Black Swan is a Top-Notch Psychological Thriller

Darren Aronofsky doesn't do normal. In the span of his career as a director, he has distinguished himself as a creator of controlled chaos. With Black Swan, he one again demonstrates that he has mastered his craft.

Often times with films, the credit for success tends to be thrown in one direction or the other; the director was a visionary or the actors were at the top of their game or the cinematography was revolutionary. Taking time to step back and reflect on Black Swan, it strikes me that this film was the sum of its parts – Aronofsky knew what he wanted and lucky for him he had the cast and crew that could deliver his vision to its full potential!

The film explores the world of the ballet, but more to the heart, it explores ambition and obsession, forces for both creation and destruction. The main character Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a ballet dancer who, despite being a dedicated and talented ballerina with her company, has never taken that next step to true stardom. She wants to ascend to the top, that place of prominence, but can she step beyond the technical and truly become her craft? It is the challenge her director (Vincent Cassel) issues to her, but the pressures of the profession take their heavy toll on Nina. Cast as the “swan queen” for the a re-envisioned Swan Lake, Nina is forced to push herself beyond her limits to realize her full potential at the risk of losing herself.

Aronofsky's skill is on full display as he presents the audience with a reality that we aren't quite sure of from the very first scene. As a psychological thriller, Black Swan works through subtlety. We are constantly fed little hints of paranoia and dreamlike segments of incongruity so that, like Nina, we are never sure what is entirely real. Those elements of herself that Nina is required to use to allow her to give the performance she wants and that her director demands are creative forces that eat away at her psyche. Nina is told from the beginning that she is the white swan but that she needs to channel the black swan within herself. In this way, the story of Swan Lake mirrors Nina's own journey – both the themes of transformation and ultimate self destruction.

Very often psychological thrillers spend at least some time trying to examine those elements which seem out of place as a way to help make sense of what is happening. With Black Swan, Aronofsky doesn't give the audience the luxury of those moments to help us stop and catch our breath. He used this to excellent effect! The film is relatively short with a run time of only 108 minutes. The pace of the story is brisk and somewhat frantic, mirroring the hectic pace with which Nina must prepare for the role she has always wanted. This heightens the effects of the paranoia she experiences – there is no time to stop and try to make sense of anything. As a result there is seemingly no line between what is real and what is not giving the film an added punch and genuinely frightened (Nina) feel. It is like watching self-destruction at break neck speed!

This film also benefits from the excellent performances from Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel as Nina's director. Even Winona Ryder gave a good supporting performance as the jilted and discarded lead ballerina. For her performance as the tormented Nina, Portman won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Black Swan is yet another excellent film from Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler) and a must see for any fan of the psychological thriller genre. It doesn't disappoint. 10/10

Your Highness is a Satisfying, Silly Romp

Some movies are low brow. When you see the trailers for these movies online or during a trip to the theater you laugh and probably groan a little, and sometimes you still want to see them anyway because all it will be is dumb, mindless humor or mindless, eye popping action. Your Highness is one of these movies. I wanted to see it because I thought it looked like a fun time at the movies. Good news – I was right!

I don't have to tell you that some movies are great because they aren't heavy or serious. Hell, I'll never stop loving Baseketball (a high school favorite) and it is gutter humor and cheap gags all the way! I can confidently say the same for Your Highness. It is exactly what you would expect from the trailer – an age-old premise populated by cheap gags and dick jokes that didn't try to be anything more. The end result was a great time at the movies! If only more movies could understand this principle – just be what you are, because sometimes that all we want and nothing more.

Your Highness is a movie that you can tell everyone involved was just having a good time. James Franco (Prince Fabious) and Danny McBride (Prince Thadeous) team up once again with Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green for a very silly affair that involves an evil warlock, a mysterious warrior-woman (Natalie Portman) and an epic quest to rescue a maiden in distress (Zooey Deschanel). Oh, and a ton of sex jokes! For Franco and Portman, who were an Oscar nominee and Oscar winner respectively in 2011, they don't have anything to prove, so this was probably a nice “fluff” picture to work on following their efforts in 127 Hours and Black Swan.

Even so this movie is not high art, that is not to say it wasn't handled well. It was. The story was well done and even the CG wasn't bad. When the end credits rolled, I didn't feel like I wanted my money back. I paid for a fun time at the movies and it delivered. It certainly isn't for everyone, but if you like the swords and spells genre and are in the mood for a silly, albeit juvenile romp, you need only call for Your Highness. 7/10

Latest Green Lantern Footage

Obviously with every new comic book movie there is a ton of skepticism and it very much deserved given a lot of the absolute garbage that has come out. I really enjoy the Green Lantern and even after watching this latest footage, I am still very wary. Still, there is a bit of promise to it. Anyway, I thought I would share it.

PS - I'm still not sold on the CG costume, and more specifically the mask. It just doesn't look completely passable as "real".

Extras Is Solid Gold Comedy

I realize that I am late to the scene (once again), but I recently took in the entire run of Ricky Gervais' critically-acclaimed comedy series Extras. By now I'm sure that anyone who comes upon this blog knows that Gervais is the creative mind behind the immensely successful series The Office and have probably heard about, if not seen, his “controversial” hosting of the 2011 Golden Globes. Controversial or not, it was hilarious and so is Extras!

To put is succinctly, Extras is both a pleasure to watch and, quite frequently, very difficult to watch. I say difficult because some of the situations that the characters find themselves in are so uncomfortable and awkward it is almost unbearable... and therein lies the delightfully twisted beauty of it. What co-creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have come up with in nothing short of comedy gold!

