Did the dysfunctional family reunion dramedy begin with Arsenic and Old Lace or The Big Chill or…where did it begin and when did it become a genre? Everybody comes home for a funeral or because someone is dying, and they all hash their lives out and one or two fall in love with someone new. One of my favorites is Thomas Bezucha‘s The Family Stone (’05). The 21st Century has seen a few films in this vein (okay, more than a few) but I don’t mind seeing another one. I like the title and I’m definitely down with anything Jason Bateman does, but I’m a tiny bit scared of “directed by Shawn Levy.” But no reason to fret. Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne (who has costarred in a lot of films lately), Corey Stoll, Jane Fonda, Dax Shepard, Connie Britton, Timothy Olyphant and Kathryn Hahn. Warner Bros., opens on 9.12.14.

It’s a bit after 6 pm. I saw Maleficent (decent, handsomely composed but basically the same old family-friendly CG fantasy package that turns up at the start of every summer) but not until roughly 3 pm today so I just got back to the pad. Now I have to catch Doug Liman‘s Edge of Tomorrow at 8 pm at a Gaumont plex on the Champs d’Elysee…starts in 50 minutes. Update: After I heard from a WB staffer around 11 this morning that it was fine for me to attend, a senior Warner Bros. publicity who had been cc’ed on the approval message met me at the door of the Champs d’Elysee screening to tell me I couldn’t attend as there was no room due to overbooking. That wasn’t the reason, of course, but since when has Warner Bros. publicity made an exceptional effort to be friendly to Hollywood Elsewhere? Then again it’s just another summer movie. I won’t be back from Paris in time to catch the June 2nd all-media so I’ll just have to see it opening day.

The laid-back boogie rhythm and rolling bass tones are partly what make “All Shook Up” sound soothing and yet fresh each listening, which has to number in the hundreds if not thousands. But the biggest stand-out element, in my head at least, is the absence of drums. The beat is kept by someone (possibly Elvis) tapping on an acoustic guitar or…I don’t know, a phone book? Recorded in January 1957 and released two months hence, “All Shook Up” is one of the very few percussion-free cuts of rock’s classic era…just that relaxed, almost slapdash vocal delivery (which Presley reportedly copied phrase for phrase from songwriter Otis Blackwell‘s original demo) and the instruments — piano, lap steel guitar, stand-up bass…what else?

In a 5.27 Cannes Film Festival wrap-up by Hollywood Reporter staffers, senior critic Todd McCarthy is the first big-leaguer to strongly agree with my view that Leviathan was shafted by the jury — a great film totally hosed.

I’m planning to catch the 1 pm showing of Malefique at the Les Halles plex. General critical approval is prevailing thus far. Except for the Telegraph‘s rarely fully satisfied Robbie Collin, of course, but even he was more or less okay with it. Sasha Stone and her daughter may be looking forward to this, but I’m not. At least it only runs 90-something minutes.