Black Swan (2010)

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Oberst von Berauscht and Henry J. Fromage (A Toast)

A Toast

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) will do just about anything to get a lead role at the ballet company where she works. She is encouraged by her loving but overbearing mother Erica, (Barbara Hershey) a retired and mentally broken ballet dancer. When Nina finally is given a chance to stretch her talents as the lead role of Swan Lake by her highly sexual and task-driving director, played excellently by Vincent Cassel, she becomes increasingly unstable in her obsession with achieving perfection.

Darren Aronofsky’s latest opus is a film about ballet in the same way his Requiem for a Dream was about drug addiction, or the way The Wrestler was about professional wrestling. He is less interested in the technical details of these activities than with the physical and psychological impact each one holds on its characters. And in Black Swan, he may have crafted his most nightmarish world yet: a world that exists largely within Natalie Portman’s head.

Her crazy little head

It may be a Hollywood cliché to say that the characters of Darren Aronofsky’s films must confront their inner demons. But unlike a standard Hollywood film, confrontation isn’t where enlightenment is reached. In Black Swan for instance, Nina sees clearly what she is, or rather is becoming numerous times, with no moments of relief. It never seems that she will make an effort to change her fate. Instead she resolves to walk the precipice with spectacular, even vainglorious disdain for reality. You could say that instead of Aronofsky’s films simply reaching a point of catharsis, his characters come to terms with their destructive nature, deciding whether to sink or swim… whether to carry on.

Natalie Portman portrays this character with complexity and real humanity. I must confess that I was poisoned on her early career.

Where’s your 30 pieces of silver now?

With Black Swan however, I saw Nina, not Natalie Portman. This character is like nothing she’s ever done before, and is easily one of the best few performances of the year, if not the best.

A little love is also due Nina’s possible rival and certain temptation Lily, played by Mila Kunis, in a role that is drawing a lot of praise, although I’m not convinced that she’s past playing herself. It just happens that she is perfect for this role.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of Aronofsky’s is his relentless pacing and vision. While there are still a few small things that keep the film from technical perfection (like too many cheap make-you-jump moments) he sweeps you along in a film that just keeps accelerating until it’s highly emotional and exhilarating ending.

His weaving of the classical Black Swan ballet into the whole film is simply stunning, and as the film reached Nina’s performance I was in its clutches like very few films before. Afterwards all I could say is “Bravo, Mr. Aronofsky, Bravo!”

Although I think I may have overdressed for the moving-picture show…

Verdict

Watch it. The Social Network may be more technically perfect, and 127 Hours more originally executed, but few movies will affect you like this one in 2010.

Feast 3 (2009)

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By: Henry J. Fromage (Four Beers)

I’m going to start off by stating that I haven’t seen either Feast or Feast 2, and that I prefer it that way. Perhaps watching the first two would help you make some sense of this Himalayan blizzard of tits, gore, and nonsense, but I somehow doubt it. So, save yourself a few hours and skip right to the dessert.

The fatty, decadent dessert

A Toast-

Words fail to describe what exactly is going on here, so I’ll skip the synopsis. If you like monsters, boobies, guts, 8^th grade humor, or some combination of these, then this is probably up your alley. The movie starts out at full speed, immediately introducing characters and then killing them within minutes, many of them midgets. This continues for the entire duration of the film…

Beer Two-

…and that’s your plot. If you think you see character development happening, then it’s just an elaborate setup to kill the character right after you start giving a shit about them. If this bothers you, this probably isn’t the movie for you.

Don’t get attached

Beer Three-

Every once in awhile, the filmmakers take a stab at being artsy. The entire rest of the film is aimed in the exact opposite direction, which makes it particularly strange when the movie goes all Diving Bell & the Butterfly on you.

Probably not the same target audience…

Beer Four-

I can go all sixpack on this one, but there’s something oddly fascinating about the manic insanity and gratuitousness. You can’t make this movie on accident. So, this beer will have to go to the ending. Many of you will hate it, which is why it’s on the bad beer side of the ledger. I personally think it’s the greatest ending in cinematic history. All I can say is that there’s a robot and a mariachi Elvis. How much more of an endorsement do you need?

Fuck you Citizen Kane. Mariachi Elvis has bested you once more.

Verdict

Watch it. If you’re fine with flipping your brain switch off for 90 minutes this movie is awesome in a can.

The Fighter (2010)

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By: Oberst von Berauscht (A Toast)

The films of David O. Russell have often found critical acclaim for their stylized cinematography, editing, and quirky characters. He is perhaps equally known for his combative style of film-making (physical altercations with his cast and crew having been documented on multiple occasions). This approach seems to benefit The Fighter, as much of the film’s suspense springs from internal character tensions that burn just under the surface. Dicky Eklund and Micky Ward are professional boxers from the blue collar Boston suburb of Lowell, Massachusetts (whose rich history produced John Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock).

