The Final Take with Parker Mott

4 Stars out of 4
(161 minutes)

Japan's neon allure in Enter The Void.

Gaspar Noe’s Enter The Void, a tribute to the tonic cynicism of Stanley Kubrick (2001 mainly), believes no cinematic convention is untouchable. It has invention, interest, and beauty. The film is tough to watch - in every way. It swings you in to depression, holds your sympathy in focus, and makes you watch it from above. Noe calls his film a “psychedelic melodrama” based much on Kenneth Anger silent films, which were transgressive, controversial, sexual, and violent. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(110 minutes)

Jeff Bridges in the Duke role.

True Grit will remind you of the classic Western, that old expired, dearly missed genre. It does not, however, perceive to be a “Coen” movie. I put Coen in quotations because Joel and Ethan Coens’ films have a particular, acquired attitude: one of irony, a moral spin, unconventional wisdom, and a diegesis resembling odyssey. When True Grit came to their attention, the Coens took on this story to be more faithful to Charles Portis’ 1968 novel of the same name than the 1969 film starring John Wayne (of which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, more so I think as a retrospect to his previous performances). (continue reading…)

I went to Lindsay and said ‘We’ve GOT IT! The title!” and he said with a snub, ‘Well what is it?’ David and I looked at each other with excitement and cheered, ‘LUCKY MAN!’ Lindsay raised his eyebrows and teared through his thoughts, until he whispered in our ears: ‘O Lucky Man!’ Then we all screamed ‘Ah Yes!

– Malcolm McDowell (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(117 minutes)

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech.

“Now all I have to teach you is one word – everything.” – Miracle Worker

Those lines come from Annie Sullivan, who said this with a grunt in the 1962 Miracle Worker. Now, The King’s Speech is a reverberation of The Miracle Worker, in twentieth century Britain, under an aspiring monarch whose speech is ‘everything’. Like any competent king, his confident voice is his projection, charisma, and wisdom to satiate the public. The Duke of York – Prince Albert – (Colin Firth, electric – topping his role in A Single Man) is the timid and sullen son of King George V (Michael Gambdon). (continue reading…)

2 Stars out of 4
(90 minutes)

The two lame mallrats.

Mallrats is the ideal follow-up to Kevin Smith’s Clerks. It is not a sequel, but a more original attempt to adjust from the wage earner (at Quick Stop) to consumers in the mall. Smith’s plots have a passiveness to them, expressing the absurdism and stasis of both buyer and employee. Many things happen in Mallrats that happened in Clerks: there are girl problems, two best friends, unconventional attitudes, and Jay and Silent Bob - before they struck back. But Mallrats, unlike Smith’s adequate first attempt in movies, just does not have that urgency, that angst as if its characters want to explode. That’s what makes these films funny. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(94 minutes)

Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning in Somewhere.

The opening shot to Sophia Coppola’s Somewhere inspires our attention because it does not beg for it at all. Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), a popular stuntman for movies, drives laps in a ring. His vehicle loops in and out of the frame, with us only hearing the car motoring closer and closer to us again. This shot must last for at least two minutes. But we are not irked. Coppola’s exposition is set instantly - in one long shot: this is a life going in circles, or more precisely related to automobiles, a life that is spinning its wheels.

Circles are a motif in Somewhere - expressing a life that is repetitious but superficially wholesome. Johnny has a broken wrist from a stunt accident, so he relaxes in his Chateau Marmont suite and hires dancers to entertain him. Johnny is a ladies man, but it seems they are only a spectacle to him. Life, for Johnny, is only tedious observations coming and going. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(123 minutes)

21 Grams.

21 Grams works because of the performances. Inarritu is a talented filmmaker, who tells a story that hurdles itself towards nothing really. Maybe that is its fascination. Well, the one leitmotif of his films, death, is predominant in 21 Grams, and due to the ensemble, it feels more important than it should.

It’s a non-linear storyline that centres on another car accident. Where the superior Amores Perros used the car incident as a point of impact, like a dispersing effect, 21 Grams attempts to unite the characters. That is fine. But I’m not sure how Inarritu tells the story of 21 Grams if the car accident really provokes anything. It gives the film a craft, a uniqueness, but nothing absolutely necessary. This is not a perceptive technique, it is a stunt. (continue reading…)

Zero Stars out of 4
(82 minutes)

Meow...

I love cats. I love dogs. I do not love Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.

Who is Kitty Galore? Does it matter? No it does not. There, I’ve saved you 80 minutes.

Moral of this story: I have six cats and even I walked out of this disaster. For all you plant owners, what chance do you have?

Lesson learned: My curiosity killed this cat.

3.5 Stars out of 4
(153 minutes)

Dogs in Amores Perros.

Calling Amores Perros poignant does not justify its effect. Translating “Amores Perros” simply into “Love’s A Bitch” does not indicate the pun hidden beneath either. These are about people, yes, but also about their relationship with dogs - the bitch. I wouldn’t say that Inarritu’s fascination with puppies makes this film a masterwork, because there are only so many ways a director can transcend the purpose of canines. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(86 minutes)

Banksy obscures himself in Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Street art, through this film’s title, must be labelled as a commodity. “Exit Through The Gift Shop”, ergo, is a perfect title about a perilous lifestyle devoted to creating art in obscure places. Or is it art? That’s one of the many fascinations behind this documentary. Spray painting walls and street corners seems to form a cult of its own; it is a polarizing craft. It destroys scenery while also enhancing it in a more metaphysical sense. (continue reading…)