Olga Kurylenko on Terrence Malick's To The Wonder

Western audiences might recall her best from her turn as a seductive, vengeance-seeking Bond girl in Quantum of Solace, but for Ukrainian-born actress and former model Olga Kurylenko, Terrence Malick's drama To The Wonder is closer to the films she's most eager to make — and more like the French films she's already got under her belt.

Starring Kurylenko and Ben Affleck, the meditative drama tells the story of a newly married man who becames drawn to a former flame. The cast also includes Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem.

During a stop in Toronto last fall to unveil To The Wonder at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kurylenko talked to CBC News about acting without a script, staying in character for more than a month and working with the philosophical Malick, known for his expansive and impressionistic filmmaking.

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Rush's Rock Hall induction 'a nice pat on the back'

Rush fans can relax. The band is now officially in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Canadian rockers were welcomed into the musical fraternity at Thursday night's 28th annual induction ceremony by the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. At the beginning of the Nokia Theatre event, the audience was already administering a standing ovation to the group.

"We've been saying for a long time that this wasn't a big deal," drummer-lyricist Neil Peart told the crowd, most of whom came out to specifically support the band.

"It turns out, it kind of is."

Rush gained entry following its first appearance on the ballot after repeatedly being left off the list since gaining eligibility in 1998, to the great consternation of the legion of Rush fans who cried bias against progressive rock.

"It's nothing we expected to be excited about and I think that's making it even nicer. It's one of the things you don't think about: you're busy making records and touring and trying to have a life. This is something that's outside your control. So when we heard that we were going to be inducted, it was a nice pleasant smile and a pat on the back," Geddy Lee told CBC from the red carpet before the show.

"We've been fortunate to have a long career and we're still going, so that's really sweet. And to get something like this along the way is fantastic."

The long wait didn't seem to matter at Thursday's star-studded concert event, which ran over five hours. Peart, guitarist Alex Lifeson and lead singer-bassist Geddy Lee made up for lost time by launching into a rambunctious rendition of Tom Sawyer in front of the more than 7,000 attendees.

Rush was among this year's eight eclectic inductees, which also included fellow classic rockers Heart, singer-songwriter Randy Newman, rap group Public Enemy, disco queen Donna Summer, bluesman Albert King, and producers Quincy Jones and Lou Adler.

Rock hall inductees Ann Wilson, left, and Nancy Wilson of Heart pose for photographers. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

For Heart, entering the hall of fame isn't just about music.

"Our long and winding road has always been about the magical power of love and the enduring strength of family," said Nancy Wilson. "We came from an era when women normally did not rock and women were not expected to be leaders."

Wilson, her sister, Nancy, and their band mates celebrated their induction with lively performances of Crazy On You, Dreamboat Annie and Barracuda.

Celebrity fans toast inductees

Adler was inducted by comedy duo Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong before being serenaded by Carole King with So Far Away. Jack Nicholson was among Adler's fans in the audience who lavished the producer-mogul a standing ovation.

With his guitar around his neck, John Mayer inducted the late King before joining Gary Clark Jr. for King-tinged jam session.

"Albert King is why guitar-face was invented," joked Mayer.

Newman — joined by Jackson Browne, John Fogerty and Tom Petty — kicked off the Los Angeles ceremony with a performance of his classic I Love L.A. It was an appropriate song choice given the fact this year's event marks the first time since 1993 that the Cleveland institution has held its induction ceremony on the West Coast. Backstage, Newman was matter-of-fact about his inclusion.

"I didn't think it would happen until I died or something," he said.

Oprah Winfrey was on hand to welcome Jones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Usher lauded the producer-mogul with a rendition of the Michael Jackson tune Rock with You.

Jennifer Hudson paid tribute to Summer with a medley of her hits, much to the chagrin of Flava Flav. The Public Enemy rapper, clad in an all-white tux, was the only person in the crowd who remained on his feet throughout her performance. He later commanded the microphone for a long-winded acceptance speech when Public Enemy was recognized. His colleague, Chuck D, was more succinct in his remarks.

"Let us all not forget, we all come from the damn blues," he told detractors.

