© 2010 Showtime | Oliver Platt in THE BIG C - Season One

In Showtime’s dark comedy THE BIG C, created by Darlene Hunt, Laura Linney’s Cathy Jamison has been coping in every possible way – humorously, emotionally, fighting, raging, accepting – with terminal cancer. The fourth mini-season, consisting of four episodes in an arc entitled THE BIG C: HEREAFTER, concludes in the series finale Monday May 20, with Cathy reaching the end of her journey with her husband Paul (Oliver Platt)

Platt has played Cathy’s sometimes self-centered but ultimately loving husband Paul through the series’ four years. Platt is a Canadian native who, as the son of a diplomat, traveled extensively in his childhood; as a successful actor, his career has also taken him to around the world. A few of his many feature credits include FLATLINERS, FROST/NIXON, 2012 and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS; on television, he starred as George Steinbrenner in the miniseries THE BRONX IS BURNING. At a Showtime event for the Television Critics Association, Platt took some time to discuss THE BIG C and his upcoming feature film GODS BEHAVING BADLY.

ASSIGNMENT X: Do you have any preference between playing characters like Paul, who are a little bit tone-deaf to themselves, versus characters who are keenly aware of both themselves and what’s going on around them?

OLIVER PLATT: I think it’s much more interesting to play a character with blind spots, because that’s much more interesting psychologically. To be human is to have blind spots, right? I can imagine it would be really boring to play somebody who knew themselves perfectly.

AX: Well, you’re often cast as a guy who may have blind spots about himself, but who’s able to point out the foibles in others around him.

PLATT: I’ve never thought of it that way. I’m very instinctive about the way that I choose roles and my really only metric is, does it in interest me? And usually it will interest me if it’s different than something I just did.

AX: What did you find particularly interesting about Paul at the beginning?

PLATT: The real appeal to me from the outset was the way the relationship had been designed. Here was a guy who clearly – they had the type of marriage that worked because they were different people. This guy was very gregarious, but maybe not living the most wildly examined life. And he was going to be sailing into a situation where he was going to be forced to grow up. And that’s what the muscular part of the narrative, and also this relationship, was for me. To get to explore a modern marriage in this crisis, with an actress who I admired so immensely, and a group of people and a staff of writers who just astonished us every week. It was a wonderful thing, and I also will say it was a tremendous privilege, as somebody who has been attached to narratives that he’s involved in, having them disappear under your feet midstream, to be able to know that you are telling the ending of a story while you’re telling it is a great privilege, and it’s something that I didn’t really know how much of a privilege it was until I actually experienced it. But it’s a marvelous thing, and it adds this whole level of not just the practical in terms of as a storyteller, it gives you an opportunity to shade things in a subtle way, but you also just really appreciate it as a storyteller. But yeah, it was the arc of his growth in response to this crisis that made it really, really worthwhile for me. And I’m grateful for it.

AX: Has your experience with THE BIG C made you feel any different about the television experience, knowing that a series can have a planned conclusion, rather than having it disappear under your feet?

PLATT: No, not in terms of giving me any more faith [about] that – it’s a very random thing, and it was just lucky, but it gives me an appreciation of what a privilege it was.

AX: Do you have any other projects coming up?

PLATT: I have a movie one that I shot in between the last two seasons, which is a movie that Big Beach made, the producers of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. GODS BEHAVING BADLY is what the title might be; that was the name of the successful British novel [by Marie Phillips] that it was adapted from, with John Turturro, Chris Walken and Edie Falco and Alicia Silverstone. It had a marvelous big cast.

AX: Is the title to be taken literally?

PLATT: No, it’s actually to be taken literally. It imagines the Greek gods as sort of these characters who, because of their immortality, they can’t [die] – they’ve maybe fallen a little bit and they’re living sort of like aristocratic Russian exiles in a townhouse on the Upper West Side and they’ve maybe lost their way a little bit. I play Apollo, which tells you something about the sensibility of the thing.

AX: Anything else you’d like to say about THE BIC C or your career overall?

