Movie Rewiews, Part III

movie reviews!

Black Swan:


I almost don't know where to start with this movie. Many reviews focused on the character of Nina, the director's other flicks (including the super- trippy "The Fountain"), or "female rivalry", which I feel was very misguided. The film is a genre- straddling something or other that is very compelling, but, in my opinion, flawed by the very tail ending (I'll get to that later, and I'll give you a spoiler alert, don't worry).

The genre mix is "dance movie" and "melodrama" with a bit of "psychological horror flick" built in. There are some VERY scary moments, made more scary by the structure of the plot (which revolves around "is she crazy or is it real, and how much of each?"). Yes, there's a girl on girl love scene (well, i should stop beating around the bush and say "sex scene") that I feel was for once, not gratuitous. Why no? My argument would be that it shows both a) Nina's attempts to find herself and b) how pliable and how lost Nina is, to the point where she's not even sure if she's straight or what.
Natalie Portman, who's always driven me nuts with her "vegan, Harvard, overly intense I'm dating a busker ways", is perfect for this role. She IS that girl in class that you want to slap upside the head and feed a sandwich to at the same time. Her frailness, her "crazy eyes" and her intensity really work for this movie. (the only movie I've found her likeable in other than "Brothers").
The movie centers on the character's quest to achieve independence and sexual maturity so she can convincingly play both the white and black swan roles- ironically, she must fall apart mentally and lose her grip on perfection so that she can "achieve perfection" in the form of getting the role.
Also, it's the third movie in a sort of crazy triptych about sacrificing your body and your mind for something you love/ are obsessed with (Wrestler, Black Swan, and Fountain. Actually, let's throw "PI" in there too, but that guy starts OUT f-ed). It's a melodramatic and campy meditation on the sacred rite of self destruction as religion, which I would argue is the artists' "story"--the subject of most or all of his art.

The much ballyhooed (AHEM ELLE MAGAZINE) "female rivalry" theme is a serious misreading of the film. Is Nina in "competition" with the free spirited Lily for the role of black and white swan- yes, technically. But she also forms a real friendship (and even is intimate with) Lily. Competition at a ballet company is not a radical idea, nor are these woman "frenemies" as the magazine article I've read is so breathless to prove any more than every woman is "competitive" with someone who is the opposite type.

They could have argued that free spirited Lily is "competitive" with cool, thinner, more elegant Nina, who has the respect and sexual interest of the director just as easily.

The mag article posits that there hasn't been a movie like this since Single White female!! Excuse me, have you watched Lifetime, like ,ever? New Best friend, perhaps? (a total stinker with "Jenny" from L word in it) How about "Cruel Intentions?" How about the FREAKING MOVIE I REVIEWED LIKE A MONTH AGO IN THIS VERY BLOG "You again" How about "the women"? and that's just off the top of my head.

Now, the magazine article does specify "no romantic triangles". Uh, mag? The two women aren't just fighting over who's thinner and more perfect for "posterity". They want the HUNKY DIRECTOR.

Anyway, the movie swings from low key thriller, along the lines of "Premenition" with a few geninue scares, to "dance movie" including showing the dancer breaking in her toe shoes (can't think of a more cliched scene except for-- wait for it!), the dancer goin' wild at a after hours club, and long, lingering loving shots of her perfectly toned body (what your BF agreed to go for.). Then at the very end of the movie, Nina (SPOILER ALERT-don't scroll down if you don't want to know!!)


having achieved her goal at the cost of her sanity and her health (maybe even her life, the movie implies, since she has a major, life threatening injury) falls onto a stage mattress from her final jump and lands in slow mo. "I'm finally perfect" she last-words it, a beatific smile on her face.
GROAN! ( I *could* be mentally adding the "finally" part)

When I told my sister about that, she was like 'well, hon, not every one "gets" that part, the filmmakers had to add it in". Heh.
rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars. 4 if the DVD comes out with rad extra features. Just don't watch it when you're feeling antsy and have a lot of hangnails.


The roommate:

An oddly puffy, upbeat psychological thriller about an unbalanced woman (Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl- Leighton Meister) who becomes obsessed with her roommate (Minka Kelly). When I saw the previews I was like "eh, good for 100 p". And that's exactly what it was.

Oddly tame, as if it were being edited for the WB already, the movie *barely* needs a PG-13 rating. Not that I was looking for buckets of gore or battalions of boobs, but it IS set at a college. A good bikini clad damsel in distress scene wouldn't have been out of place in this by- the- numbers thriller. There IS a shower scene though. This movie is SO predictable that as SOON as minor characters would appear (including the fluffy kitten, Cuddles) I would think "bye, Cuddles. Wonder how she'll kill you.
Bye ex boyfriend who's still calling. Wonder how she'll kill ya.
Bye creepy teacher played by a scraping- the- bottom- of- the- barrel Billy Zane. Wonder how she'll kill ya."

Anyway, the soundtrack is fun, the clothes are cute, the pacing is breakneck (we don't even SEE the dinner that Minka and Random Hunk go on that establishes them as a couple) the sex scene, such as it is, is foofy and vague, there's a gratuitous girls make out with girls scene, the heroine dangles from a window ledge, etc.

At the end of the movie, having killed her stalker in a climactic battle, the movie bounces back to "shuffle party mode" and tinkling, upbeat "B- roll- LA- establishing- shots" music plays, while Minka and Random Hunk have a twinkly- eyed, pop- culture- reference- strewn laugh about her KILLER ROOMMATE WHO' S NOW IN THE MORGUE and then they symbolically move her extra bed out of her dorm room. Har, har, Rebecca, who's having the last laugh now, ya BITCH!! And, roll credits!

Let's see...that's it for now!