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D23: Live Action Round-Up – The Muppets Wins, John Carter Stumbles and Oz: The Great and Powerful introduces itself!

Damon Houx — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:08:03 +0000

Though The Odd Life of Timothy Green and the nature film Chimpanzee had trailers shown (and Jennifer Garner talked briefly about Green), the majority of attention for Disney’s live Actions films at D23 went to The Muppets and John Carter. The Muppets went over like gangbusters, while Carter just busted. There was also a brief presentation on Oz: The Great and Powerful, which just started shooting. Our report follows.

John Carter

John Carter‘s presentation began with director Andrew Stanton fumbling his way through a teleprompter, talking about how he and the writers loved the books when they were younger. Then they brought out stars Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe and Lynn Collins to talk about the film, and though Kitsch spoke passionattely about his enthusiasm for the project, Collins came off as a blank, and Dafoe was relegated to talking about how he did his part (as a motion captured nine foot tall, four-armed martian) on stilts. The first clip showed John Carter (Kitsch) during his first day on Mars, and his first experience with Dafoe’s Tars Tarkas as they try to understand each other. Perhaps the desert settings make it a little colder, but there was no sense of wonder there as a CGI creation and a guy in a desert who can jump really high try to communicate for the first time.

The second clip was probably the best as Carter is captured, put in a semi-prison and then meets a martain dog who wants to play with him. The dog has a large head and mouth and can run real fast. Again, the problem with the footage so far is that everything is a little too familiar. The dog looks like when the Dog in The Mask puts on the Mask.
In the third clip, Carter is with Dejah Thoris (Collins), and she gives him a magical trinket that has the power to transport him back to Earth. The two have a lovers argument as she wants him to stay and fight, and then at the end of the footage Dominic West shows up (and immediately made it seem like The Wire vs. Friday Night Lights) and Carter seems gone. The problem with this clip is that if this is a scene with the hero and the leading lady at ninety minute mark of the film, him leaving is not really dramatic, because he can’t. He’s the hero of the piece (hence the title).
The last clip had Carter and Tarkas in an arena facing off against a giant four armed ape. Yes, everyone in the auditorium started thinking “hey this is like Attack of the Clones” at the same time.
With the third clip having no great context, and the rest looking like familiar empty spectacle, the footage didn’t win over many converts. There was no hint at the pulp origins of the material, nor and it didn’t seem very propulsive – the model would seem to be Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with a dour hero, perhaps they’re going The Dark Knight/”moody” route. There might be a good movie in there, but when Stanton said that the teaser trailer suggested the tone of the film, well watch it and see if that gets you excited.

The Muppets

The Muppets brought out Jason Segel, Kermit and Miss Piggy to talk about the film. Though their antics were kept short (and Piggy arriving to “Born to be Wild” wasn’t a great joke), they showed two scenes from the film, and both were great. The first had Segel, along with a new muppet named Walter, and Amy Adams arriving at Kermit’s place, where Kermit has become a recluse. After running into an electric fence, Kermit takes them in, and in his house we meet Kermit’s stuck-in-the-80′s robot, who is designed a little like Wall*E, but also the robot in Rocky IV as it offers the guests the options of Tab or New Coke.
The second clip shows the Muppets cleaning up the Muppet theater in a musical number staged to Starship’s “We Built This City,” and they couldn’t have found a more winning sequence to highlight. The Swedish Chef, the Muppet band (Animal!) and many other regulars make an appearance as they clean in a montage of funny bits (the chickens dust with their rumps, old food gets blow-torched, etc.) If you love the muppets, it looks liek they got the tone right, irreverent, but childish.

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Oz: The Great and Powerful just started shooting in Detroit, but Sam Raimi gave a personal introduction via video, and a featurette played, with interviews with James Franco, Zach Braff and the film’s witches Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz. AS this is just going, the interviews with vacuous. Everyone followed the standard interview procedures of talking about how great it was, and right at the end there seemed to be a shot from the film – in black and white and 1.33:1 – that is meant to mimic the 1939 Wizard of Oz. The stills shown of the storyboards and conceptual art seemed familiar to the ’39 version, but of a greater (and CGI enhanced) scale. It also reminded a little of Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland. At this stage, it’s hard to know how it will turn out.

