Black Swan

Black Swan is this beautiful yet disturbing thriller set in the world of ballet. It's like a crazy fever dream where there is little room for reality. To say director Darren Aronofsky is fearless is an understatement. This is the man, afterall, who brought us Pi and Requiem for a Dream (which is, arguably, the most depressing movie I have ever seen in my entire life). He has said Black Swan is a companion piece for his last excellent outing, The Wrestler, and I can't say that I disagree. The two films definitely have their similarities - the manic pacing, the behind the scenes feel, the search for perfection, and definitely the endings. However, I think Black Swan is a better film. At the very least, it's definitely more beautiful looking.
Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a dancer in the ballet company who wants to be perfect and strives to be a star. She is a good technical dancer, but lacks passion and intensity. She gets to audition for the lead in Swan Lake and while the demanding, seductive director of the company (Vincent Cassel) thinks she would make the perfect White Swan, he doesn't quite see her as the dangerous and sensual Black Swan. Newcomer to the company Lily (Mila Kunis), however, is perfect for the Black Swan. She's got a back tattoo, for Christ's sake! In the end, Thomas chooses Nina anyway. So, then we get to the good stuff. Nina has to struggle to find her sensuality (Thomas suggest she go home and touch herself). She also has to deal with jealousy from the other dancers and bitter resentment from Beth (Winona Ryder!!!), the aging star who is being pushed into retirement and is none too happy about it. Nina also has to deal with her super over protective stage mother (Barbara Hershey) who treats her like she's 12. To say Nina cracks under all the pressure is an understatement. But what is real, and what is all inside our pretty little ballerina's head? Is she really pulling swan feathers out of her skin? Is Lily really trying to steal her role? Is she really making out with boys at bars and girls in her bedroom? Is she really turning into the black swan she is so desperately trying to find a way to inhabite on stage? Black Swan is a wonderfully thrilling film, trying - and not trying, really - to answer all of those questions.
Natalie Portman is revelatory as Nina. At the beginning, she's meek and naive, sweet, innocent, seeking perfection but never raising her voice. By the end, she's a cracked and broken version of herself - all seduction and intensity and passion. Portman, who is so often rigid in many of her movies, really let's herself become this character and it's her best role to date, by a mile. She most certainly deserves that Oscar come March (sorry Annette Bening!). Mila Kunis is also quite surprising. Best known as comedic Jackie on That 70s Show, Kunis, who looks shockingly like Portman, is all raw sexuality. She's charming, seducing both Portman and the audience. Hershey is perfect as the overprotective mom, watching her sweet daughter transform right before her eyes. And is all of this her fault for pushing her too hard? You can see in her eyes that she wonders the same thing. Cassel is impressive as well as the lecherous director. Then there is my girl Winona! It's so good to have her back in a worthwhile movie. Sure, she's only in it for a few scenes, but they are key scenes and she nails the bitterness of a once hot young thing being pushed into oblivion (oh, wait! the irony!). Portman's Nina wants to steal her lipstick and her earrings to become more like her... and who wouldn't want to be like Winona, the it girl of the 90s, making a long-awaited comeback in a fabulous arthouse film?
To be frank, Black Swan is a beautiful mind fuck of a movie. And, really, what's better than that?
Grade: A

Easy A (DVD)

What a delightfully charming and fun movie! I had wanted to see Easy A in theaters but never got around to it. My expectations were for it to be cute and funny but I wasn't ready for how good it actually is. It's an homage to the great John Hughes films of the 90s in a way (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, etc.) but is also a sort of modern retelling of The Scarlett Letter. Also, and obviously, it's updated for this generation with lots of references to texting and Facebook and the main storytelling technique is a webcam.
Easy A follows Olive (Emma Stone), a pop culture fast talker who is smart as a whip and also a little invisible to everyone except her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and her freaking hysterically perfect parents (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, more on them later!). Olive doesn't want to go camping with Rhiannon's hippy family one weekend, so she invents a date with a college man instead. She doesn't actually have a date. Instead, she stays at home and sings "Pocket Full of Sunshine" all weekend. But when Monday morning rolls around, she tells Rhiannon she went on the date anyway. As she fabricates her fictitious weekend with an older gentleman, Rhiannon gets it into her head that she lost her virginity as well. Eventually, Olive plays along and she is overheard by the school religious freak MaryAnn (Amanda Bynes), who spreads the rumor around school that Olive is a slut. Suddenly, Olive is on the map. And she likes it! She begins to play along with her new slutty persona and is soon helping out her gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd), pretending they had sex so people will stop tormenting him because he's gay. Brandon spreads word among the downtrodden school students that Olive will help them and soon she is the school slut. What at first seems like fun, soon turns into bad news for Olive who struggles with being ostracized and turned into an object by people who used to ignore her. Also, there happens to be a boy named Todd (Penn Badgley) who she is really into.
Typical high school comedy? Not at all! Maybe it's the hilariously fast paced, well written, super funny script. (And it is fast paced, except around the beginning of the third act where it drags a little bit). Or it could be all the excellent performances. Emma Stone is perfect. She's funny and endearing and effortlessly charming. She's genuinely likeable and someone who I would love to have as a friend in real life. She most certainly deserved that Golden Globe nomination. Clarkson and Tucci are amazing as her parents, and I would like for them to be married in real life. I would like for them to get divorced from whomever their current partners are, marry each other, and then adopt me. I can't possibly express in words how much I loved them as a couple in this movie. Thomas Haden Church also shows up as a super cool teacher, Lisa Kudrow as his slightly crazy guidance counselor wife, and Malcolm McDowell as a "fascist" principal.
All in all, Easy A is endlessly entertaining. A very funny, very enjoyable movie, and most definitely the best high school comedy that has come around in a long while.
Grade: B