Thursday's event concluded with all-star jam session featuring Rush, Heart, Chuck D, Grohl, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello and others riffing together on stage.

The induction ceremony will be broadcast May 18 on HBO.

Rock Hall of Fame inductees, from left, Nancy Wilson of Heart, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Darryl 'D.M.C.' McDaniels of Public Enemy, Ann Wilson of Heart and musician presenter Dave Grohl jam onstage. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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FILM REVIEW: Oblivion

Long after the echoes from the action have faded, the serene silence of Oblivion will stay with you. The lean Washington Monument is reflected across an ash-coloured landscape, streaked with ice. Rusted battleships are trapped in a sea of sand. Waterfalls cascade over the concrete canyons of Manhattan, now choked with ivy.

After the gods of film brought about a new Ice Age (The Day After Tomorrow), the flood (2012), pestilence (Contagion) and undead horrors (the upcoming World War Z), Oblivion brings us to the logical conclusion: the end.

It's 2077 and Earth is a scarred, empty wasteland -- the result of an otherworldly invasion. Though the enemy was repelled, now humanity is heading for the stars, namely a new home on Saturn's moon, Titan.

Down on Earth, robotics technician Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his com officer Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are a few of last humans left. The two are a "mop-up crew" repairing and protecting flying, weaponized drones -- the larger mission is to convert sea water into fuel for the big trip to Titan.

Tom Cruise stars in the slow-burning sci-fi thriller Oblivion. (Universal Pictures/Associated Press)

No drone himself, Jack is haunted by visions of a past life. We're treated to sentimental flashes of sightseeing in NYC as he goes about the business of fixing the robot drones (which incidentally look like giant, weaponized ping pong balls). As he patches them up after attacks by alien scavs (short for scavengers), Jack does some collecting of his own. Like the main character of Wall-E, Jack builds a museum of lost relics: aviator sunglasses, a stuffed King Kong doll, vinyl LPs. In a world of sleek plastic curves and glossy white edges, he's a romantic -- the last hipster standing -- who prefers analog to digital.

Each night, Jack returns home to a tower in the sky, where he dines with Victoria, who is as cold and pristine as her Apple-inspired environment. Slowly, with the emergence of a rag-tag band of underground rebels and Julia (Olga Kurylenko), a mysterious woman who literally falls to earth, cracks start appearing in Jack's back story.

To avoid spoiling the many, many reveals, let's turn our attention to the director behind the camera, Joseph Kosinski. The 38-year-old filmmaker recently helmed the sequel to sci-fi favourite Tron. Before that, he studied architecture and mechanical engineering. It's worth a mention because Oblivion is one of the most beautiful and thoughtfully designed sci-fi films in quite some time. There's a wonderful stillness to this dead planet. As in the book The World Without Us, Kosinski offers us a way to image how Earth would appear after we're gone.

Julia (Olga Kurylenko, left) turns up and changes everything for Jack (Tom Cruise) in Oblivion. (Universal Pictures/Associated Press)

Beyond the haunting desolation depicted, Oblivion offers cutting-edge visual effects that are actually a blend of practical photography and computer graphics. Jack zooms around in a bug-eyed, dragonfly-shaped bubbleship, a design element that was actually constructed by the prototype company Wildfactory. For Jack and Victoria's plastic palace in the sky, crews filmed the cloud cover around Hawaii's Haleakala Crater. Then, the footage was projected onto massive screens and used as the actual light source on set.

While Kosinski challenged himself with the look of Oblivion's world, when it came to storytelling he and a small army of screenwriters took more of a pastiche approach. It leaves Oblivion feeling like a greatest hits of sci-fi films past and present, taking a little from Wall-E, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and so forth. At the centre off it all is Tom Cruise, once again an everyman-turned-saviour. He's at his best when he's pushing himself to limit. Perhaps it's self-delusion about his heroic on-camera resumé or maybe because his marriage was imploding as he shot Oblivion in Iceland, but Cruise fully immerses himself in the moment and undeniably draws the audience in. We glimpse fear, anger and even a brief smile flicker across his face during a mid-air duel.

