I've decided to step away from my usual wordy style for this review of Black Swan. Instead, I'm going to break it down into bite-sized morsels for you, the person deciding whether or not to see Black Swan.
What's it about?
A ballet dancer with a monster stage mom finally gets her big chance to dance the lead in her company's production of Swan Lake. She struggles to cope with the nuances the role requires and with the rising star of a rival dancer. Sometimes, she hallucinates.
Should I see it?
Do you like any of the following: Darren Aronofsky, stalking Natalie Portman, or Mulholland Drive?
Then, yes, definitely.
Are you a fan of dark indie movies? Do you like being in the know about the various movies that will be nominated come awards "season"?
Yes, probably.
Are you just interested because you heard about that, ahem, specific scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis?
Maybe just check that part out on youtube or something.
Are you at all squeamish?
Emphatically, skip it!
Are you my parents?
How about a nice viewing of Tangled?
Anything else I should know?
- A fun game to play during the movie is deciding whether Natalie Portman is actually a good actress or if she is just playing the cuckoo bird version of what she normally plays. Either way, you'll enjoy the performance if you've always thought she was talented or if you're usually annoyed by her. I think she and Aronofsky are playing up her image to make everything that happens that much creepier. Enjoy the somewhat tongue-in-cheek casting of the fading star she's replacing in the ballet.
- Hey, Mila Kunis is totally talented! Who knew she was going to have a career after That 70s Show? Speaking of, Topher Grace appears to have made a new movie, but it's set in the 80s. Some day, that poor man will catch up to the present day.
- I'm not much of a ballet fan, so it's hard for me to say whether the actual dancing that occurs makes this worth it as a ballet movie. I'm just going to assume this is exactly what happens every time a new ballet star gets her big break.
- Darren Aronofsky is an amazing director, but I did think this one occasionally crossed the line from disturbing to campy. I'm a firm believer in the concept that never seeing the scary thing is much scarier than actually seeing it.
- Seriously, this movie is very gross. There are moments that will make you wince. These moments will then play on repeat for you when you try to sleep.
- If you go into this movie expecting it to be weird, as I did, it will still turn out to be weirder than you were expecting.
I still feel conflicted. Are you glad you saw it?
Absolutely, yes. It's riveting. You might look away for those gross parts, but the movie will grab your attention from start to finish.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
On fandom and children's books
In my last entry, I said I hoped that it would be the first and last time I wrote about reality programming because I dislike it so much. Conversely, I love today's topic so much that I'm going to have to refrain from writing about it more often. One does not have a brief conversation about Harry Potter with the Media Reader. Sure, I can restrain myself, but should whoever I'm talking to demonstrate even the most cursory knowledge of the books, I'm off to the races. Get ready for some intensely nerdy discussions of wandlore, friend!
The strange thing? I've never understood the overwhelming appeal of the books. They're well within the realm of what I would ordinarily be interested in reading. What is it about them that draws in millions and millions of people, who would not, unlike certain bloggers, have read an embarrassing number of books with swords on the front cover?
Yes, it's well-written, the characters are fun to know, and J.K. Rowling does a great job of developing her whole epic tale of good versus evil across all seven books. But how many other books, movies, TV shows, etc are of equally good, if not better, quality?
My theory? I think I (and many of these other readers) like the books so much in part because they're so popular. I don't mean in the sense that we all want to look cool and like the trendy thing (sadly, I don't think books are going to become the tiny dogs of the future and we'll all want to be spotted with them). I mean because we all, secretly, want to geek out to a massive degree together. How often have you started talking about something you really liked, only to realize midway through the conversation that the person you are talking to is politely amused by how much you know about the topic? And more rarely, how happy are you when the person you're talking to knows exactly what you're talking about?
Usually, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other if hordes of other people have read a book I like. It's always nice to have someone else to talk to about a book, but it's not like the book is running for governor of Massachusetts and I'm concerned that if not enough people like the book, we'll get stuck with some lame Republican book. Thank goodness.
With Harry Potter, this is different. Finding another Harry fan is always fun. And for the movies? It's like going to a stadium concert. The spectacle and the crowd are just as important as the actual music. Normally I could get all caught up about the terrible acting and bad writing, but for Harry Potter movies, I just turn the critic off. There's something approaching magical about sitting in a sold out movie theater, having waited and waited for the movie, and then hearing that telltale music start.
It's why it's more fun to watch your favorite baseball team with other fans. You may not have been one of the millions of people (entire Media Reader family included) who went to see the seventh Harry Potter movie recently, but I bet you can think of some other experience in your life when you were just happy to be around other fans. There will always be something special about being nerds together, whether it's Harry Potter nerds, Red Sox nerds, or vegan baking nerds.
The strange thing? I've never understood the overwhelming appeal of the books. They're well within the realm of what I would ordinarily be interested in reading. What is it about them that draws in millions and millions of people, who would not, unlike certain bloggers, have read an embarrassing number of books with swords on the front cover?
Yes, it's well-written, the characters are fun to know, and J.K. Rowling does a great job of developing her whole epic tale of good versus evil across all seven books. But how many other books, movies, TV shows, etc are of equally good, if not better, quality?
My theory? I think I (and many of these other readers) like the books so much in part because they're so popular. I don't mean in the sense that we all want to look cool and like the trendy thing (sadly, I don't think books are going to become the tiny dogs of the future and we'll all want to be spotted with them). I mean because we all, secretly, want to geek out to a massive degree together. How often have you started talking about something you really liked, only to realize midway through the conversation that the person you are talking to is politely amused by how much you know about the topic? And more rarely, how happy are you when the person you're talking to knows exactly what you're talking about?
Usually, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other if hordes of other people have read a book I like. It's always nice to have someone else to talk to about a book, but it's not like the book is running for governor of Massachusetts and I'm concerned that if not enough people like the book, we'll get stuck with some lame Republican book. Thank goodness.
With Harry Potter, this is different. Finding another Harry fan is always fun. And for the movies? It's like going to a stadium concert. The spectacle and the crowd are just as important as the actual music. Normally I could get all caught up about the terrible acting and bad writing, but for Harry Potter movies, I just turn the critic off. There's something approaching magical about sitting in a sold out movie theater, having waited and waited for the movie, and then hearing that telltale music start.
It's why it's more fun to watch your favorite baseball team with other fans. You may not have been one of the millions of people (entire Media Reader family included) who went to see the seventh Harry Potter movie recently, but I bet you can think of some other experience in your life when you were just happy to be around other fans. There will always be something special about being nerds together, whether it's Harry Potter nerds, Red Sox nerds, or vegan baking nerds.
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