The Fighter

For the last few months, I've been all about two particular performances, both from The Social Network. First, there is Jesse Eisenberg who I thought gave the best performance of the entire year. Then, there is Andrew Garfield who I thought was the Best Supporting Actor of the entire year. Now, they have both been replaced by one man - Christian Bale from The Fighter. His Dicky Eklund is so manic, so nuanced, so charming, in a word sort of way. Not only does he steal the entire movie, but also it is his best performance and the best performance of the year. More about that later.
The Figther, directed by David O. Russell, is the true story of welterweight fighter Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) who is from Lowell, Massachusetts. Lowell, like most movies set in and around Boston, is a character of its own. The city is alive with the working class people who just want something good to come from their city. But they are also quick to turn their backs on disappointments and failures. It's a small town mentality, where everyone knows everyone else's business. Micky has been boxing for a few years, trying to get the right fight to break through in boxing. He's managed by his stage mom (Melissa Leo) whose M.O. is to kill her kids with a sort of suffocating love. He's being trained by his "retired" brother Dicky. Dicky is the current pride of Lowell. An ex-boxer, he gained notoriety when he knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard some years ago (but did Sugar Ray really just trip and fall??). Now, HBO is following Dicky around making a documentary, which Dicky thinks is about his comeback. In reality, it's about his failure and crack addiction. Micky, who also has a half a dozen sisters, each ones hair bigger than the last, falls in love with Charlene (Amy Adams), a tough as nails bartender who is the only person who can stand up to Micky's mom and his crazy sisters.
The Fighter is a sports movie, but only really in the last third. The first two-thirds of the movie is all about character development. It's all about Micky and the decision he has to make between his overbearing family and his desire to become a prize fighter. Can he strike a balance and become a champion with his family? Or does he have to step out on his own, leave his family and their drama behind, to become a winner? That's the fine line Micky has to walk in the film.
The performances are all amazing here (right down to Micky's crazy sisters, who have great comedic timing to deliver all their one liners, usually putting down Charlene). Leo is perfection as the overbearing, tough mom. Adams is even better, showing off a tough side of her own. She's been so cutesy so often that it's nice to get a reminder of what a truly great actress she really is. Then there is Wahlberg, who is damn good in his own right. He's part shy, part determined with an explosive side. I've never been a fan of his in dramas, really (exception: The Departed). I've always thought he was a way better comedy actor than anyone gave him credit for (see: I Heart Huckabees). But, he is truly impressive here, giving a layered, lovely performance. But the best performance, of course, goes to Bale. He is a crazy method actor and for once it comes to fruition. He is all manic energy, sucking the air out of every room he walks into, demanding everyone's attention. You think he's about one moment from turning absolutely batshit crazy. Then they show the real Dicky at the end of the film, with all his ticks and eyes bugging out, and you realize even more how perfectly Bale embodied him. I'm all about Bale winning Best Supporting Actor at the upcoming Oscars!
Grade: B+

Worst Movies of 2010

So, my Best of lists will be coming the first week of January (as long as I can see freaking Black Swan by then!!!!) but for now I thought I'd do my Worst Films of the year list...

10. Happiness Runs - Every once in a while, a really great movie goes straight to DVD. This is not that movie. Okay, okay. I only watched it in the first place for Shiloh Fernandez. But this movie (about the inner workings of a hippie cult and the teens who want to break away from it) is just plain awful.