Once Oblivion ends, its tangle of plot twists and characters are actually quite simple. Jack is a reckless rule-breaker nostalgic for his home. Victoria is the compliant employee. Julia is the beautiful stranger and catalyst. Although Kurylenko's character comes complete with her own back story, inevitably she's just another damsel to be saved from the big bogeyman in the sky.

The issue is that, in a Tom Cruise movie, there's never any doubt as to how things will end -- only a certain kind of outcome is allowed. Kosinski has name-checked films like Bladerunner and 2001 as influences, but what Oblivion lacks is the kind of complexity of those earlier cinematic works -- say the murky morality of Bladerunner's Rick Deckard or the mind-bending ambition of 2001. Still, Oblivion is an impressive film from a director just getting going. Here's to a future where he finds stories worthy of his abilities.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Morgan Freeman, Zoe Bell and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau appear in a scene from Oblivion. (Universal Pictures/Associated Press)

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Leonard Cohen wins artist of the year at Junos

The Juno Awards celebrated Canadian music stars old and new Saturday night as first-time winner Carly Rae Jepsen and veteran Leonard Cohen both scored major prizes while moody R&B singer the Weeknd led the field at a dinner gala where the bulk of the trophies were handed out.

Jepsen, the weekend's premiere nominee with a five-category haul, took pop album of the year over a stacked field that included headline-snatching superstar Justin Bieber, while Cohen won artist of the year over the both of them — his fourth career Juno.

While most of the evening's most well-known winners were absent from the event, Jepsen showed up to nab her first-ever Juno and struggled to gather the words.

'It really has been a journey that began when I was seven years old and it's my dad I'd like to honour with this tonight, so thank you dad.'—Carly Rae Jepsen

"Oh my goodness. Wow. Thank you so much," she said. "I can remember back in 2010 when I was nominated with Ryan Stewart for songwriter of the year and I thought to myself that that was the most amazing moment of my life. But I was wrong. It's right now.

"I just want to say this has been an incredible journey," she added, before rhyming off a list of thank-yous that finished with her dad, "who is here with me tonight as my date, my hot date," she said.

"It really has been a journey that began when I was seven years old and it's my dad I'd like to honour with this tonight, so thank you dad."

The Weeknd named breakthrough artist

The Weeknd — the stage name for 23-year-old Toronto native Abel Tesfaye — was the only double winner at the non-televised event, winning both breakthrough artist of the year and R&B/soul recording of the year for his epic, ennui-steeped "Trilogy," which began life as three separately released free-to-download mixtapes yet still went gold in Canada and the U.S. upon its official commercial release.

His quick rise to prominence was in part aided by a cunning publicity strategy — that is, shunning publicity altogether. So it wasn't surprising the once mystery-shrouded artist wasn't on hand to pick up his awards at the Queensbury Convention Centre.

Classified poses with the Juno after winning for Rap Recording of the Year. (Liam Richards/Canadian Press)

But he was hardly alone among the promising stars to receive their first Junos — innovative Montrealer Grimes may have missed out on breakthrough artist of the year, but she did claim electronic album of the year for her infectious, forward-thinking "Visions."

And while Classified can't fairly be regarded as a Juno newbie, the Enfield, N.S., native did win for the first time out of eight nominations for rap recording of the year, overcoming competition that included Maestro Fresh Wes -- who won the first-ever award in that category 22 years ago.

"I think any artist says he doesn't make music for awards — but we all come out to this stuff for a reason (and) it's great to be awarded," he said backstage, clutching a glass of white wine.

"This is just kind of like the cream of the crop. It's a Juno Award. It's great to finally win something. I'm going to celebrate tonight. I'm already half in the bag with my wine — I'm feeling good."

1st-time winners

He wasn't alone in finally securing a Juno after a few tries — Toronto's Emilie-Claire Barlow, a four-time prior nominee who had joked about being like soap opera star (and perennial Emmy loser) Susan Lucci due to her inability to secure a trophy, finally won as well for vocal jazz album of the year.

