The Final Take with Parker Mott

Now In Theatres

Another Earth is a flawed endeavour but it's an oddity worth seeing this week.

Another Earth – 2.5 stars (see it)
Crazy, Stupid, Love – 2.5 stars (rent it)
Cowboys & Aliens – 2 stars (skip it)

New on DVD

Trust – 3.5 stars
Source Code – 2.5 stars
Winter In Wartime – 2 stars

Other writings

TIFF 11 (10 films to see)
Hotel Rwanda – 3.5 stars
Wassup Rockers – 3 stars

Movie Pick of the Week: Another Earth
“If Another Earth does succeed it is in Cahill’s odd way of encapsulating us. The film is slow, but it knows why and handles its pace by touching several notes both surreal and, well, down to earth.”

2.5 Stars out of 4
(92 minutes)

Earth 2 poised in the sky in Another Earth.

An impossible discovery – quite literally – collides with the crash and burn of chaos to open Another Earth, where MIT student Rhoda (Brit Marling) smashes her car into John’s (William Mapother), killing his wife and child. At this moment, two phantasmagorical events bind together: the discovery of another Earth (called Earth 2) and the daunting, unearthly loss of loved ones. This sets the tone for Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, an exercise in existentialism and what ifs, regarding whether we are living a slow, monotonous existence that could be a carbon copy to another. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(118 minutes)

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love uses a playful forking-path narrative in what I call Paul Haggis’s “Crash” For Lovers. It’s an ensemble cast who are just tragic in how they handle each other’s emotions. Critics are calling Crazy, Stupid, Love a veer from formula but it’s quite the same lovey-doveyness but rearranged where every character has a romantic interest and are on a quest to find or get back their “soulmate”. (continue reading…)

2 Stars out of 4
(119 minutes)

Indie (Ford) and Bond (Craig) stare up at their foes in Cowboys & Aliens.

Cowboys & Aliens is a classic example of having the plot written in the title. What you read is what you get. It combines two iconic genres (which two I wonder?) and has them intersect among the chaos and sensationalism of a Hollywood blockbuster. Of course, it’s all totally preposterous, in fact so much I kept hearing John Wayne whisper: “that’ll be the day.” (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(121 minutes)

Two heroes – Col. Oliver (Nolte) and Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle) – intersect missions in Hotel Rwanda.

It started as rioting and slanderous discussion. There were the Hutus and Tutsis, the latter consisting of a minority. Hutus called their opposing class “cockroaches”, enraged by their superior wealth and status. When Hutu president Habyarimana was assassinated, all hell broke loose. Hutus filled the streets, replacing protest signs for machetes. As of April 1994, the Rwandan genocide had started and would last 100 days, taking about 800,000 Tutsi lives. (continue reading…)

Lots of great, original movies to take a peak at this year at TIFF. Here’s my picks for the ones you should be first in line for:

Lars von Trier's Melancholia: Dunst as von Trier's classic female martyr.

A Dangerous Method: Canadian director David Cronenberg’s new film about Freud (Viggo Mortensen) in his pupil days as he treats a troubled patient (Keira Knightley). Cronenberg loves films about the conflicted identity and this could another great one, another work to add to his “superego.” Michael Fassbender also stars as Freud’s teacher Carl Jung. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(111 minutes)

Wassup Rockers, directed by Larry Clark.

Recently, I’ve started to debate Larry Clark’s films. Are they voyeuristic? Are they creepy? Are they boring? Are they pointless? Is it all fetishistic? These are difficult questions to answer, and there are legitimate arguments towards both yes and no. But I’ve come to conclude that Larry Clark, as an example in his Wassup Rockers, is not a dull director but a man who sacrifices his artistic integrity in order to depict lives that are on the search for integrity. Wassup Rockers isn’t a traditional film with a clear director to guide it; it has no focus but to follow its characters as if this was everyday life. I kind of liked this movie for what it is. (continue reading…)

Now In Theatres

Great chemistry in Friends With Benefits.

Soul Surfer – 2 stars (skip it)
Winnie the Pooh – 2.5 stars (rent it)
The Princess of Montpensier – 2 stars (skip it)
Submarine – 3 stars (see it)
Friends With Benefits – 3 stars (see it)
Captain America: The First Avenger – 2.5 stars (rent it)

Now on DVD

Arthur – 3 stars (see it)
No Strings Attached – 2.5 stars (rent it)
Limitless – 2.5 stars (rent it)
Life During Wartime – 3 stars (see it)

Movie Pick of the Week: Friends With Benefits
DVD Pick of the Week: Life During Wartime

2.5 Stars out of 4
(124 minutes)

Captain America (Chris Evans) on his guard.

Captain America: The First Avenger proves Manifest Destiny didn’t die with the Classic Western, that Nazis can still be vilified after “Indiana Jones“, and that “Triumph of the Will” once existed behind the shield. Captain America replaced the Model T-Ford as an American Icon, being a human war bond that was a performer on the home front and a fighter overseas. He’s the alter ego to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, the Human Torch from two “Fantastic Four” movies), a scrawny, feeble but plucky kid from Brooklyn. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(109 minutes)

Kunis and Timberlake make great Friends With Benefits.

Friends With Benefits agrees with my disdain for romantic comedy formula. Why all the happy endings? Why all the mushy closeups? Why all the manipulative music? Who needs love when you can just buy a boat? Yes, the characters in Friends With Benefits are not romantics and, therefore, treat the formula they reside in with playful contempt. (continue reading…)