Black Swan...meh

[stef_tm]

Just in time for the Oscar award announcements, I watched Black Swan at a local movie theater Saturday night.

It could have been a great movie. It's especially disappointing to me as Darren Aronofsky created my favorite movie, Pi which also had themes of success and paranoia.

note, lightly edited since I first posted this to add some snark

For those of you who want no movie description or plot spoilers at all, I'm going to put a cut

What went wrong:
- Heavy handed
Yes, we get that the lead character may be having issues with perceiving reality. You don't have to spell it out in movie cliches.

- Boring archetypes
Egotistical ballet company leader. Infantalizing stage mother. Washed up predecessor. Sexually permissive free spirit = grace. Technical talent = frigidity. Zzzzzz.

- Bad use of fear/horror
During what were supposed to be scary scenes, I was laughing (as was about 15% of the audience.) Is this a camp gay film?!? I foresee this playing the Castro in the future with a floor cast.

What went right:
Casting
A good crew. I found it interesting that the four main characters (Portman, Kunis, Hershey, and Ryder) are all Jewish. (disclosure: it is suspected (but not confirmed) that I am 1/4 Jewish.)

Cinematography
The movie felt claustrophobic, just as paranoia shrinks ones world.

Is it me or was it meta to cast Winona Ryder in the role of former ingenue?

Did Portman deserve the Oscar? I don’t think the part, as written and directed, tested her range. Her physical transformation (ala Raging Bull) and her dancing were remarkable.

Summary: 2 of 4 stars.

Comments

[yaaresse.livejournal.com]

Nice summary. Thank you. I can now save that hour plus of my life to do something like shampoo the carpets. :)

Two other people I know saw it and didn't like it, but they didn't verbalize the reasons nearly as well.

The one I want to see is The King's Speech. Unfortunately, the theater here is not on the bus route, so I'm impatiently waiting for Netflix to get it.

[stef-tm.livejournal.com]

I added a wee bit more detail here:
http://matscigirl.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/movie-review-black-swan/

It's not a bad Netflix on a rainy Sunday for cultural literacy.

[whatwouldruthdo.livejournal.com]

Overall I agree with you. I definitely didn't think it was worthy of being nominated for best picture. I was thrilled for Natalie Portman to win last night, though. This movie has changed her entire life, which I think is so cool.

[stef-tm.livejournal.com]

I think she is going to have a long and successful career - hope she makes some good choices!!

[danielmath.livejournal.com]

lol@meta. :)

[writerspleasure.livejournal.com]

ballerinas ...

[hunterxtc.livejournal.com]

I am a huge fan of Pi AND Requiem FOr A Dream, so I was really happy to see the film get nominated. I see all these hack directors get kudos for putting out garbage... so it was nice to see Darren Aronofsky get some recognition.

When I first saw Black Swan, I think I watched it wrong. I was looking for a Single White Female meets The Red Shoes. In reality, it's more like a film about a descent into madness that just happens to be about a ballerina. What you call cliches about the perceptions of reality I found to be one of the better things about the film (I'm assuming you're talking of things like the black feathers, the legs bowing in and out, etc). I also loved the evil mother in the film... which I really don't think was an evil mother but rather another symptom of Portman's madness. Taking the notion of the "mother who had to sacrifice her career" and having it magnified through the eyes of madness was pretty genius to me.

I can say that I saw The King's Speech and I HATED it. I thought Black Swan was sooo much better than "another film about Brits and their resolve".