Author Archives: Jonathan Williams

Emilie Autumn teaches us how to “Fight Like a Girl” on new album and tour

By Jonathan Williams

It’s often the crazy ones that grab our attention most, right? Especially when said crazy one is also quite a talented musician. And that’s not even mentioning her visual appeal, which is equal parts Victorian femininity and a brash glam rock aesthetic.

Emilie Autumn is admittedly rather odd. Actually, odd is an understatement when describing her pink-haired eccentricities and openness about the time she has spent in the modern-day equivalent of a Bedlam-like insane asylum. But rather than remain in a Girl, Interrupted-like state of depression, Autumn has been able to parlay her troubled experiences into an imaginative musical production that has evolved into something that is just as much a theatrical burlesque revue as an industrial rock concert. Along the way, her corsets and violins have appeared alongside Courtney Love (how fitting), Metalocalypse and Resistance Pro‘s Billy Corgan (you might also know him from his work with a little band called the Smashing Pumpkins).

Currently on the Fight Like a Girl tour with her backing band the Bloody Crumpets, Autumn is introducing her fans to material from her upcoming album (also called Fight Like a Girl) with an even grander theatrical performance than you may have previously seen from her. Using her 2010 autobiography The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls as inspiration, Autumn’s conceptual album is being brought to life on stages across the country through Feb. 26. Amidst the insanity of this demented touring tea party, Autumn takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the tour, the album and how her bipolar disorder sometimes blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

When I saw you in Atlanta a couple of years ago, it was your first United States tour…

Oh, that was quite a scandal. They apparently called the cops on us at some point, which was ridiculous. I think you’ll be quite surprised with our new show, not just because of how far we’ve come, but how awesome it is when we’re in a venue that isn’t being awful. When I’m not having to scream at the venue for being an idiot, everything is pretty magical.

We’ve done several European tours, where we’re much better known and much more successful. Because it’s a little bit eccentric and different, people there are quite a bit more open to it. You’re allowed to be a little bit more creative there, which is why when the Opheliac record hit, it hit in Germany and it happened very, very fast. So we did a couple of tours in Europe and the U.K. before we ever set foot back in the States. And we kind of ended up being an import, though we are from here. Of course, it’s grown a great deal since that time. But even in South America we’re far more known than we are here. It’s a very different world and that last tour was definitely a new experience for American audiences.

You’re often described as being “famously bipolar,” so I wasn’t sure if all the drama was just part of the show.

No, that was all completely legit. It is kind of funny – and I’m not ashamed of this in any way – that a large part of what I’ve fortunately been able to figure out and build a career around (so I don’t have to hide that stuff and can make use of it, not only to myself, but also to other people), is also something beautiful. That’s my ultimate revenge against the experimenting, sexual abuse and things like that is to actually make into something that is artistic and beautiful. So everything is very real, but able to be used to tell a good story.

Most people who are bipolar don’t necessarily want that to be known about them, but you choose to almost celebrate it in a lot of ways.

Yeah. Celebrate is a bit of strong word, but in a way I see why you would say that. It’s not a celebration because, God knows, like I say in my book, “no high is worth this kind of low.” It’s more about not being ashamed of it, because I’m not. Depression is serious business, but it’s something you can develop through life. Bipolar disorder is completely genetic. You’re either born with it or you’re not and there’s no getting rid of it through any amount of medication. It’s always going to be there, but it’s a matter of deciding after so much incarceration and suicide attempts, if you’re going to die or if you’re going to fight and live. What this is about is not being ashamed of it and also taking advantage of my job as an entertainer, which is one of the only jobs I could have where I wouldn’t have to completely be in shame and hide my psychological medical history.