PLATT: I don’t know. I consider myself very lucky and don’t take it for granted and I love what I do. I’m very grateful that I get to make a living this way and I feel very privileged that I continue to get to do it and that I still like doing it, that I love doing what I do.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Tyler Bates knows a thing or two about playing Spartan vengeance after his seminal score for 300, which made sword-and-sandal music hip again by incorporating a heroic orchestra with anachronistic metal guitars and time specific ethnic instruments. Now after showing ancient sword and sorcery vigor with the videogame THE RISE OF THE ARGONAUTS and the underrated reboot of CONAN THE BARBARIAN Bates once again proves that crossing a muscular death-dealer will be hell to play, especially when it’s a titan-slayer named Kratos.

Bates furiously delivers again for this popular berserker’s latest button-mashing adventures in GOD OF WAR ASCENSION. It’s a creature-filled mosh pit that once again shows there’s new musical life to be put into the stuff of heroic legend, Bates rocks out beats, choruses singing gods-knows what and a full-blast orchestra given all the resonance of Abbey Road. With his score duking it out of the underworld, Bates embodies both the Olympian threats as well as the tragedy of a hero last tricked into slaying his family. There’s a surprising amount of exotic, haunted emotion and beauty to be had in Kratos’ ASCENSION but make no mistake that the emphasis here is on bold, mythically sweeping punishment, making this GOD OF WAR entry as dark as it is exhilarating, allowing the Greek myths to rise and capture new, bloody imagination from a generation weaned on videogames as opposed to Homer’s “Odyssey.”

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

WORLD OF WARCRAFT‘s band of scoring brothers Neal Acree, Glenn Stafford, Derek Duke and Russell Brower get their sci-fi grlll power on for the Queen of Blade’s great escape in this score to STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM that accompanies the expansion pack of WINGS OF LIBERTY. Its exceptional cut scenes generate one of the more crazily stylized scores for the genre, starting off by mashing a galaxy-spanning orchestra by way of the grunge sensibility of its sword and spine-slinging heroine. Sarah Kerrigan’s treated like an ersatz Lisbeth Salander, bringing on the lizard beast hurt with industrial metal rock grunge. But those grinding atmospheres segue to cool, lushly accelerating beats, a chorus conveying strategic gameplay as the stuff of the cosmic, with a ragged, heroic sensibility that even gets a bit of fife and drum nobility.

The musical tsuris of the Master Chief seems positively sedate in comparison to the Queen’s musical identity swings in STARCRAFT II, whose opportunities give extra creative thrust to dudes usually handed broadswords when scoring warrior women running about in a videogame dungeons and dragons fantasy land.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

In addition to releasing current international scores like Alberto Iglesias’ I’M SO EXCITED and Pino Donaggio’s PASSION, Spain-based soundtrack label Quartet has also been digging into some of the 60s and 70s loopier scores like Dominic Frontiere’s HAMMERSMITH IS OUT and Riz Ortolani’s WOMAN TIMES SEVEN. But where said American and Italian were lucky enough to get some LP albums out long before a time when silver age soundtrack CD’s became hip, the equally prolific British musician Stanley Black (VALENTINO) had unaccountably never had one original title available.

That makes this two-fer of WAR GODS OF THE DEEP and CROSS PLOT one of the cooler releases to come from the increasingly bountiful Quartet. Where some New Yorker’s might best remember WAR GODS for its afternoon TV rerun being interrupted by news of Elvis’ death, Black’s gorgeously turbulent score stands well on its own apart from AIP’s ok take on 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, as mostly done on landlocked sets. In a similar fashion to Paul J. Smith’s approach to that Jules Verne adventure, Black creates a virtual floating symphony of haunting strings, eerie bells and percussion, going for just about every way that richly melodic music can approximate deep water. Black’s impressive scope also powerfully embodies Vincent Price’s romantically haunted privateer and the menace of his gillmen-filled domain. The fact that Black can even hold his breath for ten straight minutes of this constantly intriguing, ever-roiling stuff says more than enough about his creative staying power.