Other first-timers? Ontario's Crystal Shawanda secured her first trophy for aboriginal album of the year, while other newcomers to the winner's circle included Toronto's Elliott Brood (roots & traditional album of the year: group), Halifax-based Rose Cousins (roots & traditional: solo), Vancouver's the Tenors (adult contemporary album of the year), New Brunswick's Joel Miller (contemporary jazz album of the year) and Windsor, Ont., doom-metal outfit Woods of Ypres (metal/hard music album of the year), who actually disbanded following the 2011 death of lead singer David Gold.

Anjulie poses with her Juno after winning Dance Recording of the Year. (Liam Richards/Canadian Press)

His mom accepted the award on his behalf with tears in her eyes.

"I'm speaking to you as a mother with a broken heart," she said. "Everything that we think, say, feel and do runs parallel with our sorrow.… He was a beautiful man (and) I miss him dearly."

On the other end of the experience spectrum, Toronto new-wave group Metric won their third-ever Juno for alternative album of the year (with an additional win coming Saturday for guitarist James Shaw, named producer of the year), Toronto-based crooner Johnny Reid won country album of the year for a third time, recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Rush claimed rock album of the year, giving them nine Junos total and Brandon, Man., violinist James Ehnes took his seventh career Juno, for classical album of the year with large ensemble accompaniment.

And six-time Juno winner Tom Cochrane of Lynn Lake, Man., was celebrated not for music but philanthropy, taking the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award.

"We touch more people than any other industry in the world," Cochrane said. "We touch people, we write songs about people, we write songs about issues. You can't divorce that from the commerce of it. That's the reality.

"I'm very honoured and humbled by this acknowledgment," he added. "I hesitate to call this an award ... because it's strange to get an award for trying to do the right thing from time to time."

Many of the evening's winners weren't present to accept their awards, including Grimes, Metric, Cohen, Reid and Rush.

Sunday show to be televised

Still, the gala had some surprising moments. Local product Colin James, a six-time winner whose performance helped open the gala, lost out for blues album of the year to Hamilton's Steve Strongman. And Celine Dion's triple-platinum "Sans Attendre" earned a nomination for album of the year — which will be contested Sunday — but lost out in the adult contemporary album category to the Tenors.

Apparently, Anjulie's win for dance recording of the year was a surprise — at least to the Oakville, Ont., artist herself.

Canadian singer Michael Buble hosts of the 2013 Juno Awards in Regina on Saturday and Sunday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

"Wow I really didn't expect to win this — I thought this would go to Dragonette," she said. "But thank you so much.… I'm super nervous. This is my first Juno!"

Surely, those feverish fans of Bieber, who wasn't in the Saskatchewan capital for the weekend, might be disappointed that the recently trouble-prone pop pinup lost out in both categories contested Saturday, though he does hold two more nominations heading into Sunday's show: album of the year and the Juno fan choice award.

Jepsen, meanwhile, is competing in both those categories plus single of the year — widely considered her category to lose after the universal ubiquity she achieved with her candy-coloured smash "Call Me Maybe."

Other artists with multiple nominations still to be contested include Marianas Trench and Hedley with three nominations apiece, as well as a cluster of double nominees: Billy Talent, Dion, Kathleen Edwards and provincial heroes the Sheepdogs, who hail from Saskatoon.

Sunday's CTV telecast will be hosted by Canadian crooner Michael Buble, who held court at an entertaining press conference Saturday and whose headlining presence at the Junos was sending a buzz circulating through this Prairie city, where enthusiastic fans were eagerly packing Juno-related events all week.

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Olga Kurylenko on Terrence Malick's To The Wonder

Western audiences might recall her best from her turn as a seductive, vengeance-seeking Bond girl in Quantum of Solace, but for Ukrainian-born actress and former model Olga Kurylenko, Terrence Malick's drama To The Wonder is closer to the films she's most eager to make — and more like the French films she's already got under her belt.

Starring Kurylenko and Ben Affleck, the meditative drama tells the story of a newly married man who becames drawn to a former flame. The cast also includes Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem.