Even though it shouldn’t be this way, once it’s on the books that you’ve been locked up in an insane asylum, any legitimate job background check would find this and one would have a difficult time getting certain positions because you’re seen as mentally unstable. In the medical world, one has an extreme mental illness. That’s how’s it’s seen, so I just wanted to use my own luxury of being creative and artistic and being able to turn this into something that could help other people. I get to run around with crazy hair and paint a heart on my face every day and get away with it. As long as I’m a good entertainer, I can incorporate this into a story. The same way you didn’t know it was real or a storytelling thing, a lot of people won’t and that’s OK. But for those that do and end up identifying with it, everybody needs some compassion and something to make them feel like they are not bad because of life situations.

A lot of people are, in fact, made to feel like they are evil for a lot of the side effects of these things. Or just for being really individual and not the social status quo. It’s shocking that in this day and age we would even be talking about this, but it’s very, very true. There’s super scary stuff we still don’t talk about and being in this position to be this ridiculously open about it – writing a book, talking about it, singing about it – and yet not to be woefully dwelling on it. Not everything is about this. It’s more about situations and telling a good story, and the story happens to include me and my life. But it’s about something so much bigger now, this Asylum World, which is something that a lot of people have been able to come to see as, not only my sanctuary, but theirs as well. Especially when they come to the shows because it’s understood and I say, “This is a night that you come and celebrate your absolutely crazy individuality and realize how beautiful it is and don’t apologize for anything.” It’s come really far to clearly be able to send that message in a really entertaining Broadway sort of way.

That was exactly what I thought when I saw you before. It reminded me of something that might be seen on Broadway, in Las Vegas or even at Disney World.

It has become like a Broadway musical and that is actually the goal within a few years is to have a cast of 40 and have this be legitimately on a Broadway stage. It just can’t fit into rock venues any more, so this is all kind of rehearsal for that.

It’s definitely much more of a rock opera and I’m really pleased that even in that setting, which was far from ideal, that you saw that. It makes me really happy that we were able to convey that, and it’s just gotten more massive and epic, along with the new record, which was built to be part of the ultimate Broadway show that this is becoming. It needs a residency somewhere to where it isn’t just traveling around in various theaters. It’s a wonderful experience to go to all these different places, but ultimately it won’t be able to fit into a lot of the places we play. In order to have the massive sets every night and be able to do the complete show with all the fire and the aerials and all that, it’s going to need to be in a place that is at least a similar size and setup each night. It is a rock show, especially now because we have some serious rock and metal songs on the new album. But it’s all meant to be a rock opera and it’s become very evident. This tour is to be part of the three-hour musical and the record was written to be the soundtrack. It’s epic and cinematic and not meant to fall into any particular rock or industrial format.

What else can you tell me about the new album and when it will be available?

We’re performing the music on this tour and the album will come out right after this tour. I actually wanted to do this a bit backwards and I think it’s been working in a really cool way. In the past, because the Opheliac record’s been available, anywhere I’ve gone everybody has known every word to every song. So they’d sing along with us from the time we walked out. I wanted to see what it would be like if that were not the case. Like any band, we include the old favorites from the previous record, but a majority of the songs are new. So I wanted to experiment with what it would be like for people to go into a show and not know the music yet, not necessarily scream and sing along and for people to actually have to listen and learn the story along with everyone else. Of course, after the first show that wasn’t the case thanks to YouTube, but it was a nice try.

What’s the story that’s being told on the new album?

It’s called Fight Like a Girl. A lot of people abbreviate it to FLAG, which is kind of cool in its own way. It tells the story of a particular part of my book, which is like the bible of the Asylum World and me and everything I have to do with. The album and the show begins with that amazing moment when all the inmates of this Victorian insane asylum for girls, through some really extraordinary circumstances, find that they, in fact, have the power to open the main cell and release each other. So they’re all standing there realizing, “Holy fuck! There’s, like, a thousand of us and maybe 50 members of the staff. If we break out of here right now and get a hold of the weapons and tools they use on us, we become the scary ones. There’s power in numbers and the numbers are on our side.”