Where WAR GODS will mostly wow the horror nostalgia crowd, the constant re-discovery of kitsch has always proven to be hip. 1970s jovial thriller CROSSPLOT had Black providing a pseudo-Shagadellic goldmine for SAINT  star Roger Moore, who would soon be jivin’ to a Blaxploitation Bond score. But CROSSPLOT‘s music is all about swinging Britain, with Black’s dapper blend of lighthearted orchestral suspense and jazz swagger especially well suited to Moore’s caddish ad man, His Hitchcockian exploits are given groovily lush spy thrills with bongo percussion, rousing strings, staccato brass and exotic chords that give a fun THIRD MAN ambience to its Eastern European bad guys. Best yet, Black has a truly wonderful, Tom Jones-esque song at his side, whose melody proves memorable thematic accompaniment to the breezy thrills. Fans of Moore’s other cult English action show THE PERSUADERS will also take notice of the bunch of CROSSPLOT cues that were used for it. But whether the thrills are found in a creature’s tattered shirt of a bird’s miniskirt, WAR GODS and CROSSPLOT are testament to the range of a composer whom Quartet has finally given the chance to crow.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Collector labels had been around long before Film Score Monthly magazine launched their soundtrack offshoot with THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE back in 1996. Founder Lukas Kendall’s fastidious attention to detail and shrewd mix of popular and obscure titles from the golden and silver ages of film music ensured FSM’s longevity over the course of 249 titles and nearly two decades, Now as if he were the grizzled leader of a bunch of ragtag outlaws, Kendall has chosen to take out FSM on his own terms in a big, gloriously bloody bang for number 250. Given Kendall’s biting sense of satire, it’s no wonder that the label has met its glorious demise with the ironically chosen THE WILD BUNCH, a film that firmly put the clean killing morality old Hollywood in its grave.

Its director was a boozing hell-raiser while his muse had been blacklisted for his unapologetic political beliefs. So it’s almost funny to think that one of the great teams of 70s cinematic rebellion began with a gentle TV production of NOON WINE. However, Sam Peckinpah and Jerry Fielding would next blow any pleasantries out of the water with 1969s THE WILD BUNCH. Peckinpah’s ode to the end of west reveled in bad behavior, all while making audiences root for its SOB anti-heroes, even as high-minded critics were reviled by the still-shocking gunplay. Though  THE WILD BUNCH ripped away the western mythos, Peckinpah and Fielding’s work was no less manly, or romantic for it. Sure this didn’t have the ripping BIG COUNTRY orchestrations of Jerome Moross, or the brightly adventurous sound that Elmer Bernstein provided in any number of pictures for The Duke. But if anything, Fielding’s Oscar-nominated score was more stripped down and gritty for its raw approach, marching its characters in military lock step to the accompaniment of ominous, nearly dissonant orchestrations. Given a Mexican revolutionary to serve, and ultimately rebel against, Latin rhythms proved to be another major member of  THE WILD BUNCH, guitar and flute speaking for the vulnerability, and deep, deep down inner goodness these hard men don’t dare show. Fielding’s music is about the act of myth building, leading to the kind of heroic gesture that legends and film history are made of- even if Fielding occasionally breaks a smile with playful accordions. There’s also a terrific tip of the hat to more traditional western adventure in his terrifically energetic chase music, galloping along with a brassy, rip-roaring theme that any hard-ass would be proud to evade a posse with.

 The start of his tormented relationship with Peckinpah would yield increasingly darker fruit with the likes of STRAW DOGS, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA and his unused GETAWAY, not to mention the composer’s increasing plunge into the heart of dissonant darkness with such twisted opuses as THE MECHANIC and THE NIGHTCOMERS, making THE WILD BUNCH‘s more rousing moments into Fielding’s last huge melodic gasps for Peckinpah, as it were. There’s even more fatalistic lyricism than ever before over the course of the film’s complete 74-minute score, nearly an hour of alternate cues, its original album presentation and a plethora of Mexican source music. Writing the legend are Lukas Kendall and John Takis, whose excellent liner notes (and even more online) about Fielding and Penkinpah’s explosive relationship are complemented by a picture-filled booklet. This WILD BUNCH is truly the last word, and FSM musical note in detailing this seismic shift in filmmaking and scoring. It’s exactly the kind of big, final bang that you’d expect FSM to take itself out with- not that their heroic act is any less mournful an occasion for soundtrack fans.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

HEMLOCK GROVE is the new series made expressly for Netflix, which means all thirteen episodes have been immediately available since the show’s April 19 debut. Based on a novel by series creator/co-show runner Brian McGreevy, HEMLOCK GROVE is the story of a titular small town, where there are sinister doings at the local biotech firm.

Landon Liboiron plays newcomer to town Peter Rumancek, who has a distinctly wolfy side; Bill Skarsgard portrays Roman Godfrey, scion of Hemlock Grove’s wealthiest family who has a dark side of his own.