During a stop in Toronto last fall to unveil To The Wonder at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kurylenko talked to CBC News about acting without a script, staying in character for more than a month and working with the philosophical Malick, known for his expansive and impressionistic filmmaking.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rush's Rock Hall induction 'a nice pat on the back'

Rush fans can relax. The band is now officially in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Canadian rockers were welcomed into the musical fraternity at Thursday night's 28th annual induction ceremony by the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. At the beginning of the Nokia Theatre event, the audience was already administering a standing ovation to the group.

"We've been saying for a long time that this wasn't a big deal," drummer-lyricist Neil Peart told the crowd, most of whom came out to specifically support the band.

"It turns out, it kind of is."

Rush gained entry following its first appearance on the ballot after repeatedly being left off the list since gaining eligibility in 1998, to the great consternation of the legion of Rush fans who cried bias against progressive rock.

"It's nothing we expected to be excited about and I think that's making it even nicer. It's one of the things you don't think about: you're busy making records and touring and trying to have a life. This is something that's outside your control. So when we heard that we were going to be inducted, it was a nice pleasant smile and a pat on the back," Geddy Lee told CBC from the red carpet before the show.

"We've been fortunate to have a long career and we're still going, so that's really sweet. And to get something like this along the way is fantastic."

The long wait didn't seem to matter at Thursday's star-studded concert event, which ran over five hours. Peart, guitarist Alex Lifeson and lead singer-bassist Geddy Lee made up for lost time by launching into a rambunctious rendition of Tom Sawyer in front of the more than 7,000 attendees.

Rush was among this year's eight eclectic inductees, which also included fellow classic rockers Heart, singer-songwriter Randy Newman, rap group Public Enemy, disco queen Donna Summer, bluesman Albert King, and producers Quincy Jones and Lou Adler.

Rock hall inductees Ann Wilson, left, and Nancy Wilson of Heart pose for photographers. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

For Heart, entering the hall of fame isn't just about music.

"Our long and winding road has always been about the magical power of love and the enduring strength of family," said Nancy Wilson. "We came from an era when women normally did not rock and women were not expected to be leaders."

Wilson, her sister, Nancy, and their band mates celebrated their induction with lively performances of Crazy On You, Dreamboat Annie and Barracuda.

Celebrity fans toast inductees

Adler was inducted by comedy duo Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong before being serenaded by Carole King with So Far Away. Jack Nicholson was among Adler's fans in the audience who lavished the producer-mogul a standing ovation.

With his guitar around his neck, John Mayer inducted the late King before joining Gary Clark Jr. for King-tinged jam session.

"Albert King is why guitar-face was invented," joked Mayer.

Newman — joined by Jackson Browne, John Fogerty and Tom Petty — kicked off the Los Angeles ceremony with a performance of his classic I Love L.A. It was an appropriate song choice given the fact this year's event marks the first time since 1993 that the Cleveland institution has held its induction ceremony on the West Coast. Backstage, Newman was matter-of-fact about his inclusion.

"I didn't think it would happen until I died or something," he said.

Oprah Winfrey was on hand to welcome Jones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Usher lauded the producer-mogul with a rendition of the Michael Jackson tune Rock with You.

Jennifer Hudson paid tribute to Summer with a medley of her hits, much to the chagrin of Flava Flav. The Public Enemy rapper, clad in an all-white tux, was the only person in the crowd who remained on his feet throughout her performance. He later commanded the microphone for a long-winded acceptance speech when Public Enemy was recognized. His colleague, Chuck D, was more succinct in his remarks.

"Let us all not forget, we all come from the damn blues," he told detractors.

Thursday's event concluded with all-star jam session featuring Rush, Heart, Chuck D, Grohl, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello and others riffing together on stage.

The induction ceremony will be broadcast May 18 on HBO.

Rock Hall of Fame inductees, from left, Nancy Wilson of Heart, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Darryl 'D.M.C.' McDaniels of Public Enemy, Ann Wilson of Heart and musician presenter Dave Grohl jam onstage. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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FILM REVIEW: Oblivion

Long after the echoes from the action have faded, the serene silence of Oblivion will stay with you. The lean Washington Monument is reflected across an ash-coloured landscape, streaked with ice. Rusted battleships are trapped in a sea of sand. Waterfalls cascade over the concrete canyons of Manhattan, now choked with ivy.