So they go on this rampage and have this thing called the Tea Party Massacre where they just slaughter everyone in order to gain their freedom, take back the asylum and end the years of torture. That’s how it begins, and we start with the song “Fight Like a Girl,” which really just says, “This is what’s about to happen.” Then we have a song “Time for Tea” because the clock strikes four, it’s tea time and time to go. Then they go on the warpath and take down everyone. After that we go to a flashback – in the show and on the record – of how all of this began and how this really started for me. Then my Victorian counterpart and I switch back and forth. The book is made up entirely of diary entries between myself in the modern world and my counterpart experiencing the very same things in 1841. Then we bring ourselves up through the show and the story right back where we started at the fight. That brings us to the end, after we’ve taken back this prison and tried to make it a sanctuary, the question is, “Where do we go from here? Just because we’re alive doesn’t mean that we’re living. Now that we have no one left to fight, how do we know who we are? We’ve identified with being prisoners for so long.” So it comes down to the song “One Foot In Front of the Other,” which is the answer to “How do you fucking go on with all this stuff in your head and the horrors that have happened?” The answer is that there is no answer. It’s simply one foot in front of the other foot in front of the one foot in front of the other foot. It’s a sort of march into the future that happens.

For more information, go to www.emilieautumn.com.

“Gone” contest

21 Replies

Wrestling with Pop Culture has passes to see the new thriller Gone, starring Amanda Seyfried and Emily Wickersham, the day before the rest of the world gets to see it. Go to the Wrestling with Pop Culture Facebook page to find the latest trivia question, then post your answers below. Winners will receive an email with a code. Just go to www.gofobo.com/RSVP, enter the code and you will receive a pass for you and one guest to attend the screening at Regal Atlantic Station on Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Good luck!

The Rock’s pecs aren’t the only oversized things on “The Mysterious Island”

Leave a reply

The Rock smells something, but it's not anything he's cooking.

Even those who have never read the turn-of-the-20th-century fantasies of Jules Verne are probably somewhat familiar with the adventures that took place within the pages of his books. One of his most famous tales is A Journey to the Center of the Earth, the basis of the 2008 film starring Brendan Frasier. Though Frasier’s character Prof. Trevor Anderson is not along for the ride this time, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island loosely adapts another of Verne’s classics, this time with wrestler-turned-action hero Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson starring as Hank Parsons.

The tenaciously venturesome teen Sean Anderson (played by Josh Hutcherson, the only returning actor from the first film) is at it again as he intercepts a nonsensical transmission from a mysterious locale. Luckily for him, his stepfather Hank is a former Navy codebreaker who quickly helps Sean decipher the transmission. Sean, whose teenage defiance makes him reluctant to accept his stepfather’s assistance, soon realizes that the message has come from an island in the Pacific Ocean that is apparently the same island referenced in Verne’s The Mysterious Island, as well as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. That’s right, not only were all three authors writing about the same island, but it’s a real place that has somehow been undiscovered by the rest of the world.

That is aside from Sean’s grandfather Alexander (Michael Caine), an explorer who Sean believes sent the message in hopes that Sean would receive it. By the time Hank and Sean get to Palau, they realize how far fetched it is to think there’s an island nearby that has yet to be discovered and documented. The only local willing to fly them out to try and find the island is a tour guide named Gabato (Luis Guzmán), whose dilapidated helicopter doesn’t look up for the challenge. But when Sean sees Gabato’s well developed daughter/business partner Kailani (High School Musical‘s Vanessa Hudgens), he’s suddenly willing to take the risk.

The Rock's going to take this little elephant, turn it sideways AND SHOVE IT STRAIGHT UP YOUR CANDY ASS!

Once they get to the area where they suspect the transmission emerged, they are sucked into an enormous storm funnel and crash safely on an Avatar-like island where elephants are not much bigger than house cats and lizards are the size of dinosaurs. They soon find Alexander and a Goonies-like adventure to get off the island ensues when they realize this island is also the lost city of Atlantis – and that it’s going to sink into the ocean again within the next day or so. The only means for escape? Captain Nemo’s sub the Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, of course. Good thing it’s in a cave on the island’s coast. Too bad that cave is now underwater as the island rapidly sinks.