In reality, Skarsgard comes from one of Sweden’s foremost acting families – his father is Stellan Skarsgard and TRUE BLOOD’s Alexander Skarsgard is one of his brothers (other siblings are also actors). His feature credits include the recent Tom Stoppard adaptation of ANNA KARENINA, directed by Joe Wright, as well as a number of European films and television.

Liboiron, a native of Alberta, Canada, actually has more werewolves in his past, with THE HOWLING: REBORN among his feature credits. He was also a regular on TERRA NOVA and DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION.

After a panel for HEMLOCK GROVE at the Television Critics Association press tour, both actors sit down for a chat about acting in a series that deals in darkness without and within.

ASSIGNMENT X: What can you say about your characters?

BILL SKARSGARD: I’m playing Roman Godfrey, who is the young heir of the Godfrey Institute, which is this really successful biotechnology company. The family made a lot of money through the steel companies, and then they went for the biotech as the steel industry was diminishing. He’s kind of the prince of this small town. He has all the money, he’s well-dressed, very cocky, gets what he wants, has that kind of arrogance to him. But when you get to know him more and more, he’s a very sad character, a very sad person, going through a lot of depressing things in his life, and he’s dealing with that, and he has a huge, growing darkness inside him, an evil, if you will, that he’s constantly fighting, because he doesn’t want to be bad, but he has these urges of being bad. So he’s a very interesting character to play.

LANDON LIBOIRON: I play Peter Rumancek. He’s sort of a gypsy traveler, a wayfaring stranger. I think on the show, him and the Shelley character (Nicole Boivin as a child, Niamh Wilson as a young woman) both hold the most morally grounded characteristics. His biggest fear in life is simply being caught and being put in a cage. So he really appears as a character who lives moment to moment, day to day, but when he comes to Hemlock Grove, he meets Roman, and for the first time, he finds someone that he has a mutual connection with, whether it’s spiritual or just he finds a friend in Roman, that he’s never had before. So he’s now conflicted with his lifestyle, going from place to place, [as opposed to] having this relationship with Roman. And then one of the local girls in the town ofHemlock Grove is brutally murdered, and there’s a rumor going around that Peter’s the one who did it. So he feels this obligation to stay and make sure this rumor doesn’t chase him for the rest of his life and that he avoids being put in a cage. And this adventure between the two of them kind of ensues afterwards.

AX: So both your characters are trying to clear Peter’s name?

LIBOIRON: We both have our motives as to why we want to capture the thing that’s murdering the local girls.

SKARSGARD: Yeah. And I think for Roman, it’s like I said, he has this darkness inside him. I think he has a part of him that maybe he doesn’t realize, that subconsciously he’s drawn to this murder thing. It’s maybe even instinctual – he wants to get close to that, but also he wants to be good and do good for himself, and if you have this inner conflict, it’s very easy to solve it if you put it into physical form – solving a murder is very good [as a distraction from the inner conflict]. So he [thinks], “If I do something really good, like if I help people, people are dying, that’s bad, I need to save these people,” that’s kind of a way of him battling the darkness and the thing that he fights inside him. I think that’s why it’s so extremely important for Roman to solve this. And this becomes his life quest, because it’s his own way of saving himself.

LIBOIRON: I think maybe even subconsciously. Very early on, we were constantly asking Brian McGreevy questions about the two characters and I think he summed it up very well between the two. He explained it in that Roman Godfrey so desperately wants to be strong and brave, and Peter’s almost exhausted from being the strong and brave one, so they balance each other’s exhaustion out, and they help each other out through their inner strife.

AX: They each sort of make it okay for the other to be who he is by essentially saying, “Gee, I’d like to be like you”?

LIBOIRON: Yeah, exactly. Like Peter helps Roman feel there’s good in him, and Roman helps Peter simply to be not alone [laughs].

SKARSGARD: But it’s also a really weird relationship. It’s really interesting, their chemistry. They’re best friends – they become friends and they never had anyone to talk to in this way, ever. They were loners, because they’re so different from everyone else, and now they’ve found someone in school that’s different, maybe not in the same way, but definitely different from everyone else. So they kind of find each other and need each other’s company in a way. It’s pretty sad and throughout the show, it’s kind of going back and forth with that relationship. [laughs] It’s a complicated relationship.

