The Final Take with Parker Mott

The unthinkable event: nuclear fallout in an innocent Kansas pastoral town in "The Day After" (1983).

“A nuclear family stands in the archway of an arcade emblazoned with symbols of Western culture, high and low, and watches three missiles arc over an idealised landscape.”
- Susan Boyd-Bowman, on the press poster of The Day After (1983)

Saoirse Ronan takes on two characters inside one in "The Host".

The Host is a bland science-fiction product from the Stephenie Meyer factory (based on her best-selling novel published in 2008). It creates a futuristic world that seems to be born from a failed franchise, with the whole concept carrying the inspiration of a scrapped Jack Finney story. It follows the usual science-fiction formula where the human race is conquered by an alien specie, and it is up to a few of our fellow creatures to avoid our extinction. (continue reading…)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a "Looper".

After watching Rian Johnson’s third feature Looper, this director is starting to imitate what Quentin Tarantino brought to the silver screen nearly 20 years ago: stylistic bravado, mannered characters, and a wild celebration of the potential in “movies” over actual “stories”. Johnson understands cinematic moments in lieu of overarching stories (that’s not to say he doesn’t desperately try to pursue the latter). Think back to 2005’s Brick, a high school drama that minced film noir or the 2008 Brothers Bloom, a smug high-five to early French screwball. (continue reading…)

Rating: PG – Language May Offend
Run Time: 89 minutes

Robot and Frank.

A story about the sweet bond between an aging man and an ageless robot has the potential for pleasant viewing. That the terrific Frank Langella, an actor deft at displaying elderly torment, happens to fill the first unit shows high promise. Robots are machines and, therefore, defy first impressions. We view them based on their intentions towards humanity. Robot in “Robot & Frank”, unlike “2001″’s HAL 9000, means well. Thus, we can drop our guard and savor this man-machine relationship. (continue reading…)

Rating: 14A – Coarse Language, Sexual Content, Graphic Violence
Run Time: 108 minutes

Eric Packer's (Pattinson) form of pinching himself in "Cosmopolis".

His name is Eric Packer and he is, ostensibly, on a quest for a haircut. This objective is smoke-and-mirrors, we quickly learn, and is the veneer of a twisted examination on Packer’s body and mind in a city of mindless revolt. Packer wants ultimate satisfaction, either physical or intellectual suit his fancy. He is a multi-billionaire whose riches have buried him in a desensitized life of debauchery and fruitless, lame-brained excursions. His limo might as well be a coffin. (continue reading…)

Rating: 14A – Frightening Scenes, Gory Scenes, Graphic Violence
Run Time: 124 minutes

Charlize Theron and Idris Elba head for bad news in "Prometheus".

Ridley Scott has misleadingly touted Prometheus as an original thriller. But from its first shot, Alien fanboys will already be drawing venn diagrams. Even Kubrick nerds will be aghast by Scott’s striking homages to Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, and – as you probably predicted – 2001: A Space Odyssey. There is even a scene near the beginning when android David (Michael Fassbender) analyzes Peter O’Toole’s mannerisms in David Lean’s masterful epic Lawrence of Arabia. You wonder if this is Scott’s way of unconsciously saying he is out to make the David Lean of summer science-fiction movies. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(136 minutes)

The bride and groom in Melancholia.

Melancholia has one of the most astounding beginnings and endings to any disaster film, nay, any film of the year. Both depict the world’s destruction from different distances, one from space the other earth. The abrupt perishing of life has never been so beautiful because, for director Lars von Trier, it’s a release from the pangs of living depression. Melancholia is a personal film that is one of von Trier’s least contentious works but perhaps one of his strongest. (continue reading…)

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 Stars out of 4
(121 minutes)

Nicolas Cage gawks at the absurd ending to Knowing.

The cultivation of the sci-fi paradigm has been a series of mixed results. Are aliens good or are they bad? Sometimes we get aliens when we least suspect them (courtesy the fourth Indiana Jones). Either way, we get it: there are forces beyond our control and at the end of the day, we are all screwed. Knowing is just another reminder of this amalgamation of carnage. It’s even more existentially ridden than The Number 23, slightly better, but equally absurd. These films can keep telling me two plus two is five, but at the end of it all, I’ll still roll on the floor laughing. Even with the fine Nicolas Cage portraying an overly eager, alcoholic professor, Knowing still recedes to tedium and absurd allegory. It won’t take long for you to give up on this tried and failed mind trip. (continue reading…)