What of these films do you most want to see?

Friends with Benefits: Movie Review

Damon Houx — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:00:32 +0000

It seems the idea of relationship-free sex between two consenting and non-paying adults is too ripe a premise for just one movie. And Will Gluck’s Friends with Benefits hits theaters six months after Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher tried the exact same thing in No Strings Attached. But for Benefits, he’s assembled a dream team of actors, including Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, along with supporting players Richard Jenkins Patricia Clarkson and Woody Harrelson. No Strings set the bar low, can Friends with Benefits jump it? Alas, no…

The Players:

Director: Will Gluck
Screenplay: Keith Merryman (story and screenplay), David A. Newman (story and screenplay), Will Gluck (screenplay), Harley Peyton (story)
Actors: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Richard Jenkins, Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson, Jenna Elfman
Cinematography by: Michael Grady

The Plot:

Dylan (Timberlake) is a successful webmaster, Jamie (Kunis) is a successful headhunter. Jamie brings Dylan to New York to work for GQ magazine, and though he’s a west coaster, he accepts the job. Since she’s the only person he knows in New York, they become friends, and after hanging out and drinking, both talk about how their last relationships ended terribly, and how they’d just like someone to have sex with, but without the relationship. They enter an arrangement for this, but then feelings get in the way.

The Good

Chemistry: There is nothing worse than watching a film where the two leads are supposed to want to have sex, but have no connection or spark. Timberlake and Kunis have great banter, and you buy that they’re attracted to each other. That’s sadly something that is often lacking from romantic comedies, where people are often packaged more for their fame than their chemistry together.
Charm: Though Timberlake may be a less than exciting interview subject, he’s clearly got it. And Kunis has a great comic persona. She’s not ditzy, but she’s got some goofball in her, and she’s fun to hear get cranky.

The Bad

Maudlin: Timberlake’s father (Jenkins) has Alzheimer’s in the film, which the film doesn’t earn having. That sort of weight would sink the film if it didn’t already have problems. And (on a personal note) having lived through it, its usage offended me.
Jokes That Don’t Hit: The film opens with two break-up scenes with cameos by Andy Samberg and Emma Stone. You can see how many takes they went through to get there, but there’s a lot of throwing things at the wall and sometimes they don’t stick. It’s nice to see Woody Harrelson playing a gay guy who isn’t lisping, but his character is still close to one dimensional. the actor makes some of it work, but the cameo by non-actor Shaun White takes a one-note joke and then mercilessly pounds it into the ground. There’s also bits revolving around a flash mob – which the film has to painfully explain what they are – that remind of films from the 1990′s that used the internet as if no one involved had ever used a computer before.
Having Your Cake and Eating it Too: The movie mocks the conventions of the genre, but then uses some of the hoariest cliches of the genre, including the “overheard conversation that leads to a break up” and then the “you got to have righteous anger at me, so now I get to show how I’m just as hurt as you.” Though No Strings Attached is not a very good movie, you can see how it tried to avoid the obvious cliches. This goes full bore ahead with them, and – though Gluck would argue that it’s in a post-modern way – it seems silly to try and suggest that cliched romantic comedies are bad, and then being one.

Overall:

Star power is star power- Timberlake and Kunis have it, and for those who want to enjoy watching people they like for two hours, this fits that bill. But the film around them is not particularly good, even if there are moments here and there where you could see a good movie made out of this material.

Rating: 4.5/10

Gallery:

Trailer:

Friends with Benefits opens July 22.

Interview: Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis on Friends with Benefits

Damon Houx — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:00:56 +0000

Justin Timberlake might be new-ish to acting, but he is decidedly on point when it comes to what he wants to talk about. When he sat down to discuss Friends with Benefits with co-star Mila Kunis, he obviously had a clear idea what he wanted the movie to be when they made it. Kunis let Timberlake do the heavy lifting in the interview, but their chemistry was just as present off screen as it was on. Take a look…

What were your impressions of the script and what you could bring to it?

Mila Kunis: I was already semi-signed on to it with Will Gluck. The draft that I read was dated and PG-13.

Justin Timberlake: We shared that view.