AX: Eli Roth directed the first episode of HEMLOCK GROVE. Is there anything distinctive about him as a director?

LIBOIRON: Yeah. He’s really cool – he has a lot of charisma.

SKARSGARD: Oh, for sure, yeah. And he’s really good – I remember me coming in, this is the first thing I did here in North America and I was a bit nervous about it. He was really cool about it. We rehearsed and we talked a lot and he was very supportive and as soon as we got into it, we got into the pace and everything was all right, but he was talking to us actors in a really nice way. He’s a big name and it’s really cool how a guy like that was being really supportive.

LIBOIRON: Yeah, he just made us feel included.

AX: How do you think audiences will react to HEMLOCK GROVE?

LIBOIRON: I would go out on a limb and guess that it’s not going to be what you expect it to be. I think it has a lot of heart in it, a lot of twists and turns, a lot of really interesting characters that are all deserving of being watched. Brian [McGreevy] has a lot to say through these characters.

SKARGARD: Yeah, I think you put it really well. It’s very unexpected. People are going to have all these ideas about the show, like it’s going to be a grungier type of TWILIGHT. They have no idea. You have to see this show. Everyone’s going to be surprised.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Peter Weller, Alice Eve
Writers: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof, based on characters created by Gene Roddenberry
Director: J.J. Abrams
Distributor: Paramount
Release Date: May 16, 2013

Giving any kind of plot summary of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS runs more than the usual risk of spoilers. What can be said? Well, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the very dedicated crew of the Enterprise extricate themselves by the skin of their teeth out of one crisis only to be thrown into another – which is soon eclipsed by a third. All of this is in the first act.

In other words, director J.J. Abrams and the screenwriters here, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof leave no opportunity for a moral conundrum or mortal danger unexplored. There is a fair amount of humor, much of it thanks to having a character put into words what we’re thinking, and a lot of the kind of emotional drama that only works when viewers are invested in not just individual characters, but in how those characters interact with one another. Fortunately, for those audience members who have accepted the reboot, between longtime fondness for the characters and the worthy performances here, this will be a given for most.

Pine and Quinto unsurprisingly are the stars here. Pine doesn’t attempt to approximate William Shatner’s James T. Kirk demeanor, partly because it’s impossible to imagine anyone successfully doing it at all (at least, outside the realm of parody) and partly because it wouldn’t work in these more modern surroundings anyway. Instead, this Kirk is cocky and happy, but willing to learn and acknowledge when he’s wrong – this Kirk recognizing a mistake is more like spinning a sailboat around that rerouting an aircraft carrier. Quinto adroitly treads the fine line of making Spock fairly stoic for the most part, yet showing us when he’s irate, alarmed or anguished. When he stops being stoic, though, the filmmakers and Quinto make him arguably a little too human, especially in moments of anger.

The two other regulars here who most get the chance to shine are Zoe Saldana’s Lt. Uhura and Simon Pegg’s Mr. Scott. Uhura gets to put both her linguistic and butt-kicking skills to work, both of which Saldana does persuasively, and Pegg’s Scotty is endearing in both his energy and his principles.

As for Cumberbatch, pretty much everyone who has seen him in SHERLOCK is primed to believe this actor as someone who is brilliant and extremely physically capable.

The 3D here is usually lovely, especially when the Enterprise goes to warp speed and we go flying after it or ahead of it at what feel like genuinely great distances. We also get great depth of field in the meticulously constructed sets. The only time the process is distracting is in dialogue scenes, where we’re looking at one person’s face over another person’s shoulder – the full-face close-ups are beautiful, but the faces shown in profile in the foreground become strange wall-like surfaces sitting at the edge of the screen.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is probably going to be most enjoyable to people who are not STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES purists. However, one doesn’t have to be dedicated to every detail of the original incarnation to be stunned by the occasional display of narrative chutzpah here. The new film succeeds best when it’s coming up with entirely new storylines and tactical twists. When it gets into “homage” territory, there are times when it’s intentionally funny, times when it seems like a respectful nod to what’s come before and times when you are likely to say to yourself, “Oh, no, they did not just do that.” At these moments, it seems like STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is addressing itself to those viewers who are genuinely unfamiliar with the older TREK tales, but in that case, why all the nods to what came before? (There is at least one point in the film where we are all but instructed to re-watch the relevant material.) There are a number of recycled elements that don’t serve either new viewers (who won’t get the references) or old fans (who will see these elements as so altered that they might as well be called something else).

