The History Channel is going Hollywood for an upcoming miniseries about America's democrat dynasty, the Kennedys. The star-studded cast includes Academy Award nominee for As Good as it Gets Greg Kinnear as JFK, British actor Tom Wilkinson of John Adams in the role of Joe Kennedy Sr., and Barry Pepper of Saving Private Ryan fame as Bobby.
But the biggest news is the choice of the va-va-vanilla Katie Holmes to portray style icon Jackie O. Holmes, 31, peaked with low-energy roles in Dawson's Creek and Batman Begins, so her acting skills will be put to the test in the eight-hour series, which is written and directed by 24 alums Steve Kronish and Jon Cassar.
History Channel President Nancy Dubuc attests to US Magazine that Holmes is the perfect embodiment of the 60s style icon. "When History announced this ambitious project in December, our goal was A-list auspices behind and in front of the camera. (It's) a role that Katie's demure elegance will bring to life," Dubuc says.
Sure, Katie, but to date, your acting skills are best channeled towards being happily married to an aging Scientologist.
The saga will chart the family's course up to the 1963 assassination. The New York Times reports that the film has been criticized by historians who were provided early drafts of the scripts by the filmmaker Robert Greenwald, who has made liberal-leaning documentaries.
Filming is currently underway in Toronto. No word on whether Tom Cruise plans to make a couch-jumping appearance at the wrap party.
Mabel (Piper Kurda) and King George (Bobby Moynihan) in Hoppers.
For the first 15 years of their history, animation studio Pixar delivered one classic film after another, an astonishing streak that included their first 11 movies. Things got bumpy starting with Cars 2 in 2011, and even though the majority of their output has been good-to-great ever since, their releases are no longer considered slam dunks like they once were.
They’re back with an original film, Hoppers, trying to return to form by going back to the animal world. The film centers on Mabel (Piper Kurda), a 19-year-old environmentalist who’s trying to stop a new highway being built by Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) in the fictional city of Beaverton. Her activism has as much to do with helping displaced local animals as it does with being nostalgic for her youth, in which she spent years observing nature with her Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie).
She finds an unlikely possible solution when she discovers that her college professors have created a system that allows them to transfer — or hop — their consciousness into animal-like robots. Hijacking a beaver robot, Mabel joins up with the local wildlife, including beaver King George (Bobby Moynihan) to try to convince them to help her execute her plan. But with the highway almost complete and Mayor Jerry willing to do anything to make it happen, Mabel might be too late.
Directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews from a story by Chong, the film cycles through a variety of genres in its 105-minute running time, including comedy, drama, thriller, and even a touch of Pixar-style horror. When Pixar has been at its best, it seamlessly goes back and forth between genres, trusting that audiences will go along with them for the ride, and Hoppers feels like a return to form in that respect.
Humor rules the day as Mabel adjusts to being part of the animal world while her professors desperately try to get her and their robot back. Mabel encounters not only wildly confusing things like “pond rules” (if a predator catches you, you don’t fight it), but also the existence of a hierarchy within the world that involves kings or queens from various animal classes like reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and insects. Her one-track mind and the way of the world she is invading clash in a variety of funny ways.
As the film goes along, Chong, Andrews, and the rest of the filmmaking team also find a way to burrow into the audience’s heart. There are many elements that threaten to tip into eye-rolling territory, but the filmmakers consistently pull back before that happens. The number of fun characters on both the human and animal side helps in that regard, as does the simple yet profound message they’re trying to convey.
Pixar has assembled one of the best voice casts in recent memory for this film, including such big names as Meryl Streep, Dave Franco, Melissa Villaseñor, Vanessa Bayer, and the late Isiah Whitlock, Jr. However, due to the sheer number of characters, only Kurda, Moynihan, and Hamm truly stand out. Still, they all fit together well and give the always-stellar animation even more life.
Since the pandemic, Pixar has only released one truly great film (Inside Out 2), but with Hoppers and the seemingly bulletproof Toy Story 5 coming within a few months of each other, they might go back-to-back on that front. Like the classic films from the studio, it has goofy, heartfelt, and exciting parts, mixing together for an enthralling time at the theater.
