Black Swan

I've been away from my site for about 5 months now and without going into detail about why, needless to say, I'm back! What a great 2010 Summer it's been for films, and with it all closing into the new year we are also having one hell of an award season. With films like Inception, Toy Story 3, The Social Network, 127 Hours, Winters Bone, The Town, The Fighter, and Black Swan, I have been very busy at the theater in the past few months. Still on the way this year we have True Grit, Tron: Legacy, and my most anticipated film of the year....Blue Valentine. I'm going to start my return to this site with my review of Black Swan which I saw earlier today.

I was expecting nothing short of being entertained to the fullest while walking into the theater with the digital marque above reading Black Swan. I was so excited as I walked to my seat. I was heading into the ring to face one of the most talented people in the biz....Darren Aronofsky. Not only does this guy have a rep for beating the shit out of his actors and bringing the best out of them, he also tends to have the same effect on his audience. So instead of putting up a fight I just sat back, relaxed, and took a beating. It was great.

The film stars Natalie Portman as Nina, an obsessive ballet dancer who just scored the lead role in the production of Swan Lake. As she struggles to prepare for the role physically and mentally she comes to realize that it's much harder than she thought. The exceptional supporting cast includes Mila Kunis as Lily, the extraordinary Barbara Hershey as Nina's mother Erica, Winona Ryder as Beth, and Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy the director of Swan Lake. Every performance is great in this film but the one who really shines is Portman. As I watched her battle her demons on screen, deal with her over protective and obsessive mother, and dance on as good as any professional ballet dancer I've seen, I was wooed. Just learning the art of basic ballet on it's own would be too much for a lot of actors out there to take on. Portman takes it to the next level. Barbara Hershey plays one of the creepiest mothers I've seen in film this year and she's absolutely flawless as she not only loves her daughter more than ever, but also psychotically obsesses over her at the same time. Mila Kunis' Lily is wild, careless, sexy, and seductive. Need I say more?

The score is soft and elegant piano in some scenes and eery as hell in others. The cinematography is very similar to The Wrestler with the close behind shots of Portman walking around and with the sudden quick close-ups which make for some great jumps of sheer fright for the audience. Black Swan is destined to get a whole bunch of noms and wins this awards season. I could talk about it more but not without giving away it's secrets. Black Swan gets an 8 outs 10.

Brothers

Director Jim Sheridan has a wide variety of films under belt from My Left Foot, to In America, to Get Rich Or Die Tryin', 50 Cents semi-autobiography. I like this about a director. It shows that he has a versatile mind and that he's open to making any type of film which is what I think a lot of directors are lacking these days. You can't always put in a Jim Sheridan film and be able to tell it's a Jim Sheridan film as you would be able to with a say Wes Anderson type of director, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Sheridan's latest effort, Brothers, is a character driven drama that rings true to real life situations that one might face while being placed in the situation these characters are placed it. The story centers around Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire), his wife Grace Cahill (Natalie Portman), and his brother Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal. Sam and Grace are a young couple who have been in love since they were 16 years old. They have two young daughters and they're happy. Once Sam gets sent back to Afghanistan things take a change for the absolute worst. It's every soldiers wives nightmare and worst possible situation to be in when two officers show up at your door and you just know what news they have for you. After Grace gets the news that Sam is dead Sam's ex-con brother Tommy starts hanging around her house more and more, helping out with the kids, and helping out remodeling the kitchen for her. After spending more time with him Grace realizes that the has been criminal she once hated is actually becoming a great guy both to her and her kids, and her kids simply adore him. Just when things appear to be turning around and the possibility of starting a new life with Tommy is growing more and more realistic things take yet another turn, this time is is for better or worse. These are some questions that are raised after we learn that after months and months of torture and being held in captivity she gets a call saying that Sam is still alive, and coming home.

The film cuts back and forth between showing Sam as a prisoner and Tommy and Graces life thinking that Sam is dead. The scenes with Sam in Afghanistan are real and intense and really gives the audience a true sense of fear. The scenes at home are also realistic and show just how are you supposed to handle a situation like this? Tommy is clearly just trying to be a nice guy with helping Grace and the kids out, he's not trying to sleep with her or anything. But as time progresses situations like that do come around and the film has an interesting approach to dealing with them that I like. It takes it very slow. Because it's hard for the both of them to deal with the situation. Which is real. When Sam returns home he see's that things aren't the same and realizes that neither is he. He's severely messed up in the head and what comes is intense and scary to say the least.

Tobey Maguire offers hands down the best performance of his career and may be a sleeper for a best actor nomination for the Oscars or Globes. He went through a great physical change with losing 30 pounds for the roll and although it's not nearly as crazy as what Christian Bale did for The Machinist or Rescue Dawn, it's still a great accomplishment and makes him look creepy as hell. Natalie Portman is also very good and plays the role of a grieving widow to absolute perfection. I swear that woman can not just cry on command but she knows how much to cry and how to look while crying given the different situations she's in. Going into this I wasn't expecting much form him at all, but it was actually Jake Gyllenhaal that turned out to be my favorite part of Brothers. He did the opposite of Maguire and bulked up for the role, turned scruffy, and sports a tattoo on his neck. He does a great job at playing a quiet, kind of weird guy who you can just tell has had a background in crime and has a difficult time adjusting to life outside of prison. He wasn't really given enough material to work with to deserve a nomination, but he did the best he could've possibly done in my opinion. I wasn't a fan of the films score at all. It was a kind of strange up beat country theme that I thought was a bit out of place. It's a fairly small and quiet film , that is until Sam comes home, and it's good, not great by any means. But it was an interesting and entertaining film, and the performances were what really made this film enjoyable for me. Brothers gets a solid 3 and 1/2 outa 5.