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS does take pointed aim at some of the precepts of the original version (the filmmakers make a reasonable case against the Prime Directive in the first ten minutes). However, the film also maintains a running discussion, in both words and deeds, about personal responsibility, violence, and the evils of rushing to judgment in either direction, which is very in keeping with TREK’s grounding principles. This is not a resurrection or reincarnation of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES, but it holds together pretty well as entertainment with some good philosophical notions on its mind and some worthy relationships at its heart.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Indy movies, and their scores can smack you upside the head with their high-minded pretentiousness, especially when attempting to grasp the epic with music that screams attention as to how outside the box it is. Yet what often provides pitfalls for those movies proves to be terrific assets in the cases of THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, a decades-spanning American crime saga graced by an impressively big, WTF score by Mike Patton. Here the former Faith No More singer makes an auspicious jump in quality from the mindlessly fun electro-carnage of CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE using a voice that’s just as brazen in its way to take a perceptive look at the sins of criminality, and well-intentioned white lies that can spell disaster.

Writer-director Derek Clanfrance (BLUE VALENTINE) has created vividly entangled characters, most of whom seek redemption in screwed-up ways that will end in no good, no matter how long their destinies take to play out. Consequently, Patton fills even seemingly inconsequential scenes with weirdly modulating sampled strings and religious choruses, with grinding guitars and dulcimers getting across low class backwoods behavior- even if the movie’s setting is upstate New York.

Cricket chirps, ominous percussion, feedback, yowling synths and host of other brooding electronic melodies don’t so much suggest trouble brewing among bikers-gone-bad and corrupt cops as much as they impress as the long lost score from the HALLOWEEN 3 – had that movie always been intended for Michael Meyers. When many scores do a good job of giving you exactly what you expect for background energy, Patton’s “Pines” has a true sense of audacious surprise, especially when voices jam with sizzling electronics. Much like star Ryan Gosling’s ever-growing parade of sociopaths, Patton has a punk sensibility that really doesn’t seem to care what it’s riding over, or even about what his music’s supposed to make you think. It’s an attitude that makes for an amazingly fresh soundtrack that manages to pull new daredevil tricks from alt. scoring, creating a clash between the angels in its main character’s hearts, and the twisted, self-destructive actions that end up coming out instead.

For as brash as it is, Patton’s score casts a seamless spell with PINES‘ melancholy song choices, whether it’s the praying Latin voices of “Miserere Mei,” the childlike female vocalese of Ennio Morricone’s “Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri” or the gentle, soulful folk strumming of Bon Iver’s “The Wolves.” And when it comes to darkly soothing string instrumentals, Arvo Part’s “Fratres for Strings and Percussion” continues to be the beautifully ominous modern classical standard that keeps on giving, its ever-anguishing stings helping these PINES, achieve an mighty sense of the tragic from its small-scale setting, a place where musical emotion proves to be boundless, and captivatingly strange in Patton’s hands.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Stars: Randy Jackson, Keith Urban, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Ryan Seacrest
Network: Airs on Fox, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 pm
Original Telecast: May 16, 2013

Candice Glover wins AMERICAN IDOL Season 12 | (c) 2013 Ray Mickshaw / FOX

It all comes down to this as Seacrest loves to document each and every week of the world’s greatest karaoke competition, AMERICAN IDOL. However, this time it really does come down to this.

Of course, you know now that Candice Glover has won Season 12 of AMERICAN IDOL meaning that Kree Harrison is the runner up on the show.

That’s the short version of the story. In reality, the finale to the show that has bottomed out in the ratings becoming just another singing show on the air, was two freaking hours plus a decent overlap into the evening local news.

Here’s what you missed during this needless two hours: A group performance from the Top 12 IDOL contestants, interviews with Harrison and Glover, a weird performance from The Band Perry with special guest star IDOL’s Janelle Arthur, a recap of all the lame dude’s getting the boot followed by a bad performance from the guy’s backing up why they should have been kicked off, a Mariah Carey performance showing why she should not be a judge and just be a singer, a solo from Amber Holcomb, the Gangnam Style guy appeared, Keith Urban performed, Angie Miller and Adam Lambert did a pretty good number, a really good tribute to Randy Jackson and of course Pitball was there and J.Lo.