MK: I read it and didn’t understand the purpose of this film. It was neither here, neither there. And they said “I think they’re going to do re-writes, so why don’t you meet with them” and so I met with Will on the Sony lot, and later that night we had dinner, just Will and myself, and we talked about what the plan for the script was, and I didn’t know they had plans to rewrite the script from the ground up and workshopping it, and making it R rated, and making it more of a comedy and less romantic. Since Sarah Marshall I didn’t want to do more romantic comedy, and that was all I was being sent – romantic comedies. I didn’t do them for a reason. The reason I wanted to do this was I was given an opportunity to have a voice and do what I thought was funny, and the way that I view comedies, and what I think is funny. So I was excited for that, and that’s what I signed on for.

From what we’ve heard there was a lot of spontaneous creation that was taking place during this film. How did the two of you respond and collaborate with Will?

JT: Just to back up a little bit, the premise for this movie – though we both felt it needed to be reworked, it felt generational. We wanted to come from a place of seeing it as an opportunity to start from scratch, and make situation humor out of the idea for this movie, and relate it to our generation. Cut to us starting to work on the film, and we started workshopping the movie, and when we both signed on we had a longer amount of time to play. We wanted to shoot in New York in the heart in the summer, because both New York and Los Angeles are big characters in the movie, and for both of our characters to come for the opposite sides of the country and having that as something between us – figuratively. There were a lot of opportunities to workshop this, and find out what your point of view – as a person – about this situation. And literally that’s where the best comedy comes from: an honest place. That’s when we could take those ideas and make them real and awkward – and funny. So that’s how it got started. When you have that much time to work together, and it is a true two-hander, the two of us creating all of that. So we bonded over that. And it had a lot to do with how we were on set, because we already had a rhythm for these characters, and how they banter back and forth and improv on top that- there’s a lot of improve in the movie, but it’s the icing on the cake. But having that layer underneath and finding what you found funny, because the bedrooms scenes were unique in the sense that you get to have – during the act- an actual conversation that is still witty but also the audience can feel more comfortable. Because everyone’s been in those situations, but no one talks about them. To see a couple – who aren’t a couple – talking about them as they’re happening? It made for a lot of good situation humor.

It’s also interesting to see you have two funny sex scenes in a month of each other.

JT: Well, the first one in Bad Teacher wasn’t really a sex scene, technically. That’s just a good jean jam. It should be celebrated.

Were you surprised how frank the sex talk was without trying to be funny? Just trying to capture the kinds of moments we’ve all had?

JT: We weren’t surprised by it because we created it. The movie was originally PG-13, and we bargained hard to get an R rating to make it feel more real, so we wouldn’t have to feel we were doing the cutest version of a sex scene, we could make it funny for both of us. Between Will, Mila and myself we trusted that we had a good like-minded sense of where we wanted to go, and if the envelope got pushed it’s because the three of us were just all laughing, and that felt like the proof that was in the pudding. That we were moving in a direction that felt fresh and true.

Was the studio comfortable with that?

JT: They were. Surprisingly.

Do you think this sort of relationship can work in real life?

JT: Man, that’s the first time we’ve ever gotten that question.

MK: Good question. Yeah, wow.

JT: We have a good answer. We think if you’re honest and safe, then rock out with your…

MK: Pee-pee

JT: With your personality out, because I don’t think that it’s a long term thing

MK: It’s not a long term thing.

JT: But, either you get promoted,

MK: Or you get fired.

But that’s all relationships.

JT: Exactly. One of my favorite movies in this genre is When Harry Met Sally, and we were just trying to, like they were commenting on part of their generation and how their generation dealt with sex and love, we wanted to have an honest banter between a man and a woman coming into their own as adults, and what was cliché about love and sex and relationships for this generation.

You’ve been in this business for a very long time, and you’ve had a lot of control. You must have been offered a lot of scripts like this, did you have to have control to make that step? You might be a control freak.

JT: You might be on to something by saying that. OCD. I honestly never saw myself doing a romantic comedy, so it wasn’t about having control – it was about expressing it right to my generation. That felt like something I could make more of a creative investment in for sure. But I wouldn’t be honest if I said that wasn’t a conscious decision to not take more. That’s a bigger thing. I have this thing coming from a small town in the south that presumption is unacceptable. So I already had this concern of having people accept me as an actor as well, so I was very conscious of jumping in and doing something because I could do it. I think that’s fairly obvious, in a decade I’ve only put out two albums. When I could have put out six.