09. The Killer Inside Me - Casey Affleck stars as a Texas sherriff who goes a little crazy and starts killing people, including his hooker mistress (Jessica Alba). I mean, Affleck's performance is pretty great but this movie has absolutely no point whatsoever. It's just very bad. Maybe it's because the story is so poorly laid out? I'm not sure. Just a big waste of time.

08. Date Night - Incredibly, incredibly unfunny. Thank goodness for James Franco, who is the only, THE ONLY, good thing about this terribly unfunny script. I mean, Steve Carell and Tina Fey are funny, right? Not in this movie! Mistaken idenities lead the suburban couple on a crazy night in NYC. It's watchable but it's not a comedy.

07. The Back Up Plan - Jennifer Lopez stars as a woman who becomes pregnant via artificial insemination and THEN meets the man of her dreams. Again, here is a romantic comedy that is neither romantic nor comedic. Just another huge waste of time.

06. Book of Eli - Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis... sounds like a great cast right? Too bad they are stuck in such a shitty post-apocalyptic movie about... the Bible? Who even knows or cares. Denzel walks across the country, fighting people, being a wannabe bad ass and also super annoying.

05. Hot Tub Time Machine - Why John Cusack!?!?!! Awesome name. Awesome premise. Awesome cast. But none of it works at all. Instead of some sort of soul searching 80s comedy, it's sexist and uses the lamest jokes of all time. Oooh, that girl is wearing leg warmers! Hilarious! Michael Jackson used to be black! Hilarious. Clark Duke is the only good thing about this movie. He needs to start picking better movies. He's above this crap.

04. Eat Pray Love - So, I loved the book. I really didn't think the main character was quite so... obnoxious in the book, but I could be wrong. Because in the movie, played by extremely likeable Julia Roberts, she becomes the most annoying person on Earth. Oooh, pity me because I'm rich and white and men throw themselves at me everywhere I go and I've never been single or alone for a day in my entire life. And I'm a writer and I have the ability to leave my job for a year and travel to Italy and India and Bali. Fuck you, must be nice.

03. Edge of Darkness - I knew I would hate this movie before I even saw it and I don't know why I wasted my money on a movie starring a racist, sexist, hateful person like Mel Gibson. Anyway, he's a cop. His daughter gets killed. Was it meant for him? He runs around like a man men and tries to solve the crime. The script is awful and nothing makes sense at all. Pure crap.

02. Daybreakers - Vampires, what a new and interesting development for 2010. Nobody makes vampire movies anymore! In this movie, it's the near future and pretty much everyone is a vampire. There are very few humans left and if they don't want to get bled dry, they have to come up with synthetic blood. They somehow put Ethan Hawke in charge of this. He should just call the guys from True Blood and see how they did it. Dumb times ten.

01. Legion - Just the worst movie of the year. I honestly tried to shut it out of my mind as much as I could so I don't exactly remember what it's about but there is a diner in the middle of nowhere and a pregnant waitress and a bunch of annoying rednecks and a good angel and a bad angel and a really shitty script and some godawful acting.

Golden Globe Nominations

Best Picture - Drama
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
Thoughts - My two favorites of the year are here (The Social Network and Inception). I'm pretty stoked to see Black Swan and The Fighter. The King's Speech looks, probably, like the most boring movie of all time. No love for Shutter Island!

Best Actress - Drama
Halle Berry - Frankie and Alice
Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine
Thoughts - Go Natalie!!!!

Best Actor - Drama
Jesse Eisenberg- The Social Network
Colin Firth - The King's Speech
James Franco - 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine
Mark Wahlberg - The Fighter
Thoughts - No love for DiCaprio this year who gave not one, but TWO amazing performances (maybe the awesomeness of each canceled each other out??). Also, what strikes me about both of these lead acting categories is how very young it skews. Who are the oldest people here? Kidman, Berry, Firth? They are hardly ready to join AARP. And finally, go JESSE!!!! (Not only does he give the best performance of the year, imho, but also you just know his acceptance speech would be equal parts adorable and awkward).

Best Picture - Comedy or Musical
Alice in Wonderland
Burlesque
The Kids Are All Right
Red
The Tourist
Thoughts - Really??? This is the best they could do??? I mean, I guess The Kids Are All Right in a really pretentious kind of way but there were far better comedies than this load of crap.

