MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
Lifestyle & Entertainment
19
‘Little Birds’ review: Innocence lost, yada, yada LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) — You know those creative-writing exercises where students are given three random items — say, a bugle, a beaded dress and the word “avoirdupois” — and then assigned to work them all into a short story? “Little Birds” gives the impression that someone told writer-director Elgin James, “Okay, you’ve got the crumbling neighborhoods by the Salton Sea and a burned-out East L.A. motel. Go!” Those sets ring truer than any of the characters who inhabit them, since James has turned out a listlessly trite tale of two small-town girls from broken homes whose friendship is tested when they venture out into the big, bad world on their own. The result feels like one of those afterschool specials of yore, only with an R rating.
Kay Panabaker and Juno Temple in a scene from the movie “Little Birds.” AP
Fifteen-year-olds Lily (Juno Temple, apparently going for a trailer-park trifecta on the heels
of “Dirty Girl” and “Killer Joe”) and Alison (Kay Panabaker) are best pals stuck in a town that’s
literally rotting away. (The Salton Sea was designed to be a retreat for the rich, but environmental conditions have rendered it nearly uninhabitable.) We know Lily is dying to get out by the way she screams at the top of her lungs while riding on the back of Alison’s bike. Local adults like Lily’s mom (Leslie Mann) and aunt (Kate Bosworth) seem like they too have been devoured by their town’s famously over-salinated body of water, so when skateboarder Jesse (Kyle Gallner) — in town from L.A. for the day to take advantage of the empty pools behind so many abandoned houses — gives Lily his number, it’s only a matter of time before she sees him as her ticket out of town. When a reluctant Alison drives
Lily to Los Angeles, they discover that Jesse and his friends are actually homeless, holing up in an abandoned motel, and soon the girls get drawn into the boys’ world of petty crime. Will Lily’s desperate need for love and affirmation lead her to turn her back on the devoted Alison? First-timer James has somehow put together a first-rate cast (which also includes Neal McDonough, Chris Coy and Joel McKinnon Miller), but so much of what he’s written for them is nothing you haven’t seen in dozens of other “I-gotta-get-out-of-this-town” movies. For every moment that feels fresh (Jesse shows Lily the house where his family used to live before it was foreclosed), far too much of “Little Birds” feels like the same-old, same-old.
Puzo family wants Paramount out of ‘The Godfather’ NEW YORK (Reuters) — The He told reporters that if the Puzo family of “The Godfather” author estate won the case, he expected Mario Puzo wants a federal judge various studios to take an interest to stop Paramount Pictures Corp in the rights to future “Godfather” from making movies based on movies. sequels to the best-selling, Oscar“I’m sure they would,” Fields winning story of the Mafia. said. A lawyer for Puzo’s heirs, BerA spokesman for Paramount tram Fields, said in Manhattan Pictures said in a statement that federal court on Thursday that the studio had “tremendous respect Viacom Inc’s Paramount breached and admiration for Mario Puzo” a decades-old contract with Puzo and “as we have said before, we by trying to stop publication last have an obligation to and will proMay of a new book, “The Family tect our copyright and trademark Corleone.” interests.” In February, Paramount sued The family said in court papers Anthony Puzo, Mario’s son and that Paramount did not autoexecutor, accusing the heirs of matically have film rights to the approving sequels to the books that followed the 1969 best-seller without original. the studio’s permission Paramount’s lawyer, and in violation of earlier Richard Kendall, argued agreements. Paramount, that the Puzos’ claim to the studio behind the rescind the original 1969 Oscar-winning movie veragreement between Masion of Puzo’s story of a rio Puzo and Paramount Mario Puzo New York Mafia family, could not be granted under said the new book infringed its the law. In 1969, Paramount bought copyright. from Puzo all rights and copyright The Puzo family fired back with interests in “The Godfather.” a counterclaim a month later that “I believe the court is in a posiParamount had been given ample tion to say that based on this claim, notice and asked for $10 million and the passage of 40 years...the in damages. omelet cannot be unscrambled at U.S. District Judge Alison this point,” Kendall said. Nathan did not make a ruling on Mario Puzo died in 1999. The the counterclaim following oral two sequels to the Godfather saga arguments on Thursday. She did published since his death were not indicate when she would issue written by Mark Winegardner. The a decision. third novel published in May was Fields said after the hearing that written by Ed Falco. since it was Paramount that had The case is Paramount Pictures sued the Puzo estate, the family Corporation v Puzo in U.S. District was disinclined to deal with the Court for the Southern District of studio again. New York, No. 12-01268
Obama... Continued from page 18 easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.” The president joked on TwitMV 9-4-12.indd 19
ter after Eastwood’s appearance, tweeting that “this seat’s taken,” along with a photo of him in his chair at a Cabinet meeting.
IN FRANCE. British actress Rachel Weisz and American actor Jeremy Renner arrive for the premiere of the film “The Bourne Legacy” at the 38th American Film Festival in Deauville, Normandy, France, Saturday. AP 9/3/12 10:45:24 PM