The Final Take with Parker Mott

2.5 Stars out of 4
(90 minutes)

The gloves are off in "Goon".

Sports films have long depicted dark horses, all-stars, and team triumphs. Audiences love to root for losers who, by the end, are satisfied winners. Man, the Toronto Maple Leafs could use such a fantasy. But Michael Dowse’s Goon embraces not the heroic goalscorer but the team enforcer, who spends his ice time scouting out his next fight victim. Otherwise, when he is not on the bench he is in the penalty box growling at the crowd like a rabid dog. Yes, the enforcer is the ultimate antihero. (continue reading…)

This year silence is golden.

If you live on Planet Earth, you are most likely aware that tomorrow night in the humid, hilly, but always happening Hollywood, California the 84th Academy Awards will be held. The ceremony is directed by Don Mischer, a 13-time Emmy winner behind programs hosted by Bob Hope to The Pointer Sisters. He replaced Rush Hour director Brett Ratner after he said a few slurs I am too much of a gentleman to repeat. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(111 minutes)

SEALs engage in an act of valor.

I’m not going to recommend Act of Valor, but that’s not to say I wasn’t entertained or, even sometimes, absorbed. In fact, you can expect a list of contradictions in this review, so I’m sorry. But how else to critique a film that opens with the murder of 300 innocent Filipino children in a terrorist attack and ends with a shot of a Navy SEAL surfing under an intertitle that commemorates the loss of American fighters? Seriously, are civilians that expendable? (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(100 minutes)

"God of Love": the winner of Best Live Action Short at the Oscars last year.

I have made a few short films in my time. I think a huge, if not the biggest, rule is efficiency. You have maybe ten minutes, a limited budget, and only a small crew to help your work flourish. You have to compress the content, while not dumbing it down. Each shot has to count. And you have to get your audience to care…quick. The following 5 films, according to the Academy, have transcended these expectations. They are the models of short-and-sweet filmmaking. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(144 minutes)

Peeking out of the darkness in "In Darkness".

In Darkness is yet another Holocaust film where the harrowing stories of the Jewish people are marginalized by a well-intentioned triumph of a conflicted gentile. After Schindler’s List, shouldn’t we be passed this?  (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(93 minutes)

A bunch of tiny happenings unravel in Aki Kaurismaki's "Le Havre."

The town of Le Havre is about as understated as its inhabitants. Located on the shores of Upper Normandy, Le Havre is probably best known for its musician Little Bob. Heard of him? Not me. But he does appear in Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, a film that fits nicely into the shoes of its title milieu. Although this is the first Kaurismaki film I’ve seen, I could tell this is the type of story and characters this director has embraced for years. It is too loving to turn down. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(91 minutes)

Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones decide to muse in "The Sunset Limited".

The Sunset Limited is a one-room drama that features two of America’s top venerable actors – Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson – engaging in a philosophical standoff. I might add that the script, based on his play, is written by renowned novelist Cormac McCarthy, responsible for No Country for Old Men, The Road, and Blood Meridian. Forget Godard’s saying about the girl and a gun, this is all you need to make a movie. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(122 minutes)

Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes) will switch sides in the mean machine "Coriolanus".

Coriolanus is a damn good time at the theatres, so much so the Globe Theatre might eat its heart out. It is directed by Ralph Fiennes – known as Voldemort to the Harry Potter freaks and geeks – and he, wand-free, revitalizes this Shakespearean tragedy with an unanticipated energy. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(83 minutes)

"Chronicle": A shot reminiscent of "Super 8".

“Film everything”. That’s the general excuse for why this found footage genre still exists. It started in 1999 when three film students were a part of The Blair Witch Project, and look how they turned out. There were similar fates in Cloverfield, REC, and The Last Exorcism, but none of these filmmakers ever learn. If they have a tragic flaw, it is their unquenchable curiosity. (continue reading…)

2 Stars out of 4
(95 minutes)

Daniel Radcliffe spots something spooky in "The Woman In Black."

The main character in The Woman In Black is not human. It is the haunted house, which is so creatively conceived the film could have been scripted by realtors. The house is written with dimension, how it holds several dark secrets but acts as a keen source for scares. Its supporting cast is the gloomy allure of Edwardian England, where the towns’ roads stretch out to nowhere, the tide soaks up the land, and the air is decorated in a hazy fog. The human characters are just well-paid, (sometimes) pretty-looking extras. (continue reading…)