After the gods of film brought about a new Ice Age (The Day After Tomorrow), the flood (2012), pestilence (Contagion) and undead horrors (the upcoming World War Z), Oblivion brings us to the logical conclusion: the end.

It's 2077 and Earth is a scarred, empty wasteland -- the result of an otherworldly invasion. Though the enemy was repelled, now humanity is heading for the stars, namely a new home on Saturn's moon, Titan.

Down on Earth, robotics technician Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his com officer Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are a few of last humans left. The two are a "mop-up crew" repairing and protecting flying, weaponized drones -- the larger mission is to convert sea water into fuel for the big trip to Titan.

Tom Cruise stars in the slow-burning sci-fi thriller Oblivion. (Universal Pictures/Associated Press)

No drone himself, Jack is haunted by visions of a past life. We're treated to sentimental flashes of sightseeing in NYC as he goes about the business of fixing the robot drones (which incidentally look like giant, weaponized ping pong balls). As he patches them up after attacks by alien scavs (short for scavengers), Jack does some collecting of his own. Like the main character of Wall-E, Jack builds a museum of lost relics: aviator sunglasses, a stuffed King Kong doll, vinyl LPs. In a world of sleek plastic curves and glossy white edges, he's a romantic -- the last hipster standing -- who prefers analog to digital.

Each night, Jack returns home to a tower in the sky, where he dines with Victoria, who is as cold and pristine as her Apple-inspired environment. Slowly, with the emergence of a rag-tag band of underground rebels and Julia (Olga Kurylenko), a mysterious woman who literally falls to earth, cracks start appearing in Jack's back story.

To avoid spoiling the many, many reveals, let's turn our attention to the director behind the camera, Joseph Kosinski. The 38-year-old filmmaker recently helmed the sequel to sci-fi favourite Tron. Before that, he studied architecture and mechanical engineering. It's worth a mention because Oblivion is one of the most beautiful and thoughtfully designed sci-fi films in quite some time. There's a wonderful stillness to this dead planet. As in the book The World Without Us, Kosinski offers us a way to image how Earth would appear after we're gone.

Julia (Olga Kurylenko, left) turns up and changes everything for Jack (Tom Cruise) in Oblivion. (Universal Pictures/Associated Press)

Beyond the haunting desolation depicted, Oblivion offers cutting-edge visual effects that are actually a blend of practical photography and computer graphics. Jack zooms around in a bug-eyed, dragonfly-shaped bubbleship, a design element that was actually constructed by the prototype company Wildfactory. For Jack and Victoria's plastic palace in the sky, crews filmed the cloud cover around Hawaii's Haleakala Crater. Then, the footage was projected onto massive screens and used as the actual light source on set.

While Kosinski challenged himself with the look of Oblivion's world, when it came to storytelling he and a small army of screenwriters took more of a pastiche approach. It leaves Oblivion feeling like a greatest hits of sci-fi films past and present, taking a little from Wall-E, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and so forth. At the centre off it all is Tom Cruise, once again an everyman-turned-saviour. He's at his best when he's pushing himself to limit. Perhaps it's self-delusion about his heroic on-camera resumé or maybe because his marriage was imploding as he shot Oblivion in Iceland, but Cruise fully immerses himself in the moment and undeniably draws the audience in. We glimpse fear, anger and even a brief smile flicker across his face during a mid-air duel.

Once Oblivion ends, its tangle of plot twists and characters are actually quite simple. Jack is a reckless rule-breaker nostalgic for his home. Victoria is the compliant employee. Julia is the beautiful stranger and catalyst. Although Kurylenko's character comes complete with her own back story, inevitably she's just another damsel to be saved from the big bogeyman in the sky.