Along the way, there are flights on the backs of giant bees, a volcano erupting gold and plenty of lighthearted verbal sparring between The Rock and Caine that is as entertaining as any of The Rock’s sharp-witted wrestling promos. And while Sean is crushing on Kailani, her father develops an awkward man crush on Hank that makes for additional chuckle-worthy moments.

As has been the case with many family films as of late, Journey 2 is preceded by an animated short. And it’s a 3-D Looney Tunes treat called Daffy’s Rhapsody, a fun throwback in which Elmer Fudd hunts Daffy Duck while Daffy is performing an opera about being hunted.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Directed by Brad Peyton. Starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Josh Hutcherson, Michael Caine, Luis Guzmán and Vanessa Hudgens. Rated PG. www.themysteriousisland.com.

Review by Jonathan Williams

Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds aren’t safe from anyone (including each other) in “Safe House”

Leave a reply

Denzel Washington doesn’t usually play downright evil guys. But when he does, he does it well. Perhaps too well, considering that his despicable portrayal of a dirty cop in 2001’s Training Day won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In Safe House, Washington is back to his devious ways, this time as Tobin Frost, a rogue Central Intelligence Agency defector who has been trading government secrets for the past decade. Though he has evaded capture by living completely off the grid during this time, he suddenly walks into a United States Embassy building in South Africa and turns himself in while being chased by people who don’t want his latest intel acquisition getting into the wrong hands. Seems crazy, right? Well, Frost is a bit crazy, which is partially why he’s been able to get away with the damage he’s done since leaving the CIA.

Frost is soon taken to a safe house, where aspiring agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) has been waiting for his opportunity to break out of this dead-end position and prove his worth. He immediately recognizes Frost, not only as the most dangerous man in the world, but also as just the opportunity he’s been looking for. But before Frost even has a chance to be debriefed, the safe house is attacked by the same mercenaries that were after Frost at the beginning of the film. Weston and Frost escape, and for the rest of the film they strike a balance between looking out for each other while also maintaining their own self perservation. Frost’s objective is, of course, to regain his freedom and make a lot of money off the information he has obtained. Weston’s is simply to bring Frost in, establishing his career as a CIA agent with the capture of one of the world’s most wanted men.

It is this balancing act that keeps the viewer engaged, with the relationship between the two men turning into a passing of the torch of sorts as Weston refuses to back down from Frost’s intimidating demeanor. Safe House‘s tension is also elevated by the subtle use of sounds, with the faint buzzing of flies becoming just as important as a deafening gunshot. But the interaction between Washington and Reynolds (much like that between Washington and Ethan Hawke in Training Day) is a palpable torch passing of another kind as the veteran actor helps elevate the already established younger actor to new levels.

Though the nature of their relationship makes them natural adversaries, Frost and Weston grow to respect each other, with the younger agent learning that if he really wants to move up in such a cutthroat business, he’ll have to resort to some pretty nefarious acts in order to keep up with all the other self-interested members of the agency. But in much the same way the two men have to balance their own best interests, Weston eventually figures out a way to get what he wants without completely betraying his country (and he own ethics) the way Frost felt compelled to do.

Safe House. Directed by Daniel Espinosa. Starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Rated R. www.nooneissafe.com.

Review by Jonathan Williams

Puppets, music and dance tell the tale of “The Fabled Cinderella”

Leave a reply

The enchanted tale of Cinderella is familiar across many cultures and age groups. Having been retold in many different ways, this folk tale about a young beauty who is oppressed by her stepmother and stepsisters until a charming prince returns her magical glass slipper has become one of the most iconic of pop culture mainstays. Following in the slippered footsteps of Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, the Enchantment Theatre Company‘s interpretation transports the viewer to Cinderella’s fabled realm by using puppets, elaborate costumes and extravagant set pieces.

