The Final Take with Parker Mott

Nucky Thompson (Steve Buschemi).

Available on HBO, Sunday at 9pm/EST

Darmody: All I want is an opportunity.
Nucky Thompson: This is America, ain’t it? Who’s
stoppin’ ya?

Would you be surprised if I told you Martin Scorsese had directed the pilot to a show about old-fashioned mobsters and vibrant roaring-twenties sets? I bet you wouldn’t. HBO’s Boardwalk Empire though not completely geared under the Scorsese engine (it is produced by Terence Winter) resembles much of the director’s earlier work and a little more. It has that stunningly meticulous realism (Mean Streets) and tells a story of a life that is indulgent at first, but, we can assume, will degenerate into something rather nefarious (Goodfellas). (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(129 minutes)

Gekko tries to persuade.

It was 23 years ago when the original Wall Street introduced us to the reptilian Gordon Gekko. Wall Street was a film I loved, that was brutally underrated, and especially told us something adequate about our near post-Cold War ambitions.

Now comes along its extensive sequel, Money Never Sleeps, a one-liner title acting more as a tagline than to the essence of the film. Stone should be calling this “The Sleeping Nickel” or “The Penny Pusher” but he wants to avoid camp this time. Money Never Sleeps is not as aggressive or empowered as the first Wall Street but Stone, a terrific director, is not stupid. Money Never Sleeps, through rather patient pacing (some may negate as slack) creates an anemic approach that illustrates the malaise of modernity, an economic splendour, the Stock Market, reaching an unfortunate pitfall. (continue reading…)

4 Stars out of 4
(104 minutes)

Harry!

The Third Man is a shrieking call for what is to come, a sharp pessimistic, yet shrewdly rueful allusion to the Cold War and the bomb (Strangelove would tell them to stop worrying already!). The Third Man is never hopeful; it is entirely ambiguous, goofy, yet dark when it needs to be. Casablanca, if anything, was a hopeful recount on a torn society, which by the end, would not dare to end in a cemetery (as The Third Man does), but by genially proclaiming: “this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The plot; the magnificent, dimensional, yet sporadically formulaic plot: a pulp Western (ironically) writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten, originally to be played by James Stewart) visits a district of Vienna to meet a long-time friend Harry Lime (?). Upon arriving, Lime is nowhere to be found. Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) informs Holly that Harry was found dead in the street and the measure of foul play is unknown. Calloway orders Holly to leave Vienna and to not look back. There is, of course, a girl: Anna (Alida Valli), a clandestine and bold dame, who maintains her allegiance close to Lime, despite his departure. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(110 minutes)

Me and Orson Welles.

If you asked me what a movie called Me and Orson Welles would be like, I wouldn’t predict this. I would speculate a biopic, about one’s observations maybe around the production of Citizen Kane (which Welles completed at the age of 25). Me and Orson Welles, directed by Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly), is done on a scale poles apart from our expectations. It’s relatively modest told under thespian realism, and jaunty and fleecy not epical and grandiose. (continue reading…)

2 Stars out of 4
(122 minutes)

James McAvoy in The Conspirator – a tedious, stagebound drama.

Robert Redford’s The Conspirator tries to mince so many themes together, I would call it lethargic post-heroism. Post-heroic because this was about a nation, who had just finished a civil war, and were now attempting to redefine their patriotism. Lethargic, well, because most of The Conspirator’s running time (two hours) feels like a feverishly detached courtroom drama that’s screenplay seems to be yelling, “I’m thematic, dammit!”

On the surface, this is a very compelling movie. In the 1860s, heroes didn’t exist anymore, only villains. The courts flooded with assassins, cryptic cases, and politically incorrect impartiality. The American judicial system was adapting a fairly archaic British way: if one was convicted, they were expected to confess. It wasn’t what was right, it was what was convenient. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(125 minutes)

Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner in The Town.

Looks like Beantown is the topical battleground these days for broken hearts and bullet wounds. The Town, Ben Affleck’s second directorial appearance, adds to this array. And with the help of the studio that brought us the truly magnificent The Departed, Affleck should be licking his chops. The Town carries an Affleck(ian) edge – mannered in its subtleties, fearless to expose its motives, and held in check with a side of romance. (continue reading…)

Mesrine: Killer Instinct: 2.5 Stars out of 4
Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1: 3.5 Stars out of 4
Overall rating: 3 Stars out of 4
(246 minutes)

Vincent Cassel as Jacques Mesrine.

Mesrine works because it is faithful to an idea. Mesrine’s idea. The film is, to a fault, barrenly composed, taut, told, or emotionalized. This is a French punk movie, a four-hour epic, which is rarely complex because of the ambiguity of its protagonist (or antagonist, who knows). The last movie I wrote combining a two part series was Steven Soderbergh’s Che, a character, minus the radical socialism, is much like Jacques Mesrine. He’s a character who never really left the battlefield, is perceived by others as a menace or a hero, and stops at nothing to achieve their goal. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(100 minutes)

Jennifer Lawrence.

A memorable line from the Coen’s No Country For Old Men read: “this country’s hard on people; you can’t stop what’s comin’.” Those were true words of cynical, yet frank wisdom. This quote is the case for Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), a woman never sure of what her future will hold of her. All she knows, the present is rough. She has desperate priorities: taking care of her siblings, keeping the house warm, and well, keeping the house. Despite all the strife, Ree is a dignified adult (she’s actually 17); she won’t sell her internal definition through begging, obedience, or failure. She’s a bone trying to never get broken.

Winter’s Bone is thick with glum naturalism that you really earn an understanding of the sadness, pathos, and languidness around these characters. People snort coke, as some use sugar for their tea and husbands rule the households without question or reason. Director Debra Granik has created a film, born to be a winner at Sundance (and it was). It’s honest, monotone, dour, and unflinching. And most importantly, the film is run overwhelmingly under a narrative that offers no leeway for a messy, rather fascinating tale. This is a moral story, and for better or worse, it is taut. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(93 minutes)

James Franco as Aron Ralston.

There are movies that simply shouldn’t be made (Van Sant’s remake of Psycho) and some, for their importance, demand to be (Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11). The finicky element of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is that it draws a line between two of these categories. A story of one man’s survival while in such a painful and impossible scenario demands to not go unnoticed. But how does a director make the most out of a man, Aron Ralston, wedged between a rock for 127 hours (cinematic length: 90 minutes)? Well, as Boyle stated to a vast student audience at the TIFF screening: “you make an action movie out of the [apparently] inert.” He pulls it off, – to the extent any great director could do with this project – barely. (continue reading…)

4 Stars out of 4
(144 minutes)

Naomi Watts.

Even Shakespeare called it in Macbeth: Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. That’s the scenario for David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, a film that makes as little sense as it wants to. Most will be rattled yet astonished, calling this a tour-de-Lynch (I did). Others may shrug, sneer, wave their hand in disappointment, knowing their questions may allude to no answers. (continue reading…)