The issue is that, in a Tom Cruise movie, there's never any doubt as to how things will end -- only a certain kind of outcome is allowed. Kosinski has name-checked films like Bladerunner and 2001 as influences, but what Oblivion lacks is the kind of complexity of those earlier cinematic works -- say the murky morality of Bladerunner's Rick Deckard or the mind-bending ambition of 2001. Still, Oblivion is an impressive film from a director just getting going. Here's to a future where he finds stories worthy of his abilities.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Morgan Freeman, Zoe Bell and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau appear in a scene from Oblivion. (Universal Pictures/Associated Press)

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Canadian music stars gather for Juno gala

Canada's biggest night in music unfolds Sunday in Regina, with Fan Choice nominee Michael Bublé as host and leading Juno Award nominee Carly Rae Jepsen one of the star performers.

The Juno Awards have celebrated the best in Canadian music for 42 years and this year took the show to Regina where the stars to perform are prominent names in the pop and rock firmament – among them Saskatoon band The Sheepdogs, Montreal's Metric, Toronto's Serena Ryder and Billy Talent, and Vancouver's Hannah Georgas and Marianas Trench.

Carly Rae Jepsen has five nominations, including artist of the year. (Canadian Press)

Conspicuously absent is Justin Bieber, who is currently touring Europe, but is still a contender for four prominent awards, including the fan-voted Fans' Choice Award and artist of the year.

Jepsen, the Mission, B.C. singer who owes her worldwide success in part to a tweet from Bieber, has five nominations. Her breakout hit Call Me Maybe is up for single of the year and she's in the running for best pop album and best album for Kiss, the album she recorded with Bieber's label.

Rush, Leonard Cohen nominated

Other Canadians with multiple nominations include Céline Dion, Leonard Cohen, Kathleen Edwards and Rush, who were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday. Rush's album Clockwork Angels is nominated for best rock album and the band for best group.

Most of the awards in the classical, jazz and alternative music categories are presented Saturday night. The Sunday gala focuses on a few high-profile Juno categories.

Walk Off the Earth became famous for their YouTube covers of other people's songs and have two Juno nominations this year. (YouTube)

Some newcomers may be stepping up to the stage for the first time — among them Walk Off the Earth, the group who had a YouTube hit with their version of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know, with all five of them playing the same guitar at once.

The Burlington, Ont., group with two Juno nominations is among the Canadian artists who are reaching new audiences over the internet and could benefit from a change the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is considering in how it chooses nominees.

Social media popularity at the Junos

Categories like Junos Fan Choice Award already reflect the power of social media, as nominees such as Metric, Deadmau5 and, of course, Bieber, were chosen in part by Nielsen Buzzmetrics, a system that measures the artist's popularity through social media hits. With sales of music falling, even with the rising popularity of digital tracks, CARAS is looking to more input from social media in its nomination processes.

"We're constantly reassessing, observing the marketplace, adjusting to it, making changes, so the rise of social media obviously can't be denied," says Kim Cooke, a member of the CARAS nomination board.

Other newcomers include breakthrough artist nominees Cold Specks, and The Weeknd, and breakthrough group nominees Yukon Blonde and Hey Ocean!

Every Juno Awards has its surprises, ranging from unusual winners to performance highlights to touching speeches.

Honour for k.d. lang

The 2013 edition also will feature a tribute and performance by eight-time Juno winner k.d. lang, who is to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Lang, now living in Portland, Ore., is an Edmonton native who is to be honoured for an innovative career that has gone from country-rock to contemporary and back to country in the past 30 years.

Another pioneer to be honoured is Tom Cochrane, who receives the 2013 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award on Saturday for his involvement in a variety of charities. Cochrane, known for his hit Life is a Highway, has worked with World Vision and charities involved in Parkinson's research and tsunami relief, as well as entertaining troops in Afghanistan.

The Juno Awards gala is to be broadcast at 8 p.m. Sunday.

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A Tribe Called Red's dubstep take on powwow music

Part of a new generation of technology-literate First Nations artists, A Tribe Called Red mixes traditional powwow music with contemporary club sounds.

The Ottawa-based group got its start at the city's Electric PowWow in 2008, when DJ NDN (the performance name of Ian Campeau) and Bear Witness met DJ Shub (Dan General) and they decided to collaborate.