Best Actress - Comedy or Musical
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
Anne Hathaway - Love and Other Drugs
Angelina Jolie - The Tourist
Julianne Moore - The Kids Are All Right
Emma Stone - Easy A
Thoughts - I dislike more than half of these people. I'll be with the haters cheering for Julianne or Emma!

Best Actor - Comedy or Musical
Johnny Depp - Alice in Wonderland
Johnny Depp - The Tourist
Paul Giamatti - Barney's Version
Jake Gyllenhaal - Love and Other Drugs
Kevin Spacey - Casino Jack
Thoughts - This is pretty much the most pathetic category of all time.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
Mila Kunis - Black Swan
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom
Thoughts - Go Mila!

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale - The Fighter
Michael Douglas - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Andrew Garfield - The Social Network
Jeremy Renner - The Town
Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
Thoughts - I am pleasantly surprised to see Renner in there. He was the best thing about The Town and I really thought he would get overlooked now that all the big guns are coming out. Also, go Andrew! If Jesse Eisenberg didn't give the best performance of the year, then Andrew would have!

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan
David Fincher - The Social Network
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
Christopher Nolan - Inception
David O. Russell - The Fighter
Thoughts - Three of my fave directors are nominated here. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see directors who are usually way too weird for mainstream to dominated this category. As long as Aronofsky, Fincher or Nolan win, I'll be happy.

And, since I'm toying with making this a movie / TV / music blog (thoughts??), here are the TV nominations as well...

Best TV Series - Drama
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
The Good Wife
Man Men
The Walking Dead
Thoughts - I don't watch The Good Wife. I want so very badly to watch The Walking Dead but, alas, I must wait for DVD. I may be the only person on the planet who thinks Mad Men is overrated. I love Dexter so freaking much but I am currently two seasons behind. So that leaves the BRILLIANT Boardwalk Empire as my choice for winner!

Best Actress - Drama
Julianna Margulies - The Good Wife
Elisabeth Moss - Mad Men
Piper Perabo - Covert Affairs
Katey Sagal - Sons of Anarchy
Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer
Thoughts - KATEY F-ING SAGAL!!!!!!! I love her so much on that show. Go Katey!!!!

Best Actor - Drama
Steve Buscemi - Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall - Dexter
Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Hugh Laurie - House
Thoughts - They should just call this category "the usual suspects." I could care less about the last two on the list. Hall and Buscemi are so super good. But, really, Cranston has the best role on TV and he knocks it out of the park every freaking second of every minute of ever episode. As long as Breaking Bad is on TV, he should be rightfully winning every award ever. They should probably even just invent awards to give to him.

Best TV Series - Comedy or Musical
30 Rock
The Big Bang Theory
The Big C
Glee
Modern Family
Nurse Jackie
Thoughts - I do love me some Glee but I also think that Modern Family is the absolutely best show on TV.

Best Actress - Comedy or Musical
Toni Collette - United States of Tara
Edie Falco - Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey - 30 Rock
Laura Linney - The Big C
Lea Michele - Glee
Thoughts - I love Laura Linney? I don't watch that show though. Honestly, I don't really care.

Best Actor - Comedy or Musical
Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
Steve Carell - The Office
Thomas Jane - Hung
Matthew Morrison - Glee
Jim Parsons - The Big Bang Theory
Thoughts - It would be nice for Carell to win for his final season on the show, yeah?

Best Supporting Actress
Hope Davis - The Special Relationship
Jane Lynch - Glee
Kelly MacDonald - Boardwalk Empire
Julia Stiles - Dexter
Sofia Vergara - Modern Family
Thoughts - I really hate MacDanald's character on Boardwalk Empire although I did like her very much in No Country For Old Men. Maybe that's the sign of a super great performance? Either way, I'm all in for Lynch!

Best Supporting Actor
Scott Caan - Hawaii Five-O
Chris Colfer - Glee
Chris Noth - The Good Wife
Eric Stonestreet - Modern Family
David Strathairn - Temple Grandin
Thoughts - Oh, there is so much epic fail in this category. First of all, Stonestreet is great as Cam on Modern Family but Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell) and Ty Burrell (Phil) are the superior performances by far. That was my tiny, little problem with this category. As for the giant, gleaming, awfulness??? Boardwalk Empire has the best, THE BEST, supporting actors in the business and not a single one of them was nominated!?!?! No Michael Pitt?? No Michael Shannon?? No Shea Whigham?? No Michael Stuhlbarg?? No Stephen Graham?? No Vincent Piazza?? It's a freaking shame. For a category that got so very much wrong at least they got Chris Colfer (the best actor on Glee by a mile) so very right.