Notes on Pop Culture: Whitney, Adele, Valentine's, Show Dogs & 'Awake' Peek

Whitney, Whitney, Whitney

This is starting to feel too freakishly familiar, introducing my kids to the soundtrack of my youth by binging on a musician's music and good, old fashioned music videos soon after the musician dies an untimely death.

As I tried to explain to my three kids, via music videos on YouTube, who Whitney Houston was and how I fondly remember her 1980s tunes from my high school years, it felt very deja vu-ish. I'd done the same thing after Michael Jackson died, showing the kids the "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" videos while downloading a bunch of his songs that I hadn't listened to in quite some time.

This weekend, it was the ebullient "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," the soothing "Exhale" and the breath-taking "I Will Always Love You" (which, despite the fact that it was grossly overplayed in the 90s, rarely failed to move me). It was watching The Bodyguard on TV. It was adding some Whitney tunes to my music library. It was also another reminder of what an incredible waste of a wealth of talent this tragedy represents both in her substance abuse, which torpedoed her career, and in her death at age 48.

Adele - Rolling In The Deep - Grammy's 2012 by IdolxMuzic

Adele Sweep

Speaking of a wealth of talent . . . my daughter and I are big fans of Adele, her music, her screw-you attitude toward morons who want to talk about her weight, her fearlessness in wringing her heart dry for her art. We were eminently pleased to see her not only clean up at the Grammy Awards, but belt out "Rolling in the Deep" so powerfully after her recovery from throat surgery.

Now Adele, there's a celeb who's worthy of my daughter's admiration.

The Vow Didn't Wow Me

Over the weekend, some of my gal pals and I decided to indulge ourselves. We loaded up on Twizzlers, popcorn and vats of soda before sitting down to enjoy the confection that is The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams, whom I find thoroughly charming. We wanted to spend some time together watching a romantic weepy that didn't tax the brain too much. We even brought tissues in case we started bawling, like I did both times I saw The Time Traveler's Wife, which also starred McAdams.

Alas, no tissues were required during our screening (which stinks if you've geared yourself up to be emotionally moved -- manipulated, really -- by a film or TV show). Sadly, I found The Vow only mildly interesting, despite the fact that it's loosely based on a true story, and found myself pining for it to grab me by the shirt, shake me and make me care about it.

Still craving some romantic fare by Valentine's evening, after a nice dinner and exchanging gifts with my husband, I was scanning the TV channels trying to find something, anything, resembling either a romantic comedy or a straight-out romance because, well, it was Valentine's Day after all. Finding nothing -- seriously, nothing! -- in the way of that kind of flick playing on television, I instead settled on, of all things, the Westminster Dog Show, which greatly amused me as I sat with my rescue dog Max and told him those pooches had nothin' on him.

Awake Preview Has My Attention

NBC has released the first seven minutes of its new drama Awake, slated to premiere on March 1. Just based on its premise and these few minutes, this show may -- I reiterate, MAY -- be the calamine lotion for the itch left behind by the absence of Lost: The show features police detective Michael Britten who got into a serious car accident with his wife and teenage son. On those points, there is no confusion. There was an accident. The three were in the car.

But here's the catch: Britten is "living" two, parallel lives, one in which his wife died in the crash and one in which his son died. In both lives, he's seeing a therapist and is still a cop who's solving crimes. Both of the lives feel real to him and he can't tell which one is his real life and which one is a dream.

If done intelligently, this show could prove fascinating. If done in a ham-fisted way -- or offers the ultimate answer, "They're all dead" (a la Lost) -- I'll be mighty ticked.

Tempting Trailers: 'Morning Glory,' 'Love and Other Drugs,' 'Company Men'

When it comes to DVD movie rentals from Netflix, I’ve been having a spot of bad luck lately chosing good films. I’ve not been fond of the last several movies I watched including Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Greenberg and State of Play, during which I fell asleep. (It surprised me that I disliked State of Play given that it’s a journalism movie and I started out in print journalism.)

That being said, I’ve seen a few trailers recently for movies which look promising -- other than the new Harry Potter movie, of course -- but who can tell if they’ll actually be any good? Oftentimes I’m intrigued by the trailer then wind up hating the film. But still . . . I’m a sucker for these promos.

Though reviewers are saying that the TV morning show-centric rom-com Morning Glory -- out today -- is exceedingly fluffy, they also seem to be in agreement that Rachel McAdams is very good in it. The New York Times said the film -- which also stars Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton – is “a passably amusing romantic comedy,” and that McAdams is “effortlessly likable,” calling her a “young actress on the verge of the big time.” The Boston Globe likened McAdams’ morning TV news show producer character to Mary Tyler Moore. You know, the one who’s gonna make it after all. I’m desperately in need of a feel good movie right about now, if anything, it’ll offset the darkness of the In Treatment episodes I’ve been watching.



Another trailer that has caught my attention is the one for the new Anne Hathaway/Jake Gyllenhaal slightly darker rom-com Love and Other Drugs which is slated to be released on Nov. 24 I hope this one isn’t a letdown or just labeled "passable."


Love And Other Drugs Trailer

One film that’s not at all lighthearted romantic fare but, nonetheless I’m anxious to see was shot around Massachusetts, The Company Men, about the affect of downsizing on an up-and-coming professional with a young family, on two older execs, one with a kid in college, and on the folks left behind. It stars Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson and Tommy Lee Jones and opens on Dec. 10.



Any films you’re looking forward to seeing in November and December?

Three Movie Trailers That Tempt Me

I was in the theater today to see Sam Mendes' Away We Go (I'll post link to my column in this blog once it's published) and saw trailers for two movies that made me say, "I MUST see that." Unless of course the critics uniformly pan the films, in which case I'll be terribly let down but may go ahead and see them anyway.

The first was for the Meryl Streep and Amy Adams movie Julie & Julia which seems similar in concept to The Hours in that it follows the story of two women's lives simultaneously, though the women are living in different time periods and the older woman's book proves as a guide to the younger woman. In the case of this film, we follow Julia Child's humble start in cooking and a cubicle-dweller's quest-- chronicled in a blog -- to follow Child's recipes for a year. My hopes are high that I'll leave the theater feeling inspired. Premieres August 7.



Then I saw the trailer for The Time Traveler's Wife starring Rachel McAdams. I adored this book (and MUST re-read it again before seeing the film) and am really curious how it'll compare to the movie. Total date movie. I've already warned The Spouse that he'll owe me a movie night and I'll be sure to bring plenty of tissues. Premieres August 14.



Then there was this trailer that I spotted on the internet for an upcoming Ricky Gervais comedy -- partly filmed here in Massachusetts -- that used to be called, This Side of the Truth, but has apparently been re-named The Invention of Lying, which takes place in a world where everyone has to tell the truth, but Gervais' character is the only one who has discovered that he can lie and get what he wants. Gervais appears to be tamping down expectations for this movie -- also stars Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe -- writing in his blog:

"Dear critics (everyone), when judging the film, please remember that it is a high concept, PG-13 romantic comedy. It's not [Schindler's] List or The Godfather. If you compare it to serious works of genius it will not fair that well."



I think the Gervais film could be a nice bookend to the Time Traveler's film, however it doesn't come out until late September, but, on the plus side for The Spouse, it doesn't appear as though I'll have to bring a box of tissues with me to see it.