And more recently; Red Sox Fans

Dicky, Micky’s trainer and half brother was a once promising Welterweight boxer, famous for going the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard, and now addicted to crack with his career a memory. It is the early 90’s and Micky’s career is hydroplaning. He is anxious for a title shot, but a combination of Dicky’s increasing unpredictability and the ever tightening grip of his domineering mother/manager seem to be derailing him. Micky is forced to make a potentially alienating decision, one that threatens to destroy his family just as it betters his career.

David O. Russell and team have delivered a film that cannot be easily summarized in a simple synopsis. While on paper you’re looking at a rather conventional premise, one that has been covered in one way or another in numerous films about boxing. If what you’re expecting are longwinded speeches about “doing the right thing”, or rousing training montages set to music by Survivor, you should be pleased to know that this isn’t that type of movie. On paper a drama, the film feels much more like a dark comedy, each character more eccentric than the next.

Christian Bale is particularly fascinating as Dicky. He portrays a fun-loving, freewheeling personality who loves his family above all others, but lacks self control and pushes himself off the deep end at every opportunity. Dicky finally comes to realization in the most public forum possible and works to redeem himself. Christian Bale is well known for delving deep into the souls of his characters, often immersing himself in the same environments. Word is that he disappeared for lengthy periods of time before and during shooting, and judging by how convincingly he plays a crack addict, here’s hoping he didn’t go too far. The performance is nuanced, meaty, and fully realized, easily making it my pick for best actor of 2010. This may be his most manic and terrifying character since Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.

Feed me a Stray Cat…

As Micky, Mark Wahlberg is Dicky’s straight man. In Micky’s own words; Dicky pushes his half-brother harder than anyone else who has trained him. Dicky’s training is essential for Micky to perfect his technique, but Micky is forced to constantly rein his brother in to take him back to the reality he frequently leaves behind. It is easy to overlook Wahlberg’s performance, since Bale’s is so accomplished.

However, Mark Wahlberg is an actor who has needed a role like this to regain the respect he may have lost, taking some weaker roles in the last few years. Where Bale shows bravado, Wahlberg shows restraint, expressing the inner pain of a man both physically and metaphysically “on the ropes”. He feels backed into a corner because his mother is such a charismatic figure, as well as his brother, who for all his flaws is a loveable guy. The conflict is expressed most strongly through his body language in the first act of the film and as his confidence grows over the second and third act the audience finds themselves in constant suspense, wondering how each scene will play out.

These lovely ladies will swallow your soul

I also see award recognition for Melissa Leo as Alice Eklund, Dicky and Micky’s acidic, manipulative mother, who never takes a hint. She may be the most despicable character I have seen in some time. Films have produced many horrible mothers, but none are as viral, obnoxious, or as psychologically hurtful as Alice (not to mention she commands an army of rat-bag daughters whose only weapon is to judge the living shit out of you).

Aside from performances, the film is given a unique, documentary-style feel that works perfectly for the working class environment of Lowell. I hesitate to say that the camera breaks the fourth wall; it doesn’t do that so much as capture the visceral relationships of the characters, blemishes and all. When the time comes for a fight the camera shifts to pay-per-view mode, which adds a feeling of realism, just like watching the fight on a home television set. While there isn’t much in the way of a film score, the classic rock soundtrack perfectly sets the mood for every scene.

Verdict

Watch it. This film is proof that even in the most overused genre, an original approach can be found to make it something new.

Tangled (2010)

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By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers)

Beer Two

I’m going to flip this one on its head and finish with the toast. The second beer goes to whoever put together the previews for this film. They somehow found every joke that didn’t work and threw it together into one of the least appealing trailers I’ve ever seen.

Although trailers sometimes do lie…

Tangled looked like it’d be more child-pandering idiot fare, and the beginning of the film seemed to confirm all the fears from the trailer. There was plenty of haw-haw groaner comedy and some songs that just made you wish they’d end.

Every twist was predictable by the smallest of children and the plot looked like it was a paint-by-numbers compilation of Disney stereotypes…

A Toast

…and then you kind of fall for it. Tangled gets progressively stronger each minute and really explodes when our hero and heroine meet. By the time the end credits roll you realize that Disney Animation has turned in one of its best efforts in years, ranking right up there with the classics and even looking like it could give Pixar a run sooner rather than later (it doesn’t hurt that Pixar creator John Lasseter produces).

Tangled is very funny, especially the horse, who turns ever scene he’s in to gold, and it’s “I’ve Got a Dream” song is demented, silly comedy at its best. The use of traditional music in a few scenes is excellent, and a trend started by How to Train Your Dragon I’d like to see continue.

The biggest strength of this film, though, is its ability to relate to the audience. The old Disney formula involved fairytale settings, epic villainy, and protagonists that looked like Hitler’s wet dream.

Heil!

Tangled’s characters are regular people pretty, and Rapunzel even has a bit of a bucktoothed thing going on. The villain is plenty villainous, but in a real-world sort of way, using put-downs and guilt trips to bend Rapunzel to her will. This could be uncomfortable for some, but Rapunzel’s liberation from this is a good ‘ol Disney object lesson, and we still get our fairytale ending.

Not that I like that touchy-feely stuff or anything

Verdict

Watch it. Disney is back, baby.

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