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Miley's new video can't be tamed: But it can be copied from Shakira

From the video, "Can't Be Tamed"
Miley Cyrus in "Can't Be Tamed"

A little bird told us about Miley Cyrus' new music video for her single, "Can't Be Tamed," in which the budding starlet takes on the persona of an exotic bird-cum-sexpot declaring her will to be wild by nature.

As expected, the video has the 17-year-old pole-dancing diva pushing the envelope on sexual imagery. Despite her at-times awkward crow wings, she masters the new terrain with her vamped-up dancing and busty feathered corset.

"It is a sexy video, you can't take that away from it," Cyrus told E!'s Ryan Seacrest, "But it's not the premise ... The video is not about being sexy or about who can wear less clothes. That's what every other video is about. It's about explaining the song and living the lyrics."

Set within the context of a 19th-century museum exhibition unveiling — surely one of Miley's favorite pastimes — the video features an anthropomorphized Miley revealed as the exhibit's centerpiece, trapped inside a bird cage. A singer portraying a sexed-up animal stuck inside a cage — is MC stealing cues from Shakira's "She Wolf" video?

But the similarities end there: Whereas Shakira has the voice and moves to perform in her cage alone, Miley's got a slew of backup birdies flocking around her.

The video also effectively places Miley along a growing parade of poof-hair touting stars, a look catapulted by Amy Winehouse in the mid 00s, perfected by MTV's Jersey Shore's Snooki, and now mimicked by the likes of Tina Fey and Johnny Weir. Some say that Miley is touting the voluminous hairstyle and a special-effect-filled video to hide her inexperience, but the clip radiates with an irresistible Jezebel-debutante edginess that we haven't seen since "Toxic"-era Britney.

"I'm not a fake, it's set in my DNA," Miley declares defiantly. Such lyrics may speak to a girl who's still attached to the father who launched her into fame, but three minutes and 47 seconds of lusty footage (more pole dancing included!) is enough to permanently extinguish the ghosts of Hannah Montana — and it's definitely not daddy-approved.

The video is available on E! Online. "Can't Be Tamed" is the title track of Miley's upcoming album, due in stores June 22.

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Movie Review

Supergirl fails to take flight in a movie weighed down by grief

Photo courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock in Supergirl.

Last year's Superman reboot brought a renewed sense of optimism for, if not the concept of the comic book movie, then at least the DC Comics universe. After more than a decade of DC films that felt mostly creatively bankrupt, the leadership of James Gunn gave the story a sense of fun. That included the brief introduction of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who’s now getting her own showcase in, naturally, Supergirl.

When we first met her in Superman, Supergirl was in rough shape, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude visibly inebriated. Nothing has changed at the beginning of this film, save for her aimlessly traveling around the universe with her rambunctious dog, Krypto. One of her random stops puts her in the same bar as Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for help tracking down Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a group known as the Brigands after they brutally murdered her family.

Kara is initially loath to offer aid, but when Krem shoots a poison dart into Krypto while escaping, her motivation goes way up, especially since Krem holds the antidote. Kara, with Ruthye doggedly following her, uses every means available to her to find Krem, a journey that is hampered by galaxies having different colored suns than the one that gives her powers, the yellow sun.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, the film is a big step back in the fun category, not least because Supergirl is deep in her feelings for much of the film. Her personal trauma, which is detailed in occasional flashbacks, gives a reason for her depression, but fails to land fully. The story seems to want everyone to be sad, as it includes a child trafficking ring and multiple instances of families being murdered.

Milly Alcock and Krypto in Supergirl.Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

To try to counteract that downer material, the filmmakers give Supergirl many opportunities to show off her fighting skills. While still CGI-heavy, the action scenes contain enough of a semblance of reality that they feel exciting. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the inclusion of several slow-motion sequences, giving the impression that the filmmakers didn’t trust the actors to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

Superman (David Corenswet) makes a handful of appearances in the film, and while his presence is welcome given how well the character came across in the previous movie, it also doesn’t allow Supergirl to become her own person. Almost everything she does is colored by either her cousin or her parents, and since her powers are identical to those of Superman, there is very little that makes her story unique aside from how she’s dealing with the fallout.

Alcock (House of the Dragon, Sirens) gives an appealing performance despite her character being drunk and/or moody most of the time. She definitely sells what Supergirl is going through, so if given a better story in a future film, she’s proven her capability. Schoenaerts makes for a pretty good villain, although he’s aided by a look that includes a face full of studs. Jason Momoa has a memorable supporting role as the bounty hunter Lobo, even if his character doesn’t add much to the story.

While not a full-on disaster, Supergirl does not continue the momentum that Superman started. With a story that’s more concerned with showing audiences death scenes than a hero saving people, the film doesn’t seem to understand the appeal of a character like Supergirl or how to make her someone audiences will return to over and over again.

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Supergirl is now playing in theaters.

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