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Reviews
Black Swan (2010)
Excellent but not flawless
This is not the type of film you write a review for in just five minutes, but here it goes - unlike the super realistic The Wrestler, and similarly to Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan starts off "here and now", complete - in documentary style, and ends in a vortex of hallucination and CGI. It is an excellent piece of work but not without flaws.
Story wise what I missed is a better exposition for Nina and her frigidity. The demanding mother, a ballet dancer who "could never make it" and is now burdening her daughter with the task of succeeding where she had failed is the "mother of all clichés". The first half of the story, where we are still very much grounded in the "real" is overwhelmingly allegorical - the mirrors, reflections, the back and white - are all very much "in your face" - no gentle touches, no subtlety.
The same goes for the way Thomas is trying to "open up" Nina - through her sexuality. Instead of a subtle and slow seduction what we get is a brutal rape, of both Nina and the audience: "go home and touch yourself", "would you f*ck that girl?" - it felt almost juvenile and achieved the wrong effect.
Another major flaw is the repeated use of what we first think to be real but later discover to be an hallucination - again, not only a cheap vehicle but one that is used several times, each time with a diminishing effect. Nina is losing her mind - OK, we get it - but stretch that line too far and you lose the audience too.
This is Aronofsky's style and the result is extremely dramatic and powerful, but to me it feels "cheap"... it is the easier path to drama - not the sophisticated one. The audience laughter at what was meant to be very serious moments is a testament to the failure of Aronofsky to master the art.
8/10
The Tourist (2010)
Awful, Awful, Awful
I just returned from the premiere a couple of moments ago (it was on 54th street, I live on 57th). This must be one of the worst films I've ever seen.
To think that this film was directed and written by the same writer/director of "The Lives of Others" just makes me sick to my stomach.
It is one thing to see a terrible 3rd grade Hollywood flick in cinema with friends or family and another thing to watch it together with the stars, director and production company, all cheering and clapping to what is obviously a terrible movie.
Everything about this movie is awful - the writing, the direction... even the cinematography - with some scenes lit as if it was a first year student film at NYU.
But it really all boils down to the terrible writing and story - B movie jokes and gags, 3rd rate dialogue, a ridiculous last moment "twist", and a story that's far worse than the worst Bond movie.
How bad is it? It "reads" like a Leslie Nielsen thriller parody. Wait... and even as a parody it wouldn't work.
If I knew better I would think the script was written as an exercise by a 1st year student in some community college in Oklahoma.
I'm devastated. This has ruined "The Lives of Others" for me, which up until two hours ago was one of my favorite movies. Everybody involved with this movie shouldn't be making films.
It will be an awful flop at the box office and the critics will decimate it...
Awful.
Fair Game (2010)
This is a TEN
This movie is a TEN. If it wasn't for Right Wingers that probably come here to screw up with the numbers, the rating of this movie would have been MUCH HIGHER.
Aside from the incredible true story, even if this was pure fiction, it would have been a ten - the direction and script are superb, none stop action and brilliant performances from academy award winner and nominee (she should get the Oscar for her performance here).
Even if you do not care about politics and don't know what the story is about - THIS IS AN ACTION / SPY movie. If you love James Bond movies - you will LOVE this one as well. Only that its based on a true story.
I've just been to a screening with one of the producers who said that Sean Penn agreed to do the movie only after spending two days with Joe and Valerie. That's the kind of guy he is.
EVERYBODY should watch this movie, if you care about your country and want to understand how it is really ran, how a democracy looks like from the INSIDE (at least during the Bush administration) YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS MOVIE.
JUST DO IT.
NOW.
You won't regret it.
Meduzot (2007)
A high-school exercise that somehow got made
Am I the only one that sees thru this crap? Lets start with the title - The big metaphor her - Jellyfish - drifting away, taken by the currents which carries them away as it pleases, like the "characters" in the film. GIVE ME A BREAK, I would be ashamed to submit this to my literature teacher at 9th grade in high-school. No (real) deeper meaning, no prose, the dialogue is very unauthentic, the stories inter-cut in random and meaningless ways and do not create a whole which is bigger than its parts. Heavy handed, edits and artificial framing that draw attention to themselves, and a long take that screams "I'm a long take, look at me!" Bad lighting and sound design. So the mother was a bad mother to her daughter, whose apartment is flooded, and is busy fund-raising to the homeless and poor while her daughter is homeless herself. Wow that's what I call deep irony - not.