The Final Take with Parker Mott

Don't go into "Room 237"...but "The Shining" still keeps its doors wide open.

The Shining is probably Stanley Kubrick’s most mind-boggling film, certainly not his best but not far from what its poster heralds as “a masterpiece of modern horror.” Watching the film for maybe the seventh time the other day – but the first ever on the big screen, in a gloriously crisp 35mm print at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox – the film registered to me as droll. Many scenes, thanks to Kubrick’s craftsmanship, sink their hooks in you, while others hang loosely with pin-dropping bemusement. (continue reading…)

P.K. (Gage Munroe) locks and loads "I Declare War".

I Declare War is a no-holds-barred coming-of-age drama that is more than just dipped in the realm of fantasy. It exists, almost wholly, through the eyes and in the minds of several feral youngsters as they compete in a game of war in the woods (shot in Orange Valley, Scarborough over the course of 20 days). Yes, this is “Canadian” soil but directors Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson aren’t – ‘scuse the stereotype – making any apologies. (continue reading…)

Ryan Gosling is stoic-faced in the raw-as-a-bone "The Place Beyond the Pines".

The Place Beyond the Pines is an affecting conceit, a 140-minute triptych that spans multiple generations in order to arrive at an intractable moral dilemma. Despite the gravitas, the film resonates more for its epic scale than crushing realizations and truths. It is director Derek Cianfrance’s opportunity to demonstrate his craft and ability to manufacture important themes into a film of novel proportions. He makes us of that. (continue reading…)

Matt Damon propositions fracking to Pennsylvania townspeople in the very good "Promised Land".

Promised Land is destined to be coined that “fracking movie” the way Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is the “Scientology movie”. Those titles are kind of loose, commercial epithets for two films that, overall, use their touchy subjects more as backdrops to convincing character-driven dramas. My guess is that the writers of Promised Land – actors John Krasinski and Matt Damon – are against hydraulic fracturing but the film merely addresses that environmental concern rather than bludgeoning it in. (continue reading…)

The Gandalf (Ian McKellen) awaits Bilbo, heavenly sun shining in, in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey".

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey unfolds in blithe fashion, in that Howard Hawks tradition where a small band of characters banter and indulge themselves, while occasionally taking a breather to participate in the plot. There is an objective that drives this unexpected journey – a trip to the Lonely Mountain to obtain a treasure guarded by the sinister dragon Smaug – but at 170 minutes it barely seems like a bother at all. The Hobbit is all journey, little destination. (continue reading…)

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are an odd couple in "Silver Linings Playbook".

Silver Linings Playbook takes the threadbare and discardable Hollywood romance flick and transcends it into a story with genuine feeling and discovery. Centering on a frantically earnest bipolar character, Silver Linings Playbook hits close to home for its director David O. Russell, whose 18 year-old son Matthew was diagnosed with the condition. But rather than lamenting, Russell embraces the involuntary quirks of bipolar disorder in his direction, making Silver Linings a remarkably sensitive work. (continue reading…)

Lincoln roams the ruins of Petersburg at the climax of the American Civil War in Steven Spielberg's masterful "Lincoln".

Lincoln is a bold and monumental achievement in filmmaking craftsmanship, and solidifies two irrefutable outcomes: Daniel Day-Lewis will win Best Actor at the Oscars for his role as the United States’s 16th president, and Janusz Kaminski will also take the Academy’s accolade for Cinematography. Both add depth, intrigue, and beauty to what may be Steven Spielberg’s finest, or at least most assured film. Its humanity and politics are remarkably brilliant. (continue reading…)

Denzel Washington gives a great performance in "Flight".

Too many Hollywood movies today use optimism as a blanket, or cynicism as a tux (nowadays, nihilism is cool). Regardless, these films tend to highlight cliché emotion without complicating that discovery. A film like Robert Zemeckis’s Flight, starring a remarkably reserved Denzel Washington, is not in that dull category. It’s not a preordained ascension into triumph, but quite the opposite: a turbulent descent, at one moment literally, into accepting moral choice. (continue reading…)

James Bond adjusts hie tie and gets back to the action in "Skyfall".

The James Bond movies exist outside of time within an awesome space. The films are anything but a reminder of our mortality, as here is an agent who cannot age or get shot. He beds every femme fatale in his path, wins every gun battle singlehandedly, and sips (shaken-not-stirred) martinis on exotic beaches while casually outsmarting his opponents. There’s the everyman and then there is Bond: the male empowerment of sex, strength, and adventurous intrigue. (continue reading…)

Paranormal Activity 4 (95m) – ***
V/H/S (115m) – **1/2 

The found-footage genre dates all the way back to 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust by Italian filmmaker Ruggero Deodato, a film that was put under much controversy for its strikingly vivid human death scenes and actual acts of animal cruelty. The movie is still banned in several countries, but in Canada or U.S. you can probably find it in the basement of your local mom-and-pop video store. (continue reading…)