But they’re still being played on Friday night.

JT: Thanks, but I don’t still listen to them. I think Mila would say the same thing, I think we want to do something that’s inspiring to us. I feel like we both think we’re lucky to have the opportunities that we’re having. You don’t do them because you can, so everything we do comes from a place of sincerity.

MK: No one wants to be gluttonous, and you get to a place where you feel deserving of everything you can lose sight of what it is what you wanted in the first place.

And credibility as well.

MK: Exactly.

JT: I’ve met her parents, I think we both grew up with awesome parents who taught us to never have a lack of self-awareness, and lose our ability to see ourselves as people who get to do something extraordinary, but that we’re not extraordinary people. So when you have that as a base from where you’re coming from, you don’t want to squander that. I enjoy creating. And if you can do it in a cool way, do it. You can’t worry about disappointing people or what their expectations might be. Cut to this movie, and having it pitched to you as “you can do it your way, and we’re going to trust your point of view.”

I love Woody Harrelson’s character because he’s gay but he doesn’t play the stereotype. Was he in the original script?

JT: That character was not originally in the script, and it’s something that was really important to all of us. When we had the Woody character, we wanted to break ridiculous stereotypes about sexual preference.

MK: And about the relationship between a straight man and a gay man.

JT: I have a lot of straight and gay friends. And I get along with them the same way, and I wanted that to come from an honest place of men who have a different sexual preference than I do. And we both saw it as a great opportunity to break a stereotype. They could both be self-effacing to each other. That’s what true friends do. It’s like they say “you only pick on the people you like” and I like our relationship in the movie, and that we break the stereotypes.

Mila, you said you didn’t want to do a romantic comedy until this film, do you think this points the way forward for a tired genre?

MK: Yes and no. I looked at it as a two-hander, I didn’t look at it as a romantic comedy. It was funny, but it had romance in it, and that’s what made me feel more interested about doing it because you don’t see those movies very often. I mean, not to discredit the actors, but there’s so many, many movies where boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, they break up, the get back together, the end, and there’s not much substance. And it’s not to say that our story’s different, but I think the way they went about it to get from point A to point Z was a little more creative. I never wanted to play a victim, and I never wanted to play a girl who needed the guy.

JT: A good tool to make something fresh is to stop, look around and comment about ridiculous about our generation. Like the falsification of romantic comedies and the impact it’s had on women’s points of view and why men might think they might be ridiculous. There’s a comment where I say “why do women think they have to manipulate men to get what they want? And she says “personal experience. Romantic comedies.” To comment on it, for my reaction to be: that’s a ridiculous thing, to be able to comment empowers the movie. I hope that anyone who happens to be gay feels empowered by Woody’s character. When you can do that and make people laugh, if it falls under the genre of romantic comedy, whatever.

Friends with Benefits opens July 22

Trailer Mashup of No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits

Laura Aguirre — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:44:33 +0000

Natalie Portman followed her beautiful Oscar winning performance in Black Swan with the casual Emma in No String Attached. The Ivan Reitman film was a financial success, but didn’t get much love from the critics. In a few weeks, Portman’s costar Mila Kunis is following her work in Black Swan with a Will Gluck romantic comedy titled Friends with Benefits. When the Benefits’ trailer hit the web, we had Deja Vu, but Blind Film Critic went the extra mile and created a trailer mashup to show audiences that Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached are the same film, just made by different studios.

Films always seem to step on each others toes, especially romantic comedies, with their corny lines and obvious endings. That’s why when we received note that there was a trailer out there, pointing out the similarities between two 2011 films, we had to check it out.

In January, Paramount Pictures released No Strings Attached about two friends (Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman) who try to keep their relationship strictly physical, but end up falling for each other. On July 22, 2011, Screen Gems will be releasing, Friends with Benefits, a story about two friends (Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis) who realize their sex-only relationship leads to complications.

The mashup trailer points out similarities in plot, concept, characters, jokes and even camera angles. It’s pretty hilarious, but also very sad. It seems like creatives are running out of ways to tell a good, original boy-meets-girl story. Check out the video below…

What do you think?

