Black Swan

As a film critic, I find it much more difficult to right a review praising a film than a disapproving one. The dictionary definition of a critic: a person who often finds fault and criticizes. I suppose I know more adjectives that define imperfect than perfect. But I cannot use those imperfect words because this film was the exact opposite, it was perfect.
You could vaguely describe it as beautiful. That is not doing any justice to this stunningly intricate film. Natalie Portman is intriguing in her performance as Nina, who is obsessed with perfecting her ballet performance as Odette in 'Swan Lake'. She is beginning to find confidence, but that is shattered when a free-spirited dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), steels the attention. Nina slowly breaks down, becoming more like the black swan, Odette's evil sister, Odil. Now Nina wants her 'turn'...
David Aronofsky is simply an ingenious artist. The camera angles, the eerie music, the persistent symbolism. Nina's emphasized breath gives the film a haunting element, and yours eventually becomes as heavy as hers. I eventually realized, that when the film had ended, my mouth was wide open. I did not move the entire film, and all of the credits (with my mouth still open). Go to this film, and you will witness art. Images you will never forget.

I Love You, Phillip Morris - Trailer

Skeletons - Trailer

Rushmore

As you know, or do not know (depending if you have read my blog before), I am in love with the director, Wes Anderson (his movies, that is). Rushmore is just another to add to that wonderful list.
Rushmore, filmed in Houston, Texas (yeah!), is the story of a fifteen-year-old high school student named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman). He is an exeptionally smart playwrite and lives for the private school, Rushmore, that he attends. He is pretty much in charge of every club and extracurricular activity created in the school. But he finds himself spending to much time involved in hobbies and not enough time involved with acedemics, causing him to fail. This is the last straw, he is sentenced to 'acedemic probation'. Devistated, he has to endure public school. But he spends many days visiting Rushmore, uninvited.
He meets a young elementary school teacher, Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). And guess what, he falls in love. He also developes a close friendship with Herman Blume (Bill Murray), a business man who's two jerk sons attend Rushmore. He also finds himself becoming attracted to Miss Cross. The whole thing becomes an oddly entertaining, and heartwarming/breaking love triangle.
Of course, I have never had the grave experience of watching a bad Wes Anderson film. I think it is impossible that he could even dream of making a flop. So I guess that is all I have to say, since you have probably already guess that I would highly recomend this movie.

The New Tenants - Trailer

The New Tenants trailer from Det Danske Filminstitut on Vimeo.

Youth in Revolt

An original, unusual take on a teenage romance. It it cute, funny, poetic, dramatic, sharp, and weird at times. It is catagorized as a comedy, but I find it more of a dramatic romance.
Directed by Miguel Arteta, Nick Twist (Michael Cera), is a mama's boy, high school nerd, and virgin. He doesn't have any experience with relationships. He longs to escape from home, his mom (Jean Smart) I am sorry to say, is kind of a slut. She divorced his father, George (Steve Buscemi), and is now dating a gross hick, who has developed a rivalry with Nick.
On a trip to his mom's boyfriend's trailor, he meets a girl, Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), walking in the trailor park. He falls in love. The problem is she has a boyfriend (of course). He comes up with a plan to elope with her. She just doesn't want to date a goody-two-shoes.
So he devolpes a "bad-ass" alter-ego, named Francois Dillinger. And when he doesn't know what to do, he uses Francois as a sort of guide and mentor.
I think the ending was my favorite part of the movie. It was not quite what you expected, but at the same time it was. It is bitter-sweet, but I would say more sweet than bitter! :)

The Hurt Locker

Wow! This film is amazing! Everything about it is amazing! The cinematography, acting, art direction, and directing! You truly feel like you are there, standing in front of a bomb about to explode! It gets your heart racing!
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, this movie is a bit of everything. Sergeant First Class William James (played by the talented Jeremy Renner) is addicted to war. As the leader of an Army bomb squad, he will put everything below the addrenaline rush. Even if it means endangering his team, Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldiridge (Brian Geraghty). They struggle with their emotions as they are on a journey where every one is a potential enemy.
It fully deserved the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. Like I said before, amazing!

Lars and the Real Girl

A heartbreakingly, heartwarming journey that bends your definition of real love.
This story, directed by Craig Gillespie, follows a sweet-natured, socially isolated man, named Lars (Ryan Gosling), who finds love in a life-size sex doll, named Bianca. He is completely content, in a delusional way, with his plastic lover. But finds he is delveloping feelings for a co-worker Margo.
This is a sweet, not to mention unique, story about discovering the limits of true love, and what is held back. You find yourself knowing what these characters are feeling, no matter how weird their relationships become, thanks to the quirky, well-written script by Nancy Oliver.
Although odd, this is a movie about love, yes real love.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Classic Wes Anderson, people! The signature comedy, the one color theme (in this case orange, red, and gold), the long pauses, the lasting close-ups. You are aware of the clearcut personalities of the characters, almost imediatly. Sure some of the pauses are little too long, but somehow that makes it more unique, more appealing...to me at least.
A whole world is created by the detailed animation and recognizable characatures.
Cocky, handsome [Fantastic] Mr. Fox (voiced by the smooth, George Clooney) is nearing the end of his salad days. He has a family to look after and care for. His son, Ash (voiced by the awkward, Jason Schwartzman), is desperate to impress his father. But his father seems to be focused more on Kristofferson (voiced by Eric Chase Anderson), a cousin who has come to stay with them. It seems that Mr. Fox has replaced Kristofferson as his son. Mrs. Fox (voiced by the always original, Meryl Streep) is a sweet, dedicated housewife, who is worried for her husband's safety.
Mr. Fox longs to be the daring guy he used to be. But he, and his whole family, end up in trouble when he starts to get back into his old habits.
Anderson's comedy may be a little mature for children, although silly sometimes. And the plot may also be a little too slow and complicated for them. My 7 year old sister was not that impressed. I did enjoy watching it with my family.