So are you happy with the winner? COMMENT BELOW

Related: AMERICAN IDOL Season 12 Recap: Amber Holcomb eliminated from the show 

Related: AMERICAN IDOL Recap: Lazaro Arbos finally sent packing, 5 Remain

Related: AMERICAN IDOL Recap: Burnell Taylor booted off the show

Related: TV Review: AMERICAN IDOL – SEASON 12 – “7 Finalists Compete”

Related: AMERICAN IDOL Season 12 Recap: Paul Jolly booted off the show, 8 left

Related: TV Review: AMERICAN IDOL – Season 12 – “Finalists Compete”

Related: AMERICAN IDOL Recap: Curtis Finch Jr. Kicked Off, 9 left

Related: TV Review:  AMERICAN IDOL – Season 12 – “Finalists Announced”

Related: TV Review:  AMERICAN IDOL – Season 12 – “2nd 10 Semifinalists Perform”

Related: TV Review:  AMERICAN IDOL – Season 12 – “1st 10 Semifinalists Perform”

Related: TV Review:  AMERICAN IDOL – Season 12 – “Semifinalist Round 3”

Related: TV Review:  AMERICAN IDOL – Season 12 – “Audition #1” – Season Premiere

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Fan us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

 Article Source: Assignment X 
Article: Candice Glover Wins AMERICAN IDOL Season 12

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Tony Goldwyn in SCANDAL - Season 2 - "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" | ©2013 ABC/Ron Tom

On ABC’s SCANDAL, renewed for a third season and airing its Season 2 finale tonight, Thursday May 16, U.S. President Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant, played by Tony Goldwyn, has responded to an ultimatum by his wife Mellie (Bellamy Young) by leaving her for the love of his life, crisis management expert Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). What will happen next on the show created by Shonda Rhimes? Stay tuned.

Los Angeles native Goldwyn, a grandson of famed producer/studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn, divides his career between acting and directing. On stage, he won an Obie for his work as a performer in THE SUM OF US; on film, he was the villain in GHOST; on television, he was Neil Armstrong in the HBO miniseries FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. As a director, Goldwyn has helmed the features A WALK ON THE MOON, SOMEONE LIKE YOU and THE LAST KISS, along with many episodes of a number of television series – including the “A Woman Scorned” segment of SCANDAL.

At a session for the press at the Pasadena Langham Hotel and later in the set of Fitz’s presidential office on a visit arranged for the Television Critics Association, Goldwyn takes some time to discuss playing the leader of the free world – who may yet be undone by his love life.

ASSIGNMENT X: What attracted you to SCANDAL initially?

TONY GOLDWYN: Shonda and Kerry, really. I’ve worked with Shonda – I directed some episodes of GREY’S ANATOMY – I admire her so much. When I heard that she and Kerry Washington were on this project, I got very excited. And also, television has transformed in the past five, ten years. It has the best writing on television, the best opportunity to do adult drama has been on television, so it just felt like the right moment. And the idea that it was the President, and I knew that Shonda would write a pretty interesting President. I had been such a huge admirer of Kerry’s work – I think she’s one of the greatest actresses, so that was almost a closer right there.

AX: Do you base your performance as Fitz on any real political figures?

GOLDWYN: The two people that have inspired me the most, in terms of reading about them and just watching their oratorical skills and their approach to people, would be Clinton and Obama, because I feel that Fitz is a very heart-driven president. The way that he approaches his life is of course an issue between [Fitz and his chief of staff Cyrus Beene, played by Jeff Perry, who] says to me at one point, “I wish you were more of a cynic.” I thought the wayClinton related to people was very from the heart – I wanted to bring that heart into Fitz. I was also watching the way that [Presidents Clinton and Obama] spoke. They’re genius orators, I think, even though they’re different.

AX: How do you and Jeff Perry work together? Do you feel you have a dynamic that’s distinct from your other scene partners?

GOLDWYN: Yeah, we did have a very natural team approach to the work. Much of what Shonda writes, there’s always so much more going on underneath it than what’s being said, so a lot of thought and discussion was required for us to figure out what exactly is informing any given scene or this episode, so Jeff and I, almost every time after we do a table read, go and sit for an hour or two and have a talk about it and get in sync, so that we were in sync, whether it was talking about our back stories or really just what the machinations were underneath, so we found a very team-oriented approach to the material.