Mila Kunis and Darren Aronofksy Defend Natalie Portman’s Dancing Abilities

Damon Houx — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:06:52 +0000

Natalie Portman‘s stunt double has suggested that she did much of the dancing in Black Swan, and the non-controversy has been making the gossip rounds – leading to another double to suggest it was her backside in Your Highness. That was mostly debunked, and now Mila Kunis and Darren Aronofsky have stood up to defend Portman and her dance moves. Aronofsky sent out a press release, while Kunis talked to Entertainment Weekly and gave the money quote: “Natalie danced her a** off.”

Aronofsky and his editor counted the dance shots, and Aronofsky said that 80% were Portman, with 90% of the screen time of the dancing featuring Portman. Kunis talks about the safety net of having a double, and notes that no one involved with the film was suggesting that Portman did it all.

This story has gained some traction because it’s gossip – as I said before – and there are surely people who want to poo-poo Portman. Perhaps this is reasonable ammunition, but as Brian De Palma once said “The camera lies 24 frames a second” (which is a rebuttal of an old Jean-Luc Godard quote “The camera is truth at 24 frames per second”). Ultimately both De Palma and Godard are right. Cinema creates its own truth, but everything in it is manufactured to be there. If Portman created a believable reality to her dancing and audiences were fooled that it was all her, then that’s the art of cinema.

We may yet hear more, but with so many involved with the film throwing their support- overwhelmingly – to their leading lady the story should go away.

Do you find knowing about arguments like this distracting when watching a movie?

Mila Kunis Signs up to go to Oz

Damon Houx — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:04:51 +0000

Sam Raimi‘s Oz, The Great and Powerful is casting up and Mila Kunis has now signed on, according to Variety. She’ll be joining James Franco, who’s starring as the titular wizard. The film is a prequel to the classic L. Frank Baum novel and film The Wizard of Oz, and Kunis will play Theodora, a young witch who’s rebuffed by Oz and turns wicked. The film is at Walt Disney studios, and currently has no release date.

Having gone through a long run in television with “That 70′s Show”, Kunis has now blossomed into a credible leading lady. She pulled romantic comedy leading lady duties in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and in the upcoming Friends with Benefits, and showed that she was game for anything in Black Swan. She’s been a strong on-screen presence, and is now one of the top choices for roles in her age range.

That said, making a prequel to The Wizard of Oz is – on paper – such a terrible idea. The 1939 film works because the land of Oz is pure fantasy, and turning it into a real place seems to squander what made the work so special. Then again, it’s not as if Baum himself didn’t sequelize the material.

Between Raimi, Franco and Kunis this is a project with a lot of talent, and if it crafts its own world it could be exciting to see them play with witches and magic. Franco and Kunis were recently paired in the film Date Night.

Will you be off to see the Wizard?

Friends with Benefits Trailer Gives Off Deja Vu Vibes

Damon Houx — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:40:59 +0000

It’s the obvious joke, but it’s true: watching the Friends with Benefits trailer, it’s hard not to be reminded that A) Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis starred in Black Swan, and B) Natalie Portman appeared in the very similar movie No Strings Attached. It makes you wonder what their discussions were like on the set of Black Swan about their next films. No Strings Attached came out in January, where the Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis version is due this summer on July 22. Take a look at the trailer.

Thanks to Digital Spy for the trailer. This trailer makes the film look funnier than No Strings, which was a misfire. Perhaps that’s because this one’s directed by Will Gluck, who charmed last year with Easy A (and the trailer shows Emma Stone making a cameo for her previous director). It’s also got a more confident release date, and sells the comedy stronger than the premise.

The trailer features a strong supporting cast (then again, so did No Strings), with Woody Harrelson, Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman and Andy Samberg featured. The film also stars Rashida Jones and Richard Jenkins.

Also of note: between this and Bad Teacher, Justin Timberlake is now committed to his acting career. Having made a strong impression on “Saturday Night Live” and in The Social Network, Timberlake has been acting for a while now, but it seems he’s gunning to be a leading man status. This will be the film to prove if people will turn out for Timberlake, actor – where before Network his previous roles came off as more stunt casting.

Do you buy Justin Timberlake as a leading man?

