wrong.”
John Hargrove is one of the trainers she interviewed, a true “expert witness” to killer whale interactions and a veteran of SeaWorld of Texas, SeaWorld of California and Marineland in the South of France. He says that as thorough as the training he received was, there are things going on with the whales that stress them and set the stage for attacks like the one that killed Brancheau.
You work with them, you’re aware of their aggression,” Hargrove says.”You feel what they’re capable of. As horrific as Dawn’s death was, and she was a friend of mine, I wasn’t shocked. We knew Tillikum (Brancheau’s killer) was capable of, really, what any killer whale is capable of. You know. Once a trainer goes through a water-work aggression with a whale, or see it, that gives you a greater appreciation for what could go wrong when they get angry.”
Hargrove and the others spoke out because “the needs of the whales are not being met. The size of the facilities, the age of the facilities, the fact that SeaWorld is making a fortune and not putting that money back into taking better care of the whales,” he says. “They renovate the barbecue restaurant and put in new roller coasters. And the whales, which are responsible for SeaWorld’s success, were not seeing any of the benefit of that.”
Cowperthwaite, who had worked on an “Animal Nightmares” TV series early on, but in recent years has filmed Iraq War combat documentaries and a documentary about urban lacrosse, came to the same conclusion.
“The people who made the film — the former trainers and me — think we need to vote with our dollars until SeaWorld puts an end to the captive breeding,” she says. “They need to stop perpetuating killer whales in captivity and we need to stop going to their parks until they do that.”
Reviews of the film have endorsed that message, with Variety agreeing that SeaWorld comes off as “a deep-pocketed institution that, for all its claims of humane and professional treatment, tolerates practices that are fundamentally at odds with the animals’ well-being.”
The company has only responded to the film in with a statement accusing the film of repeating “the same unfounded allegations made many times over the last several years by animal-rights activists.” “The company is dedicated in every respect to the safety of our staff and the welfare of animals.”
But it’s responses like that which drove Cowperthwaite during the making of “Blackfish.”
“I’m not an animal activist. I’m a mother who took her kids to SeaWorld…I hope the film starts a conversation. You come out of it armed with the truth, a truth that they try to cover up.
“I think we’ve made an accurate, factual document that makes a pretty good case for taking another look at how these animals are treated, whether they should be penned up like this and what can be done about it in the future.”

(Roger Moore’s review of “Blackfish” is here)

This item from The Hollywood Reporter points to where Hollywood has its eyes these days, when planning, casting and executing big movies.

Asia. China. Where they’re building theaters and expanding audience by the hour. It’s the real growth market.

So audiences in North America may turn their backs on Will Smith and his insufferable son. Critics may hunt for Scientology ethos in the messages of the movie and sniff at the illogic, the performances, what have you.

But will it sell in China? That’s the important thing. It’s why we see more Chinese stories, fewer Chinese villains and more Asian sidekicks, leads or what have you.

“After Earth” opened big in China — $13.8 million. The day will come, when ticket prices are closer to US and European levels, and a vastly enlarged collection of screens, that China is the first and foremost consideration, when a movie like “Pacific Rim” is worth the obscene investment just because market research says it’ll play in Korea, Thailand, Japan and China.

The woman with the name of a park — or street intersection — supporting player in “Parks & Recreation,” break-out star of “Safety Not Guaranteed” — has a new movie out.

“The To Do List” has Ms. Plaza, 29, playing a smart nerdy, methodical girl who vows to tear through a vast list of sexual experiences so that she’s not a virgin in any way shape or form when she starts college in the fall.

I’m interviewing her about the movie, and as usual, I’m looking for suggested lines of inquiry. Questions for Aubrey Plaza? Post them as comments below, and thanks for the help.

Here’s a fun Mashable mash-up that connects Pixar’s entire collection of pictures into one big “Marvel-style” universe, one odd continuum, where images of Sully the Monster turn up carved into a wooden support trunk in a witch’s house in “Brave,” where the batteries that power Buzz Lightyear are made by the gigantic B & L corporation that eventually runs and ruins the world in “Wall-E.”
Machines take over, “Cars” live on their own.

Some of this running gag business is like Warners animators putting “Acme” products in everything from Road Runner cartoons to Elmer/Daffy/Bugs sketches.

Inside jokes by the animators? Sure. Especially that sneaky Sully cookie in “Brave.”

Pixar saving cash by recycling rendered images of a travel trailer from “Bug’s Life” to “Monsters, Inc.”? Maybe. More likely, actually.

It does nothing to explain the stumbling scripts that have passed through Pixar since “Ratatouille”, the incessant, cynical sequeling of good films (“Toy Story”) and bad (“Cars”).

But a fun, obsessive read.  Nicely done, Jon Negroni. Now, try to get out more.

The box office this weekend is looking about 25% better than last summer at this time. The crowded animation slate this season is a reason why.

“Despicable Me 2” will surpass “Monsters University” in total BO take by next weekend. This weekend, it did enough to best “Grownups 2” –$44.7 million  and change, according to Box Office Mojo.