AX: Everybody on SCANDAL tells lies at one point or another. Do you think Fitz means what he says on some level, even when he’s lying?

GOLDWYN: Always. I’m a little more transparent than I think Jeff’s character. I will willfully withhold things, mostly from him, not telling things with the unstated thing of, “I’m not telling you this, because I’m not having this conversation with you.” But pretty much when I say things, [Fitz] will go back on himself. He makes mistakes.

AX: Did you foresee any of the twists and turns in the storylines?

GOLDWYN: Even now, I’m always shocked. And the biggest thing is, Shonda’s making such bold moves in storytelling that several times I couldn’t believe how she was going to get us out of the mess that we were in. In fact, at one point in the first season, I was convinced she was going to get rid of me, because I thought when the sex tape came out, there was a scene in Jeff Perry’s office where he plays this sex tape to me, and I thought, “Okay, that’s it, because how can he recover from this?” I didn’t know that it was Olivia. I thought it was Amanda Tanner [Liza Weil]. Shonda was like, “No, we’re not killing you off!” [laughs]

AX: Fitz got shot and was comatose for an episode and a half. Did she tell you that time “Don’t worry”?

GOLDWYN: She didn’t have to. I had a suspicion [laughs] that the Fitz/Olivia relationship is so much a part of the show right now that I would have had to do something really naughty to get killed off, so I was fairly confident that Fitz would somehow pull through, but I didn’t know if I’d be in a wheelchair, or if I would be permanently disabled.

AX: Did you do any research into how people react to that sort of brain injury?

GOLDWYN: I did do a bit. I didn’t have a whole lot of time from the time that I knew that I got shot – sometimes what I do, just my process as an actor, I like to rely primarily on my imagination and then I’ll fact-check to make sure I’m not getting anything wrong. Because in my younger years, I would research everything to death, and then I’d come to the set and be completely like, “But this is how it actually is!” [laughs] And then you get kind of hamstrung by that. So I did enough that I don’t think people will watch it and go, “That’s not what he would do.”

AX: How do you think Fitz has been changed by that experience, if he has?

GOLDWYN: I think it’s the same Fitz. I think it’s just a clearer Fitz. I think he’s not going to be so buffeted, so easily manipulated, and he’s done playing games. Politics is a bare-fisted game, and Fitz has never had any illusions about that, and he can box with the best of them.

AX: Especially since you are director yourself, when you’re acting, do you ever ask the directors on the show, “What’s the camera angle?”

GOLDWYN: No, I don’t. I’ve found it makes me self-conscious. To me, I just want to be doing what I do [as an actor]. Sometimes I’ll want to know what the shots are so I can pace myself, so that I know how many pieces of coverage they’re going to do, so I can kind of know how many [takes] I’m going to do, or if I’m even being seen on camera. But other than that, I kind of prefer just being the [actor]. Some people are just the opposite – some people are, “What lens are you on? I want to know exactly how to modulate the performance,” and that just makes me self-conscious. I feel like I don’t have the craft to do that [laughs] – I need to be kind of innocent to what’s going on. And then we have real literal requirements that are technical sometimes. “The dolly is doing this, and in two seconds out of the seven that it’s moving is when we actually see you.”

AX: You’re from a big show business family – actors, producers, studio heads. Have you learned anything from your family that’s been useful to you as an actor and/or a director?

GOLDWYN: For me, the biggest thing is that I learned from a very early age that a career in this business is about a body of work, it’s about surviving, and that it’s not about being hot or getting the brass ring. It’s about being in it and building a body of work. Hopefully, you’ll work in the profession, as opposed to you come into it, you have this glitz and glamour and all of the ephemera of show business which, with failure, if you buy into that, you suffer a lot, because then something bad happens and you’re down, and then something good happens, and you think, “Oh my gosh, I’ve arrived! Wait, where’d it go?” [laughs] So that was very helpful.

AX: Is there anything else you would like to say about SCANDAL right now?

GOLDWYN: I guess all I can say is, there have been a few times in my career when you really feel something has magic and this feels that way.

Related: Exclusive interview with SCANDEL star Columbus Short

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Fan us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Article Source: Assignment X 
Article: Exclusive interview with SCANDEL star Tony Goldwyn

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology