Review the movie you just viewed (all the way to) 11

[deep]

Just saw Black Swan with 3 other women...we discussed it over and over....trying to figure out what was real and what was in her head...

there is no correct answer to that, and there never will be.

 

[powerhour24]

I really didn't have a hard time separating what was in her head from what was real. If you accept that the story is happening and Nina has been driven round the twist from the pressure, you can believe that the bizarre things are in her head, particularly when most of the time we see the more believable version of an event following the crazy one. This does get more fuzzy towards the end, but the only one I had real confusion over was Winona's self-mutilation. That said, with Aronofsky's more mind-bending films I often come away withna different interpretations from different viewings, so we'll see if I feel the same way when I see it again.

 

[deep]

I really enjoy The Fountain, I have watched it 2-3 times. Each time I get different things from it. I don't think there are clear cut answers with that one.

The Wrestler is a pretty straight forward story, with good character development and motivations.


Requiem, includes drug induced hallucinations, users with their lives spiraling out of control. People don't question what happened.


Swan, is very vague, what scenes with Kunis really happened? Who knows?
Why would Kunis stalk her? Did she come to her home? Her mother never spoke to her. Portman imagined the fight in the dressing room with her when the mirror was broken, did the Kunis character even exist?
There aren't any answers to these questions.

Swan is an abstract exercise, like Lynche's Mulholland Drive or Lost Highway. And those were much better films by a film maker with a clearer vision.

 

[lazarus]

I really enjoy The Fountain

They give us very little information to make us care about Weiss,
unless you are a male that is just lusting for her diseased body.

 

[Lancemc]

 

[powerhour24]

While yes I was referring to The Fountain among the mindbenders in Aronofsky's past, I don't have trouble understanding it. The Fountain is a film about two people forced to face mortality, and their reactions to that situation. To borrow the title of a CS Lewis piece, it is a grief observed. That is the straightforward way of looking at the film, 2000 timeline is real, 1500 timeline is Izzi's book, and 2500 timeline is Tommy's coda to her book. That said, the way it is presented, and the universality of the themes leaves much to the audience's interpretation. Black Swan to me is simply a narrative shown through the eyes of an unreliable narrator. I think it is foolish to compare these to Lynch and I don't think it was Aronofsky's intention to completely disorient the viewer so much as it was to make them ponder the same things that drive his characters to their extreme reactions.

Obviously The Wrestler, and Requiem were not among the mindfucks I was talking about, the other in his filmography is Pi.

 

[Saracene]

Blue Valentine

This is a kind of film that sinks or swims on the strength of the performances and I thought that both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams were raw and brilliant in their roles, as a young couple whose marriage is disintegrating in between the flashbacks to the earlier, happier times when they first fell in love. I thought it was one of the most believable and natural depictions of a relationship I've seen onscreen.

 

[powerhour24]

I forgot that was coming out this week, .

 

[bono_212]

The Red Shoes

Sometimes it can be hard to believe a film is going to be as good as the hype that surrounds it. When I continuously see this movie on lists of the great films, it builds a little bit of doubt in my mind that it can truly be that good. I have to say, however, the hype was well worth it. What a wonderful, beautiful film. I thought the acting was brilliant as well as the story, nevermind the overall aesthetic.. There is one major criticism I have, however. I don't much by the end of the film, she went from happy to suicidal in literally 5 minutes. It would've been a tad more believable, imo, had there been earlier hints towards it. Unless we're meant to believe that the situation at that moment was truly that dire. It all just felt like it occurred far too quickly. Regardless, I still gave the movie a 5 on Netflix.

Oh, I had one other question, during the performance of The Red Shoes, (which, my only other criticism of the film comes from in those couple of moments at the begining [the hologram of her in the shoes, and her leaping into the shoes and them tying themselves] which could only have been done with movie magic) were we supposed to understand that all of that fantasy sequence was her allowing herself to let the music paint a picture for her? I figured as much, especially when she turned into the flower/bird/cloud like Julian was speaking about, but I just wanted to be sure I was following.

 

[bono_212]

I good double feature would be Dirty Harry and Zodiac.

I was wondering, while I was watching it, if the story was based on the Zodiac killer or not. The whole "Scorpio" thing was kind of a giveaway.

 

[LMP]

Swan, is very vague, what scenes with Kunis really happened? Who knows?
Why would Kunis stalk her? Did she come to her home? Her mother never spoke to her. Portman imagined the fight in the dressing room with her when the mirror was broken, did the Kunis character even exist?
There aren't any answers to these questions.

Swan is an abstract exercise, like Lynche's Mulholland Drive or Lost Highway. And those were much better films by a film maker with a clearer vision.

I think that it's fairly clear that any moment where Kunis plays coy with Portman is reality and the ones where she's more adventurous or obtrusive in Portman's affairs are fantasy.

Um, after she "kills" Kunis, Kunis goes to Portman's dressing room to congratulate her Black Swan dance. That's a pretty definitive statement on Kunis' character. She does exist in the real world, then you have the Black Swan version of her who exists in Portman's mind.

The film is much more literal and straightforward than you think that it is.

 

[Daddysgonnapay]

We all agreed pretyy much about the "real" parts and Nina's "reality" ...but I agree with powerhour about whether the Winona self-mutilation scene was real or not...we all kind of concluded it was not....and whether Lily brought Nina home after their night out, (we know she did not really spend the night) or if Nina got home on her own. I pretty much concluded that Nina was seeing herself in all those scenes, but she thought she was seeing Lily. and I was sure that she had attacked her Mother in her dresses room when she was discovering it was not Lily....all in all a fantastic performance by Natalie Portman

 

[corianderstem]

Yeah, I agree with the Winona scene being the only one I was really confused by.

And my one quibble? At the end when she whispers "I was perfect," I had to disagree. She fell out of that lift in the first act! That's hardly perfect.

I thought they were both at fault with the fall - he dropped her, but she lost her concentration and that threw her out of whack as well.

 

[Daddysgonnapay]

That's right Cori...she did fall or was dropped. Maybe she meant her black swan part was perfect?

 

[LMP]

I think it was she was "perfect" in that she finally went outside of that level of technical brilliance (especially after her fall) and was firmly entrenched in expressive brilliance.

 

[Lancemc]

I think it was she was "perfect" in that she finally went outside of that level of technical brilliance (especially after her fall) and was firmly entrenched in expressive brilliance.

Right, in addition to her sort of "self-actualization" during and after the second act of the performance. Never mind the film even used the Cassel character to make the explicit point about perfection having little or less to do with technical mastery in the first place.

 

[corianderstem]

That's a good point about the Cassel and the "technical imperfection" comments.

I know she was dying and all, but I had to nitpick anyway.

 

[LMP]

Right, in addition to her sort of "self-actualization" during and after the second act of the performance. Never mind the film even used the Cassel character to make the explicit point about perfection having little or less to do with technical mastery in the first place.

He's a walking cliche and probably the weakest component of the film for me.

 

[Lancemc]

I didn't have any problems with him. But that's probably just because he's Vincent Cassel.

 

[powerhour24]

That is a factor.

 

[lazarus]

Speaking of Cassel, has anyone seen Mesrine? I have both parts on my hard drive, but after watching the full version of Carlos I need to take a little break from that kind of thing.

 

[powerhour24]

I can't remember what I heard about that film's reception, seems so long since I first heard about it, though I know it only got released here this year.

 

[Lancemc]

I heard not-quite-so-good things about that one.

 

[lazarus]

Tonight I watched Agora, which sadly never really went wide here, and didn't even break $1 million. It cost over $70 million. Yikes. Anyway I've been a fan of Alejandro Amenabar since seeing his film Open Your Eyes (remade as the inferior Vanilla Sky), and I'm sure his Hollywood debut The Others has a bunch of fans here, and maybe some for The Sea Inside (which is worth seeing for Javier Bardem's performance alone) as well.

Amenebar tackles yet another genre with this historical epic (not epic in length, though) about the destruction of the legendary library of Alexandria by intolerant Christians. Well, it's not just about that but it's the central event in terms of the plot. Rachel Weiss is great as a librarian/scientist, as is Max Minghella (son of the late director Anthony Minghella), who really does a lot with not too much dialogue.

The techs on this film are amazing. I found a Blu-Ray rip a little over 2 gigs and the quality is the best I've seen on my computer. The costumes are the best of the year BY FAR (courtesy of Gabriella Pescucci, who won an Oscar for The Age of Innocence and has done a lot of notable work over the years), and the cinematography is up there as well. I was also blown away by the production design and how it was integrated with CGI, some of the most effective and tasteful (read: restrained) use of the tech I've ever seen in a historical film.

I wouldn't call it one of the best films of the year, but a very interesting one in terms of the subject matter, and it looks fantastic:

 

[deep]

Speaking of Cassel, has anyone seen Mesrine? I have both parts on my hard drive, but after watching the full version of Carlos I need to take a little break from that kind of thing.

I saw both parts at my art house theater (by UCI) a couple of months back.

I thought part 1 was outstanding, a solid 8.5 for me. Part 2 was good, but not as strong. I always like Cassel, I sat through a 2nd viewing of Swan tonight, I think he did fine in that, if he was more over the top in that, Portman would have faded away, Kunis steals every scene she is in with her.
I think he did what the writer and director wanted him to do in Swan.

Mesrine gives him a much broader canvas. It is a tour de force performance. I watched Carlos on Sundance channel a short time after I watched the Mesrines. I liked Carlos but not as much as the reviews, I think some good distance between the two viewings is a good idea.

Mesrine is making a few best of 2010 lists as is Carlos, but I have not seen both on the same list.

 

[deep]

Tonight I watched Agora, ...

I did catch it in a theater and it was beautiful to look at. I agree with everything you have said.


A lot of accomplishments in that film. It rates higher on my 2010 list than The Social Network or 127 Hours.


edit to add
I searched and found my post from June

Agora

Best movie I have seen in a long time. Worth a trip to the theater, if it is playing near you. Takes place in Alexandria Egypt, around 400 AD. It involves the struggles among Pagans, Christians, and a few Jews. Conflicts between science and religion. Closing scene, an example of how far one will go for love.

 

[LMP]

War starts at midnight, gang. Finally caught up with Col. Blimp and was predictably mesmerized by it. Archers write-up to follow pending the return of my computer.

 

[lazarus]

 

[gump]

I saw Truffaut's The Story of Adele H. and Kurosawa's Rashomon over the past couple of days. Both are very impressive. The Truffaut is a dark film and quite different from his more usual style and is a very well crafted story of obsession leading to madness. A gorgeous and young Adjani gives a fantastic performance, maybe her best work. The Kurosawa was really beautiful, I'm glad I finally manage to see it. Its influence on future films is quite obvious. The rehashed Bolero, which supposedly is one of the criticisms of the film, didn't bother me at all.

 

[lazarus]

I DLed Adele H. a ways back and never watched it.

Should check that out soon.

Speaking of Adjani, I really need to see Zulawski's Possession. I heard her and the film are both great.