The Brothers Bloom

Have you ever watched a movie, there is good acting, good cinematography, good directing, a good score, and a good script, but there were so many twists you were just ready for it to end. That is what is wrong with this movie.
Directed and written by Rian Johnson, The Brothers Bloom is about two brothers that become con-men. The younger brother, Bloom (Adrian Brody), is longing for a real life, an "unwritten" one. The older brother, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo), is still obsessed with the thrill of the con. With their "sidekick" (in a sense), Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), they devise the most radical and imaginative cons, all written by Stephen, and pull them off, or possibly smooth talk their way out of it! But when the try to rip-off Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a lonely, single, heiress from New Jersey, it does not quite go as planed.
The problem is the brothers (and the writing) con you, and the audience, too much. The first two twists are intriguing and unexpected, but when you get to the 3rd (at the least), it sort of loses its thrill. Not that the movie was not good and fun to watch. It has a bit of everything, adventure/action/romance/comedy/drama, ect.
Adrien Brody gives a wonderful performance, and so does Mark Ruffalo. Like always Robbie Coltrane (The Curator), does a fantastic job. Rinko Kikuchi, whom I had never heard of before this film, is amazing, and I hope to see more of her in American, or British, movies! Rachel Weisz on the other hand...I do not like as much. Her character is a big part of the movie and she did not really seem to capture it well. I can see how it would be a hard role to play, an eccentric, lonely, hopeful, heiress, longing for adventure. But it just does not work, it seems like she is pushing too hard. Not to generalize, but I have never really liked her movies, or acting.
Yes, I would recommend this movie. Although you may get exhausted at times, its fun.

And personally I think Adrien Brody is handsome, although everyone seems to disagree. I guess I have a thing for tall, thin, jewish looking guys. Oh well, just felt like mentioning that.

Paper Heart

A corky documentary, directed by Nicholas Jasenovec, about love. I wonder why nobody has thought of this before. Love is usually thought of as either simple or overly complicated. It is certainly stereotyped, but this film dives deep into the concept of the word...love.
Charlyne Yi, comedian and actress, does not believe in love. She decides to go on a journey to figure out if love is real or not. On her journey she meets Michael Cera (from Juno). Ironically, they make an instant connection, and as the movie progresses, they fall in love. But Charlyne refuses to except this.
Their relationship seems real, but I could not quite figure out if it was part of the plot of the movie, or just a coincidence, they would be a good couple though.
Personally, I did not like Charlyne. I thought that she was to immature, so much so that she seemed like a 12 year old. She was too quiet, now if she was shy that would be a different story, but she just did not follow through when she spoke and did not make it clear why she was even speaking. But I am certain that she would be lovable to a lot of people.
The best scenes in the film were little puppet shows, which acted out moments when the couples being interviewed truly fell in love.
This was not the best documentary I have seen, but it did change my perspective on love.

*I would recommend this film.

Garden State

A journey of broken relationships. Life, love, want, drugs, and blame. Written and directed by Zach Braff, this film is about growing up. Zach Braff plays Andrew who is a wannabe actor still trying to figure out what to do with his life. He has absolutely no connection to anyone, he is numb. Natalie Portman plays Samantha (Sam) who is an original, outgoing liar with epilepsy.
Andrew ends up back in his hometown, which he has been trying to avoid, due to his mothers death. He runs in to some old high school "friends" and he briefly relives his high school years. Samantha and Andrew run into each other in a neurological clinic and...she opens his eyes.
All of them slowly become a dysfunctional family. They all want something in their lives to be fixed for them, but they realizes that they have to fix it themselves.
It is hard for me to write movie reviews for these types of films. I get so caught up in the thought of the movie, how I can relate to it. I think we all have something in out lives that is dysfunctional, that we want to be fixed, but eventually we are going to have to fix it ourselves.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This film is a glimpse inside the imagination of a middle aged man, played by Mathieu Amalric, who has had a stroke. A look at his reality. The film is directed, by Julian Schnabel, and written, by Ronald Harwood, as a steady stream of conciseness and images, therefor I am going to write this movie review as an ongoing thought. This is not going to be edited*, for the reason I just explained.

Images, beautiful images, drifting in and out of life, of reality...his reality, humor and grief, sadness, disappointment, through the known and unknown, dreams and nightmares, life and death, the life he didn't want- doesn't want, memories, human, inhuman, alienation, humiliation, longing, peace, disgrace, beauty, understanding, misunderstanding, distraction, denial, unwilling, constant, fear, love, acceptance, sympathy, existence, nothing and everything, home, thought, departure, lose, process, something more, split, passage, release, resurrection, darkness, light, journey...

His reality.

*spelling was edited
**based on a true story