Craig’s Hit List

DANIEL CRAIG has a unique perspective on the old blonds-have-more-fun question.

When the ruggedly handsome English actor was cast as the new James Bond in 2005, fans of Agent 007 raised an uproar, protesting the fact that Craig was the first blond actor to portray the British spy. “I didn’t expect this backlash,” he said at the time Casino Royale was in production. “They hate me. They don’t think I’m right for the role . . . but I do wish they’d reserve judgment.”

Craig—who recently turned 40—garnered superlative reviews for his work and reinvigorated the Bond franchise. He brought the requisite grit to the role, balancing Bond’s feral and urbane qualities. Casino Royale went on to become the highest-grossing Bond movie ever.

Experience was on his side: Craig joined London’s National Youth Theatre at 16 and later graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His work for the BBC, including his controversial role a decade ago as Francis Bacon’s gay lover in Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, got him noticed before he began hanging with Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and played Paul Newman’s son (Road to Perdition). Craig honed his Bondian killer instincts in Steven Spielberg’s Munich, playing a member of an Israeli Mossad hit team. He has also appeared in Sylvia with Gwyneth Paltrow, the gangster drama Layer Cake, and the Truman Capote biopic Infamous, as the killer Perry Smith.

After last year’s The Golden Compass, he has been shooting the next Bond film, Quantum of Solace, due out in November. Don’t expect protests this time: Craig is already on many lists as the best Bond yet—after Sean Connery, that is. And according to Craig’s deal with MGM, there are three more Bond flicks to come.

Talk about a license to make a killing! Maybe blonds really do have more fun.

—Kenneth M. Chanko

Are We Having Fun(plex) Yet?

“Hey, y’all! Last call! Last chance to dance!” Get ready to bump, grind, shimmy in a Lurex gown, shake a leg and rock like a lobster: The B-52s are back in town with Funplex, their first album in 16 years.

Fans of the iconoclastic group will not be disappointed with this latest effort. Relying on their distinctive formula—Fred Schneider’s sprechgesang, or “talk-singing,” over the perfectly blended harmonies of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, with Keith Strickland’s guitar-playing—the Bs have ramped up their high-energy sound another notch. There’s more electronica on numbers such as “Pump,” “Hot Corner,” “Love in the Year 3000,” “Keep This Party Going” and the title track—a hyped-up commentary on pedal-to-the-metal American lifestyles and consumerism. But in the tradition of earlier hits, such as Cosmic Thing’s “Roam,” the B-52s don’t lack for lyricism. Pierson and Wilson give a lovely nod to Federico Fellini on “Juliet of the Spirits,” and “Eyes Wide Open” breaks into the hummable refrain, “I don’t want to clash / I don’t want to rehash the past / I just want to release.”

No one could accuse the Bs of rehashing the past, but they have built on it. Yes, they still have a penchant for the retro-yet-futuristic elements that characterized their early albums—1979’s The B-52’s, 1980’s Wild Planet and 1983’s Whammy! In those days, they were the first Athens, Georgia, music act to crack a wider market, namely the New York punk scene (think CBGB and Debbie Harry, one of the Bs’ early fans). Then came a setback with the death of band member Ricky Wilson (Cindy’s brother) in 1985. But by 1989, the group had hit its stride, showcasing tighter songwriting and nuanced, more melodic music on the hugely successful Cosmic Thing. After the album’s international tour ended, the quartet would disperse, work on individual projects and regroup in the 1990s—sans Cindy Wilson until ’98.

“[It] sounds like us, updated,” says Schneider. “It’s the B-52s now—or 15 years from now.” Or in the year 3000.

—Nancy Oakley

Don’t Call ’em Toons

Animated movies have come a long way since Disney’s Snow White in 1937. Not even Walt Disney himself could’ve imagined the seamless, sensuous look of, say, last year’s computer-generated Ratatouille, from the wizards at Pixar. Also out last year and now on DVD: Persepolis, a stunning black-and-white memoir about a rebellious Iranian girl growing up under a repressive regime. Here are five diverse animated features that are ripe for either re-viewing or discovery on DVD. But whatever you do, don’t call ’em cartoons!

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988) This is an astonishingly poignant and novelistic film that follows two Japanese children who try to survive after their town has been firebombed by U.S. planes at the close of World War II. On its 20-year anniversary, Grave of the Fireflies remains the most powerful and wrenching historical animated feature film ever made.

THE IRON GIANT (1999) Brad (The Incredibles) Bird’s droll buddy picture/sci-fi adventure works as political allegory. Set in 1950s small-town America, it’s a deft tale about an independent-minded 9-year-old boy who befriends a giant robot that may have been programmed to kill by an alien race. Add an undeniable visual charm, and you have one near-flawless gem.

NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) Legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s richly imagined feature is set 1,000 years after an apocalyptic war, and hews to the writer/director’s pantheistic and ecological themes. The young princess Nausicaä is Miyazaki’s prototypical heroine. She’s often airborne, and she’s the only character with the intuitive strength to save humanity. While the story is emotionally satisfying, the greatest pleasure lies in simply ogling Miyazaki’s gorgeous, meticulously detailed landscapes and creatures.

TOY STORY 2 (1999) Could this be the greatest sequel to any movie since The Godfather, Part II? Don’t laugh—it’s a contender. Woody and Buzz are back, and everything clicks—expertly crafted action sequences, a trenchant story line that deepens the characters and their relationships, wonderful songs, and sophisticated themes like the downside of immortality. Pixar’s best to date, this will be cherished to infinity and beyond.

WALLACE & GROMIT: THREE AMAZING ADVENTURES (2007) OK, I cheated here; this one isn’t a feature-length movie. But these three short films—A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave—introduced us to Wallace, the dim English inventor, and his far smarter dog, Gromit. Painstakingly created by Nick Park, Claymation-style, all three garnered much-deserved attention from Oscar; the second and third won their category. “Cheese, Gromit!”

—K.M.C.

Calendar

APRIL 1 (ONGOING) American Gladiators look like sissies compared to the improv artists who square off every weekend in Los Angeles’ longest-running show, ComedySportz, at the National Comedy Theatre. www.comedysportzla.com

APRIL 1–19 Who is that masked man? It’s not the Lone Ranger, it’s the Phantom of the Opera, at the Orange County Performing Artscenter in Costa Mesa, California. www.ocpac.org

APRIL 3–5 Smooth jazz guitarist Earl Klugh will pluck your Heart String(s) as host of the Fifth Annual Weekend of Jazz at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. www.weekendofjazz.com

APRIL 13 Take five and hang on, Sloopy . . . Dave Brubeck and Ramsey Lewis liven things up at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. www.kennedy-center.org

APRIL 23–MAY 4 Tri- it, you’ll like it. The Tribeca Film Festival, that is. Head to Manhattan for 12 days of screenings and panel discussions. www.tribecafilmfestival.org

APRIL 26 If you can’t buy a stairway to heaven, at least buy a ticket to “The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Symphony” with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, Virginia. www.vafest.org

APRIL 29–30 Forget pomp and have a romp in the swamp at Ponderosa Stomp, a two-day fest in New Orleans celebrating blues, garage, soul, funk, rockabilly, swamp pop and NOLA R&B. www.ponderosastomp.com