Extras follows the professional lives of three primary characters: struggling film/TV extras Andy Millman (Gervais) and Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Millman's utterly incompetent agent Darren Lamb (Merchant). Millman is the every man – easily overlooked, but with huge ambitions for himself. As he and best friend Maggie bounce from job to job Andy continually tries to rub shoulders with the celebrities that they happen to cross paths with (the series' guest stars) but he finds himself not getting anywhere.

His failure to advance professionally is due in large part to his worthless agent Darren, who in addition to not really trying to help Andy, doesn't actually think very much of him as an actor, which in a twisted way serves as a reality check for Andy.

However, despite all of the problems Andy faces, he writes a pilot for an semi-autobiographical sitcom which manages to get picked up by the BBC. Suddenly Andy's life changes but he quickly learns the high price (and dark side) of success. He quickly discovers he is going places that he doesn't want to be and yet they seem to be the only way he can taste the fame and fortune he so desperately wants for himself. He becomes famous but despises the keys to his own success. In essence, Andy has to sell out and he hates every bloody minute of it. His reality, it seems, is not compatible with his dreams. It may not sound funny, but believe me, it is.

As I've said, the journey we are taken on in Extras is simultaneously hilarious and painful; it contains some of the funniest and most awkward scenes I have ever seen! Equally entertaining is the high profile list of celebrity guest stars that join the fray, a list that includes Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Daniel Radcliffe, Clive Owen, Orlando Bloom and David Bowie to name a few. (just do a YouTube search for Extras + any of the aforementioned celebs for a taste if you haven't seen the show)

Unlike the original British version of The Office (Gervais and Merchant's earlier collaboration), Extras is not done in the “mockumentary” style, but it definitely pokes fun at the world of show business. It's often dry and deadpan, but it scores with every episode! Gervais and Merchant put their comedy genius on full display and keep you laughing and cringing the whole way through. If you haven't already checked it out, definitely add it your queue!

Sucker Punch Is an Identity Crisis on Screen

I'll keep this as brief as I can – Sucker Punch is a terrible film! Zach Snyder's latest is an action-packed identity crisis, marketing itself with the eye candy and CGI battle sequences (to draw the guys to the theater) and then, not so subtly, trying to pass it off a something more substantial - a movie with a message. Well, it didn't work. At all. (PS - I went with a group of guys.... the target demographic, and we didn't expect fine art)

It's hard to know where to start. My first reaction is that Snyder has moved on from scantily clad men (300) to scantily clad women with Sucker Punch. I'm not going to lie – eye candy is eye candy and being a guy I appreciated that for what it is. But then to try and sell these insane action sequences as being a metaphor these young womens' struggle to liberate themselves from sex slavery? I'm not buying it. And neither did anyone who was in the theater with me.

The characters in Sucker Punch are paper thin as far as development. They come across as little more than the vehicles to drive the action, and yet, they are supposed to be driving the bigger, important message. Didn't work. The story of these girls banding together to escape their situation is cliché and really does little more than serve as a pause to catch your breath from the action.

And what of the action? I'm confused. I thought this movie was supposed to be about ass-kicking and violence at the hands of hot chicks? So why then, did this movie even try for the PG-13 rating it received? And the way they did it is even more dumbfounding. So here our heroines are, in the midst of an epic World War I-esque battlefield, and in order to make the killing “ok” for the rating, we establish that the German soldiers are already dead and are nothing more than clockwork, steam-punk zombies. What?! It's ok though, we have a “mech” for the asian girl to pilot. Oh man.... what has happened here?

Then for the next epic encounter they take our girls to Isengard! (for your enjoyment) Yes, flying around in a hybrid B-17, the girls somehow end up in Middle Earth where they fight orcs and dragons with samurai swords, assualt rifles and a .50 cal. Oh yeah, and for the sake of that rating thing - “You're one ugly mother....” blam blam blam blam Again, just take the “R” rating and save some shred of dignity.

However, what made this movie truly awful in my opinion is the end, wherein Snyder's story gets sappy and preachy – the message. Seeing as this adventure has already lifted from 95% of animes, The Matrix' wardrobe, Lord of the Rings' locales, Kill Bill's Pei Me sequence and Sky Captain's aesthetic, why not try to shove a message in there too? “You have the tools. Use them.” Cue the eye roll.

If this was supposed to be a movie about female empowerment, which I've read thing that hint that it partially is, it failed. Why? Because this film probably only served to make every teenaged boy (target demographic) in the audience drool. Believe me, they didn't appreciate the “social message” nearly as much as the hot chicks in skimpy outfits kicking ass. If this was supposed to be just a action-packed romp through pop culture, it failed. Drop the pretense! Lose the message, take the “R” rating and just embrace what it is – mindless entertainment, good or bad.

One final thought. This rating thing bothers me on another level too. It managed to snag a PG-13 rating. Why, because it didn't kill “people” en mass or use the word “fuck” in the action sequences? Um.... a fair amount of time is spent in a 40-50s era brothel where the women are abused (verbally and physically) on screen, manipulated, SHOT IN COLD BLOOD and totally objectified (like in the movie itself) and that isn't viewed as violence worthy of “R”? There is nothing wrong with “R” if you understand what it signifies. Gee... I think this movie missed its own contrived message. Sadly, so did the ratings board. Congratulations - you now own the lowest rating ever* for The Film Lounge! 2/10

*Actually tied for the lowest rating ever with a couple other "winners" (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Shrek the Third). The Brothers Solomon, while given a 0/10, was not an official review, just a public service announcement, as stated.