Oh, you know. Just hanging out at ILM with this guy.

And Guillermo del Toro.

No big whoop.

End of June means one more week till the 4th of July! One more week to make some money before Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp rain on everybody’s parade! Shall we see what’s playing?

The Heat: Wait, this isn’t Miss Congeniality Three? I see Sandra Bullock as an FBI agent who needs to loosen up … oh, sorry. Rad explains that it is not.

How to Make Money Selling Drugs: Matthew Cooke’s guide to “succeeding” in the world of The Wire may seem tongue-in-cheek, but it’s not funny. It’s not funny at all.

My Brother, the Devil: I didn’t even know this British import was opening this week, but Glenn‘s review has me intrigued.

No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka: Jose finds Callum Macrae’s study of the Sri Lankan civil war works as “both a documentary and a horror film”. That’s a hell of an endorsement.

Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation: Stefan Haupt’s slow, considered documentary explores Antoni Gaudi’s greatest design — which also happens to be Barcelona’s longest construction project.

The Secret Disco Revolution: Was disco music a countercultual cri de coeur executed so subversively that nobody noticed? Jamie Kastner’s documentary considers the notion, but Rad doesn’t find the argument terribly compelling.

Storm Surfers 3D: They surf storms! In 3D! What else do you want from a movie? Well, Rad has a modest list.

Unfinished Song: Sure, Terence Stamp has made you flinch. But has he ever made you cry? Susan says he’s a revelation. Also, Vanessa Redgrave is in it.

White House Down: Terrorists have seized the seat of America’s government, and only Magic Mike can stop them! Eh, it’s better than the other one.

Well, it is.

In this week’s NOW, I take a look at the first weekend of TIFF Cinematheque’s Jacques Demy retrospective, which will be quite lovely, and contribute to our Top 5 Terence Stamp performances in support of Susan’s interview with the man. I also review a bunch of movies, but we’ll save those for tomorrow.

Yeah, it’s a relatively quiet week. But trust me, there’s a whole bunch of stuff coming up in July …

Well, look at that. Monsters University fended off World War Z at the North American box-office this weekend, with Pixar’s prequel grossing $82 million while Brad Pitt’s murky opus earned just $66 million.

But the big news is the stunning drop for Man of Steel, which plummeted to third place in its second weekend with just  $41.2 million. Okay, “just” is the wrong word, since $41.2 million is a pretty decent haul. But when one considers how Iron Man Three stayed strong in its second weekend of domestic release just last month, this sure looks like a massive plunge, doesn’t it?

Stupid Zack Snyder.

So many movies! And I’ve seen far too many of them! Shall we just dive right in?

BB King – The Life of Riley: Not so much a profile as a Ken Burns-style exploration of the context in which King became a legend. Liked it at NXNE, still like it now.

The Bling Ring: Sofia Coppola does her usual spy-in-the-house-of-privilege thing with the true story of some Southern California teens who broke into celebrity homes for a quick thrill (and some expensive souvenirs), but this time the result is less than the sum of its parts.

Fill the Void: I seem to be the outlier on Rama Burshtein’s simplistic domestic drama, but maybe that’s because I’ve seen Ushpezin, Silent Light and Of Gods and Men, all of which do so much more with the notion of a story playing out within a cloistered society.

Frances Ha: Glenn loved Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s new collaboration, which wowed audiences at TIFF and which I still haven’t been able to see. I trust his judgment.

Hannah Arendt: Margarethe Von Trotta and Barbara Sukowa — who made the dour Vision a couple of years ago — reunite for another tale of a woman whose world-view led to a supposed revelation. I missed it at TIFF, but Susan likes it.

ill Manors: The directorial debut of Ben Drew, aka Plan B, is an ambitious, occasionally impressive multi-character thriller that never quite transcends its chosen genre. But I’m keen to see what he does next.

Monsters University: I’ll be honest, I was dreading this after Toy Story 3 and Cars 2. But Pixar gets this one right, changing gears entirely for a campus comedy starring younger, bouncier versions of its beloved monsters. And the production design is stunning; I could have spent hours finding all the teeth hidden in the architecture.

No One Lives: Ryuhei Kitamura brings some style to WWE Studios’ latest exercise in grotty sadism, but it ain’t enough.

The Sheepdogs Have at It: John calls bullshit on the documentary about the band that won the contest to be on the cover of the magazine. I’m not even sure I’ve heard a single one of their songs.

Which Way to the Front Line from Here? The Life & Time of Tim Hetherington: Sebastian Junger memorializes a comrade and friend in this decent documentary, which I first saw at Hot Docs. Not sure why the new review isn’t online, but it should be soon.

World War Z: If you’ve read Max Brooks’ fantastic book, you’ll be shocked at how many great ideas were dumped in favour of the repetitive action beats and banal characterizations that made it to the screen. Brad Pitt should have known better.

And there you go! I’m off to shoot some promotional thing for my Harbourfront Free Flicks series on a very hot and sunny day, so that should be … interesting.

So, yeah, James Gandolfini died yesterday. He was 51. It counts as shocking. Here’s the appreciation I wrote about him for NOW, if you missed the tweets. Also: God dammit.

In considerably less awful news, I got to talk to Dave Foley this week … nearly a quarter-century after first seeing him with the rest of the Kids in the Hall at a first-season taping of their CBC show. He’s in Monsters University, and his standup special premieres in the US tomorrow. Delightful man.

We’re also repurposing my Hot Docs Q&A with Sebastian Junger, now that his documentary about Tim Hetherington is getting a commercial run … oh, and I did a Top 5 of Greta Gerwig’s performances to accompany Glenn’s excellent cover interview. Still haven’t managed to catch Frances Ha, though.

Oh, and I took a quick look at this year’s Italian Contemporary Film Festival, because that’s also happening this week. Seriously, it never ends.

Surprising no one, Man of Steel won the weekend with a $125 million opening, which is pretty good — if not as spectacular as, say, Iron Man Three‘s $175.3 million domestic debut. But it’s so much bigger and splashier than Superman Returns‘ $53.5 million opening, so I guess we can expect another Snyderrific adventure in two or three years’ time. Swell.

This Is the End had to settle for second place, with a cumulative total of $32.8 million if we include its mid-week opening. Which we should, because why not, it doesn’t hurt anything and these figures are all ultimately irrelevant to the quality of a given film. After all, Now You See Me is in third place with $10.3 million and it’s barely a movie!