Giovanni Ribisi Joins Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis in Ted

Krystal Clark — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:41:43 +0000

The cast for Seth MacFarlane’s Ted just got a little bigger. The comedy’s roster features Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Adam Scott, and now according to Variety, Giovanni Ribisi has just joined the cast. The movie will mark MacFarlane’s directorial debut for the big screen. He’s best known for his work on Fox’s “Family Guy,” “The Cleveland Show,” and “American Dad.”

Ted centers on a a grown man (Wahlberg) whose childhood wish was for his cherished teddy bear to come to life. As a result of his desperation and faith, it eventually does but it turns into a pot-smoking, swearing nightmare. The bear will be CG-generated and voiced by MacFarlane himself.

Ribisi will play a man named Donny, who’s obsessed with Ted. We don’t know why he’s obsessed with him. Maybe it’s because he’s a bear, who can talk, and smokes weed? We would personally be afraid of such a thing but this is a movie.

Not only will MacFarlane direct and star in Ted, but he also co-wrote the screenplay with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild. Is there anything that man can’t do?

What do you think of the cast and premise of Ted? Are you interested in seeing the film?

Mila Kunis to Play Wicked Witch of the West in Oz, The Great and Powerful

Krystal Clark — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:14:40 +0000

Robert Downey Jr. may have jumped ship on Sam Raimi’s Oz, The Great and Powerful but Mila Kunis is just getting on board. The Black Swan star was slated to appear in Warner Bros live action Akira adaptation but she’s opted to tackle Oz instead. The actress will join forces with James Franco who’s set to play the title character.

Kunis will star as Theodorah, “the younger sister of Evanorah who goes on to become the Wicked Witch of the West.” Sources claim that Franco solidified his role in the film once he discovered that Kunis was up for the part. He along with the director and producers thought she would be perfect person to play the character.

In case you’re wondering who Kunis was set to play in Akira it was Kei, the gorgeous young revolutionary with whom Kaneda becomes enamored on his quest to find his disappeared best friend.

The story of Oz the Great and Powerful shows the wizard as a charlatan who’s part of a traveling circus but goes on a similar odyssey as Dorothy when he mysteriously lands in Oz. He’s a ring master who gets swept up in a tornado and lands in the mysterious world where he gets mistaken for a know-it-al

What do you think of Kunis and Franco joining forces for Akira?

Source: Vulture

James Franco, Anne Hathaway, Ryan Reynolds Cover Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue

Krystal Clark — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 01:30:04 +0000

It’s that time of the year again, Vanity Fair is about to release their annual Hollywood issue. We have to admit, this year’s stars are a lot more interesting and diverse than the group from 2010. It features everyone from Ryan Reynolds to Noomi Rapace. The majority of the three-tier cover models include young Hollywood favorites and one legend who managed to sneak in between the pages. Find out who below…

In order of appearance, the cover features: Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, James Franco, Jennifer Lawrence, Anthony Mackie, Olivia Wilde, Jesse Eisenberg, Mila Kunis, Robert Duvall, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Andrew Garfield, Rashida Jones, Garrett Hedlund and Noomi Rapace.

Somehow they convinced the talented Robert Duvall to sit in the background while these young, whipper snappers grab all the attention. We’re not sure how that happened but it did. Another important question to ask is, where is Tom Hardy? What about Ryan Gosling? And why is Joseph Gordon Levitt just now making an appearance?

There are so many questions and not enough answers. Who do you think has been omitted from this prestigious group?

What do you think of the 2011 Hollywood Issue cover?

Black Swan: Movie Review

JC — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:30:16 +0000

After taking The Venice Film Festival by storm earlier this year (where we first reviewed it) Darren Aronofsky‘s highly anticipated masterpiece, Black Swan, is poised to dominate awards season. The psychological thriller set in the seemingly elegant world of the New York City Ballet stars an Oscar hungry Natalie Portman in a career defining performance. The film also stars Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel and opens nationwide this Friday.