Jere Flint

With an established collaborative relationship with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that dates back to the ’80s, the Philadelphia-based troupe returns to the Woodruff Arts Center‘s Symphony Hall on Feb. 12 for two performances of The Fabled Cinderella with the ASO and staff conductor Jere Flint.

Featuring music from Prokofiev’s ballet and other folk music, The Fabled Cinderella tells this magical tale with little dialogue (other than narration between each act), letting the story unfold through music and dance.

“We use different things to tell the story,” says Enchantment artistic director Landis Smith, who also plays the prince. “The stepmother and stepsisters are big body puppets that some of our actors wear over their shoulders and operate the arms and the head. The stepsisters are really just ridiculously funny. The first time they come on stage, the audience just starts to laugh. Most fairy tales have a dark side to them. The way we handle it is with humor. The stepmother and stepsister are very exaggerated and funny.”

In order to keep the audience fully immersed in this fantasy world, the rest of the actors wear equally over-the-top costumes and masks.

“It’s fun telling the story the way we do,” says Smith. “Sometimes a puppet or mask is better at portraying a larger-than-life part like the wicked stepmother or the nasty stepsisters. It’s easier to have those kinds of tools and in some ways more convincing than trying to do it realistically.”

Though The Fabled Cinderella is similar to the Cinderella tale most of us know, there are some subtle changes to some of the characters.

“The prince in this show does parlor tricks,” says Smith. “That’s how he breaks the ice with the girls. He’s very shy and gradually gets his nerve when he sees Cinderella. Another thing that’s different in this story is you don’t get to see Cinderella’s mother or father. You do see how they were a family together, but the mother passes on and the father remarries and brings home the stepmother and stepsisters. They’re not too nice and they subjugate Cinderella to the hearth and make her do all the dirty work because they’re selfish and mean.”

Smith also says that, despite its childlike whimsy, The Fabled Cinderella has been known to delight audiences of all ages.

“Part of our mission with the Enchantment Theatre is to bring people together of all ages and all backgrounds so they can enjoy a story that everybody can understand,” says Smith. “I’m 60 years old and still get to do what I enjoy doing. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to play the prince, though. I think I’m getting a little old for that, but I hope it’ll work this time. I’m not as skinny and young looking as I used to be, but I do wear a mask, which helps me cheat. My wife used to play Cinderella, but now she’s the puppeteer for one of the stepsisters. Maybe next time I’ll be one of the stepsisters and one of the younger people will play the prince.”

For more information, go to www.atlantasymphony.org or www.enchantmenttheatre.org.

Daniel Radcliffe deals with a curse of a new kind in “The Woman in Black”

Leave a reply

When it comes to classic gothic horror films, few would argue that Hammer‘s contributions have been some of the most relevant in the genre’s history. Seeing its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, Hammer was establishing Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and the Mummy as British horror icons while Universal was making these creatures household names in America. While Hammer has been mostly dormant for the past few decades, it’s signature style of creepiness has been resurrected with The Woman in Black.

If he’s looking to break any potential Harry Potter spell, Daniel Radcliffe picked the perfect film as he plays the Jonathan Harker-like lawyer Arthur Kipps. When the still-grieving Kipps ventures to a small village to investigate the estate of a recently deceased woman, he soon finds himself in the middle of a horrific mystery involving inexplicable deaths and the perceived madness of some of the towns most prominent citizens. And the more time he spends in the deceased woman’s house, the creepier things get.

Much like last year’s frightful haunted house flick Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, The Woman in Black feels much like one of the old Hammer or Roger Corman films (or an Edgar Allan Poe tale), especially considering that heartache, mental instability and the inexplicable deaths of children are the source of the horrors. And for some reason (perhaps his perpetual dwelling on his deceased wife, who died while giving birth to their son), Kipps seems to have no fear of death, at least until what started out as feint shadows and disembodied sounds progresses into full-on poltergeist activity and other overtly ominous happenings.