Startling news about “Grownups”? Sandler’s pal-packed,  listless, almost scriptless comedy cost an alleged $80 million. All spent on the cast. Big check for the big guy, lotsa little checks spread around amongst his cronies. As I said in my review, this was a real share-the-wealth make-work project, stimulating the economy and what not. Not a dime spent on the script, apparently. Or director. Another crony (Dennis Dugan).

$42.5 million in box office this weekend.

“Pacific Rim” is doing well overseas — and earned over $38 here. It cost a lot more than “Grown Ups 2”, but considering interest in it wasn’t huge on this side of the ocean, that’s a win. Del Toro’s middling monster mash is a hit and in the black.

Further down the BO charts — “The Heat” cleared $100 million Friday, “Lone RAnger” will be lucky to reach $75 before it loses all its screens, “This is the End” should finish its run right at $100.

Kevin Hart’s explaining his way towards $30 million for that concert film.

“The Way Way Back” and “Fruitvale Station” are doing great business in a handful of theaters.

As depictions of the elderly and the effects of Alzheimer’s go, the gentle Canadian drama “Still Mine” is a lot closer to “The Notebook” than last year’s bleak, Oscar nominated French film “Amour.” There’s a tenderness about it that softens the blow of tragedy, a grumpy whimsy that lessens the sting of “Some day, that’ll be me.”
James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold bring great sensitivity to the Morrisons, a New Brunswick farm couple whose world is shrinking and whose lives — they’re in their 80s — are winding down.
Irene is forgetting things. Craig isn’t, and as active as he still is — doing chores, tending to cattle, raising strawberries and milling his own lumber — he figures he can handle whatever adjustment their dotage requires. He’s strong enough for both. He thinks. Until the fence breaks and the cows get out.
“Heard about the cows,” his son (Ronan Rees) mentions in passing.
“Everybody’s heard about the cows,” Craig grumps.
They’ve raised seven kids, a couple of whom also farm and live close by. But while they’re not hiding Irene’s steady slide towards senility from them, Craig and Irene aren’t updating the kids daily or aren’t seeking medical advice that Craig figures won’t be of much value at this stage.
One thing Craig figures he can control is their living situation. Their place “no longer works for us.” Irene needs less space, no stairs and maybe a kitchen where the risk of her burning the place down is removed. He promises Irene one last house, a self-built frame home on a pretty corner of their farm. Don’t try telling him he’s too old to be messing with chainsaws, tractors, cutting and finishing his own lumber.
“Way I look at it, old age is just an abstraction,” he says.
One thing that isn’t abstract is the permitting process, the ways one gets permission to do something today that in Craig’s youth he just went out and did, “the way my dad taught me.” And that’s where “Still Mine” turns into a battle of wills between a man of unerring competence — we see Craig cut the wood, saw the joists and boards and slowly raise the house — and the officious folk who post “Stop Work” notices on his project.
“Still Mine” is more sentimental than unblinking in its depiction of old age. Bujold’s warmth hasn’t faded as the wrinkles, grey hair and blemishes of old age move in. And Cromwell might be entirely too spry — wrestling with logs and such — to fit most people’s idea of 87. But he makes Craig wholly human, someone whose temper flares at both bureaucrats and the wife whose infirmity frustrates and frightens him.
It’s a sometimes moving movie of modest ambitions and simple charms, and sometimes that’s enough.

(Interview with James Cromwell is here)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some thematic elements and brief sensuality/partial nudity.
Cast: James Cromwell, Geneviève Bujold, Campbell Scott
Credits: Written and directed by Gavin McGowan.  A Samuel Goldwyn release
Running time: 1:43

The late night Thursday and all day Friday ticket sales of “Grown Ups 2” point to yet another boost to Adam Sandler’s once-fading fortunes. It could very well win the weekend, unless all those people who saw this critically lambasted abortion text their friends and warn them away.

It should clear $40 million, according to Deadline.com. The film feels like a farewell tour, of sorts, as Sandler rounds up not just some of his cronies, but virtually ALL of them for cameos, bit parts and the like. If this clears $100 million at some point, he’ll be back with another. He’s shooting more projects, but his box office appeal has faded aside from these allegedly family-friendly Sandler movies.

But Saturday, even in the summer, is the big “take the kids to the cinema” day, so “Despicable Me 2,” which has mirrored the fortunes of Pixar’s “Monsters University,” should win the weekend with a $47-50 million take. It has to make its money now, as “Turbo” opens Wednesday and could suck that audience away.

“Pacific Rim” had a very good midnight run Thursday, but faded a bit Friday. It has 3D and IMAX ticket inflation going for it, but the take may be in the $35-40 million range. Those are “Lone Ranger” numbers. Not quite “After Earth,” but not great.

Of course, Del Toro didn’t spend that much on actors, but the budget’s got to be astronomical. Reviews weren’t bad, so there’s hope.