Check out the review below…

The Players:

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writers: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin
Producers: Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian Oliver
Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder

The Plot:

Black Swan follows Nina (Portman), a featured ballerina at the New York City Ballet, whose life is utterly consumed with dance. When the company’s artistic director, Leroy (Cassel), announces that he’ll be replacing prima ballerina Beth Macintyre (Ryder) for their production of Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. However, Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan (with innocence) and the Black Swan (with cunning and sensuality). Nina fits the White Swan perfectly, but newly signed dancer Lily (Kunis) is more suited for the Black Swan. A rivalry commences and Nina, desperate to keep her spot, recklessly checks in with her dark side.

The Good:

Reality: Ballet is perceived by most as a graceful activity for delicate, feminine creatures hungry to prance around in pink. Aronofsky takes the liberty of shaking those girlish delusions. Black Swan exposes the world of ballet in an unmercifully honest and realistic light: a world of battered self-image, incessant self-deprecation, and unrelenting criticism from directors and fellow company members. Words like “chorus” and “ensemble” that generally indicate a collaborative environment couldn’t be more misleading. These girls are trading high-fives for sinister smiles of artificial support. Two words: cut throat.
Nina/Portman: Nina is introduced as your quintessential obsessive-compulsive ballerina. Her every mood is contingent on her daily performance and her self-worth is measured solely by her director’s evaluation of her work. While most of her peers struggle with the same set of standards, Nina, too unstable to weather the pressure, develops severe paranoia, anxiety, delusions, etc. Her psychosis evolves on a perfectly paced incline that really affords the audience an unusually intimate passenger seat on her dark journey. The character itself is beautifully written and Ms. Portman’s aptitude for tackling emotional depth makes her an excellent fit. There’s no doubt that she’ll receive a nomination this February.
Aronofsky: The man rarely fails to please. Aronofsky spent nearly a decade developing this deeply complex story, and his directorial maneuvers are just as eerie and intense as the story itself. His aesthetic choices, in particular, are exceptional.
Thriller: The story is set in an unlikely venue for a thriller. The juxtaposition of what ballet represents to the outside world and the disturbed reality of Nina’s condition makes for a seriously intriguing situation.
Swan Lake: There are multiple themes in Black Swan, the most notable one being the battle of innocence and evil – aka, the theme of “Swan Lake.” Nina grows to mentally inhabit the role she’s playing – the conflicts in “Swan Lake” become her own. By the end of the film the boundaries of reality vs. “play” are totally skewed for both Nina and the audience.

The Bad:

Dramatic: Despite that fact that Nina’s condition is clearly a dramatic one, there are moments that arguably appear overly dramatized. I’d like to think the sheer excellence of the picture on the whole overshadows this, though the audience in my screening had mixed reactions. Half of the room was laughing hysterically because the sequences seemed so outrageous and the other half was shaking with discomfort because they seemed so intense. You decide.

Overall:

I’m clearly a supporter of this film. Thanks to the fair share of both commercial and indie appeal the film should garner solid numbers at the box office. Go see it.

Rating: 9/10

Black Swan hits theaters December 3rd!

Trailer:

Photo Gallery:

Black Swan Music Video Features Awesome Beats

Krystal Clark — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:33:49 +0000

Darren Aronofsky’s latest film Black Swan is scheduled to hit theaters on December 3, and instead of promoting it with another trailer, Fox Searchlight has released a music video. It appears on iTunes, and features music from the film’s soundtrack that has a techno/electronica type of vibe. It’s not what you’d expect from a thriller about ballet. Take a look…

Black Swan centers on a New York ballerina who’s battling for a spot in Swan Lake. The part requires her to encompass both the good and the bad versions of the main character a quality that Nina (Natalie Portman) is having a hard time pulling off. Enter Lilly (Mila Kunis), another dancer who’s her rival and the personification of everything the “black swan” needs to be. As Nina tries to relate and get in touch with her dark side, she delves deeper and deeper into something that goes beyond ballet — something supernatural.

I’m not sure if this makes me want to see the film, but I do have the urge to break open some glow sticks and hit the dance floor. There’s a nice contrast between the classical music that appears in the ballet sequences and the fast beats in the nightclub scenes that feature Nina and Lily cutting loose.

Black Swan features music from Clint Mansell, The Chemical Brothers, Al Tourettes, Jakes, Kavsrave, Pete Min, and Sepalcure featuring Angelica Best.

What do you think of the music video for Black Swan?

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