As the name implies, a ghostly woman in a black veil is the source of the film’s terror. And once Kipps has encountered her, it seems that he carries her curse (a somewhat Freddy Krueger-like determination to punish parents by possessing their children to indulge in fatal activities). It’s not until he realizes that his own young son, en route to visit Kipps in the village, is in danger of becoming part of the deranged woman’s curse that Kipps sets out to break it. And once he finds something to live for again, his determination to bring closure to the black-veiled woman’s own tragedy inadvertently brings about simultaneous loss and closure for Kipps himself. But it’s this type of irony and tragedy that makes The Woman in Black an apt successor to the Hammer films of old.

The Woman in Black. Directed by James Watkins. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer and Liz White. Rated PG-13. www.womaninblack.com.

Review by Jonathan Williams

Liam Neeson faces the horrors of man and nature in “The Grey”

1 Reply

Being stuck in harsh circumstances can either bring out the best or worst in man. And when the setting is the caustic climates and dreary landscape of Alaska, it’s likely to bring out a little of both. Add a hungry pack of wolves to the mix and it’s time for full on survivalism for those being hunted.

Ottway (Liam Neeson) and his buddies get to play with doggies in the snow!

In The Grey, Ottway (Liam Neeson) leads a small group of men who have survived a plane crash through the Alaskan countryside. Unfortunately, it’s not just the elements that the men have to contend with as a pack of wolves begins to terrorize them as soon as the sun sets. Thankfully, Neeson’s character is an expert on wolves, seeing as his job is to use a sniper rifle to pick off any wolves that attempt to attack the oilers he works with.

As the men set up camp and try to figure out how they’re going to survive this ordeal, Ottway quickly takes charge of the group, confidently establishing his leadership skills and survival instincts. The hot-headed challenge of Diaz (Frank Grillo) not only tests the loyalties of the group, but also mirrors a similar power struggle happening between the nearby wolves, which is quickly put to rest when the alpha male bests his challenger. As The Grey progresses, the plights of the men continue to mirror the internal struggles of the wolf pack, setting up an interesting juxtaposition between man and beast.

Aside from its interesting philosophical perspectives, The Grey is a mixed bag of questionable continuity and impressive cinematography and dialogue. On the positive side, the plane crash scene is one of the most intense pieces of cinema ever recorded with its choppy effects and chaotic surrealism. The same can be said of the multiple dream sequences, in which people are whisked from euphoric serenity back to harsh reality with jolting clarity as they are assaulted by snow storms, the crashing plane and ravenous wolves. And after the plane crashes and the survivors regroup, The Grey, in many ways, turns into a horror movie as the monstrous wolves systematically and graphically pick men off one at a time.

But a few things left me with a big question mark over my head. For example, unless I missed something, there is never any mention of trying to use a cell phone to call for help. Granted, all the phones could have been lost or destroyed in the plane crash, and it’s highly likely that no one would have reception in such a desolate area. But one or two lines of dialogue explaining those things would have resolved these issues completely. Also, aren’t airplane liquor bottles typically made of plastic now? If so, why are the ones on this plane made of glass? Maybe I’m being a bit nitpicky, but in a movie that otherwise seems hyper-realistic, these minor flaws become almost as jarring as the circumstances the men are facing.

Liam Neeson’s about to fight a wolf!

The Grey‘s climax is also a bit odd, as the alpha male from each tribe squares off for one final battle. It’s established earlier in the film that Ottway has little motivation to keep on living, so his willingness to stand and fight (and probably die) is no surprise. But even with the post-credit snippet that vaguely shows the result of the conflict, the viewer is left not knowing what the true outcome is.

These minor gripes aside, The Grey is an intense look at how man reacts when faced with the forces of nature. And even though the wolves are given an almost supernatural mystique, the similarities between man and animal reveal a few things about human nature that we don’t often take the time to consider.