The Final Take with Parker Mott

2.5 Stars out of 4
(147 minutes)

Noomi Rapace.

Wearing that dragon tattoo and playing with fire were my enemies of the Millennium Series. The posthumous novels by Stieg Larsson may have been golden literature, but as movies, felt like muddled, disjointed, and exploited pieces of cinema. But as the hornet’s nest is kicked, clarity is given a jolt and the series humbly settles.

The final installation is long, but mostly crystalline. A continuation, but pristine. Director Daniel Alfredson embellishes the murky tone, but doesn’t poison the viewer with the abrasive violence. I’ve found the previous two films using violence as scapegoats for the lack of character development. It seemed the director shocked to ultimately reassure us that these malicious characters would receive their comeuppance. (continue reading…)

4 Stars out of 4
(75 minutes)

The gaping mouth of the Potemkin.

Sergei Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin hurdles past cinema into the heart of history itself. It manipulates montage to a tee and also manipulates our sympathy to the point that the film is a transgressive angle to historical analysis. Never have I seen a film that made me want to root, cry, squirm, and then applaud. Eisenstein’s film is labeled, in a simple sense, as propaganda. It gives the film a harsh label, and not one it deserves, because it evokes feelings that, despite Eisenstein’s conceited ways, never feel synthetic.

The film released 8 years after the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, where Communist took on an age of its own. Russian socialists began to rebel against the elitist tsarists and violence, pain, and civil animosity was overwhelming. As a silent film, The Battleship Potemkin works best. In all the quiet, the film is juxtaposed by a visual that moves vigorously. In the silence, the mayhem surrounding evokes repression and the emotional strife of sympathizing with our inferior heroes. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(103 minutes)

Andrew Garfield and Cary Mulligan.

The science-fiction in the love story of Never Let Me Go is the patina of the film’s power. Its themes deal with some of the most bleak aspects of existentialism, sex, betrayal, and lust. At the same time, the characters are repressed to the point that their laconic composure practically summarizes their strife.

The film is based on the novel (same name) by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not reading the book granted, I feel this is extremely challenging material to convey into a love story. Our conventional expectations for love stories is to provide emotion, assured motives, and romantic pay offs. Never Let Me Go tries to repress all of these, make everything less obvious. Rest assured director Mark Romanek tries to incorporate all of them. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(146 minutes)

The team is back.

Penultimate wizardly is among us. Ladies and gentlemen grab your wands, Hogwarts robes, and annular glasses because Harry Potter is here again. But Hogwarts, sadly, is not. Instead of being captivated by the labyrinthine terrain of the enchanting school, we move across vast landscapes, monumental plateaus, as we make our way to the prominent showdown to end all showdowns (I hope). How is the trip getting there, i.e. this movie? Well it lacks most of what I enjoyed in the previous Potters. But it spins off our expectations appropriately. This is not a silly Hogwarts fantasy anymore, this is becoming very real. And dangerous. (continue reading…)

1 Star out of 4
(95 minutes)

Freddy Krueger is now a comedian.

You know you’re in trouble when the most dramatic moments of this new Nightmare On Elm Street involves people falling asleep. They sleep away, close their eyes, and we want to join them. This film is so terrible on every level and the real killer is this just does not have fun. The fact that this is a remake, it needs to homage its antecedent – truly effective horror, yet admittedly mediocre films. This new version offers nothing to gain and only much to lose. (continue reading…)

1 Star out of 4
(88 minutes)

It's alive!

The more I think about The Human Centipede, the more I feel galled and wish horror films were never made. At the same time, I am fascinated by what it dares to do, how it revolts, and ultimately underwhelms in every sense. It’s not that it is banal and uninspired; The Human Centipede comes from a creative mind, the 37 year-old Dutch director Tom Six. His concept was all a joke, a mere comment at the dinner table when him and his friends were discussing the proper comeuppance for sexual predators. And then there’s this movie. Nothing fits here. (continue reading…)

4 Stars out of 4
(116 minutes)

James Stewart as the good-intentioned peeping Tom.

L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is a classic Hitchcock voyeur. But he’s not perverse, disturbed, or obsessed, like Scottie would be in Hitchcock’s 1958 Vertigo. He’s a photo-journalist, whose mere intentions are simply to observe and report. But his curiosities have restriction: he’s bound by one broken leg, confined in an apartment complex, and surrounded by a mundane love affair that persistently returns to him like a bad rash.

Like the audience, Jeffries is bored, immobile, and yearns for entertainment. He grabs his telephoto lens and observes. He sees a dainty ballerina, a fervent newlywed couple, a struggling piano player, a dejected widow, and a husband and his invalid wife: Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) and Mrs. Thorwald. Suddenly, Mrs. Thorwald vanishes Lars Thorwald’s suspicious disappearances into the night arouse Jeffries’s suspicions. (continue reading…)

1.5 Stars out of 4
(112 minutes)

Gerard Butler and Jennifer Anniston.

I like to call The Bounty Hunter one of those “who cares?” movies. There’s a bounty hunter, he’s a hunk. There’s a journalist, she’s gorgeous. They are at each other’s throats for two hours and we are holding the knife. Main question: who cares? My only concern is why this movie is made and what purpose it serves comedy – in particular such a talented comedienne like Jennifer Anniston. Unfortunately, she’s no one’s friend here.

So we are to root for Milo (Gerard Butler). He’s an ex-cop, who masquerades as the perfectly adroit bounty hunter. Who knows how. We are also meant to be charmed by Nicole (Jennifer Anniston), the former spouse of Milo, who needs to be imprisoned for skipping court. I really wish she went. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(122 minutes)

Seven Pounds.

Anyone who has seen Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai will appreciate Seven Pounds. They’ll appreciate the vagueness of it all, Will Smith’s wooden expression, his lack of motivation, and the irrationality of his actions. The film follows a rhythm, one that pulsates to a morose beat. It’s about a routine, the observations around that routine, and how the film is more a montage of mood than a simple narrative. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(104 minutes)

The Splice pens in.

I’ve missed a few science classes, but Splice does not exactly up the ante in that department. It’s a dopey film, trying to be Alien when its best compliments is that it is better than Alien 3 (sorry Fincher). Splice is still slick though, thoroughly paced, and still interesting. It’s about two scientists – Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) – and their specimen, Dren (the beautiful French actress Delphine Chanéac, who you wouldn’t recognize under that rawboned skin). (continue reading…)