Electric PowWow was born when Campeau noticed there were dance nights in Ottawa for every culture except his own.

"So I had the idea, like 'Why isn't there one for First Nations yet?' And growing up in the community, we just decided to throw a party [and] hopefully it might get people to come out to our regular night," he recalled to CBC News.

The trio quickly garnered a local following — not just urban First Nations teens, but also dubstep fans drawn to the group's eclectic mix of beats.

A Tribe Called Red released its debut album for free online, which gained the trio converts across Canada. They've since played to packed rooms in New York and at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario.

Now, with the group's album Nation ll Nation, the members are putting their own take on the music of young native drum groups. It's a collaboration with aboriginal-owned Tribal Spirit Music and Pirates Blend, a label associated with rock-reggae act Bedouin Soundclash.

The members of A Tribe Called Red talked to CBC's Eli Glasner about their unique sound and why an electronic beat goes hand in hand with political movements such as Idle No More.

"All those things that we're trying to talk about with Idle No More, with aboriginal rights, you're feeling it. You're getting it without a word having to be said, because when you feel that, you're feeling what we all feel," says Bear Witness.

The troupe tours the U.S. this spring along with dates in the U.K. and Germany. Beginning in June, a Canadian tour in support of Nation ll Nation returns A Tribe Called Red to Ottawa's Electric PowWow, as well as making stops in Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, St. John's, Antigonish, N.S. and Squamish and Robson, B.C.

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My Awkward Sexual Adventure lacks likeability

Jordan and Rachel are having trouble in the sack. When he tries to get it on, she snores -- and so we have an ultimatum: become a better lover or don't come back.

Thus Jordan, an accountant and the kind of guy who packs everything into neatly labelled zipper bags, is exiled, while Rachel knocks a couple of fantasies off her sexual bucket list. As she gets to know her neighbours, he crashes with a friend, an unapologetic man-whore played with relish by Vik Sahay. Jordan eventually finds himself at a strip club where he meets the proverbial stripper with a heart of gold: Julia, a great dancer and an even better cook. Together, they come up with an arrangement: he'll fix her finances if she becomes his sexual Yoda.

Similar in style to 2007's Young People F--king, My Awkward Sexual Adventure aims to get out of the Canadian movie ghetto with some filthy fun. But where YPF had sharp writing and lively characters, MASA suffers from a serious lack of likeability.

Jonas Chernick stars as a sad-sack accountant who lacks skills in the bedroom in the comedy My Awkward Sexual Adventure. (Phase 4 Films)

Jonas Chernick, who also wrote the screenplay, plays Jordan as a grown-up Charlie Brown. It's no surprise Rachel wants to leave him: who would want that cloying cuddle-buddy around? Chernick is an amusing character actor you may remember from TV's The Border, but here it takes far too long for Jordan to find his mojo.

Director Sean Garrity, a frequent Chernick collaborator, breaks up the action by splitting MASA into segments. Lesson one: the rub and tug, lesson two: dirty talk, and so on up until the final exam. The music and production design are on the generic side, but the game performance of Emily Hampshire as the stripper Julia manages to inject some life into this lusty story.

If naughty words and dangling members do it for you, My Awkward Sexual Adventure has plenty. What it's missing, however, is real heat. Even Rachel's flings feel pulled out of an Aren't We Naughty store catalog (What was that -- an Alice in Wonderland costume?) Though a couple of the episodes are amusing, the contrived comedy forces Chernick and Hampshire into some heavy lifting.

As accountant and stripper work together, a flirtatious chemistry starts to ferment. But MASA extends the climax to the point where we're begging for a happy ending. Where My Awkward Sexual Adventure gets a few points for bravery in the boudoir, it's missing the real honesty of what happens when we bare ourselves to each other under the sheets.

Stick around during the closing credits and you'll be treated to some bedroom shenanigans between the two leads that feel loose, silly and spontaneous -- exactly what this adventure is lacking.

RATING: 3 out of 5

In My Awkward Sexual Adventure, Jonas Chernick and Emily Hampshire play an accountant and a stripper who strike an unusual deal. (Phase 4 Films)

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