The Final Take with Parker Mott

3.5 Stars out of 4
(124 minutes)

"I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I ... am ... a ... man!"

I am constantly fascinated by films that personify the inhuman. Not to say John Merrick (John Hurt), or the Terrible Elephant Man as the epithet goes, is not a man. He is, but his face is like no man. It takes true conviction to feel sympathy for a character you almost immediately recoil at. But you do. The Elephant Man thus is a film both audio as it is visual, sad as it is hopeful, and frightening as it is inviting. (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…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(135 minutes)

"Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me."

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has a lot of fire, but never really peaks. Okay, my pun is almost insurmountably vague, but I examined Twin Peaks: FWWM on the basis of how it tries to homage its show. The actual show Twin Peaks was one of my favourite film series’ of all time. Time declared it in the top 100 of best television programs and many magazines laud it for its cult appeal. Here, director David Lynch takes a familiar work that used his creativity and wit so well and turns it in to something that exposes Lynch’s immediate craft for quirky suspense. But Lynch, wrongly, also inspires hate. If anything, Twin Peaks never encouraged that. (continue reading…)