Black Swan (2010)

5/5

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is honestly one of the most terrifying movies I have ever seen. It envelops you in the psyche of an unstable, damaged woman. It traps you there without escape. Yet you cannot turn your eyes away. You can only watch in horror as she gradually disintegrates. You are left staring at scenes that will disturb and disgust you. You witness her fears come alive as hallucinations; you witness her ecstasies turn cruel and nightmarish. When her paranoia completely engulfs her, I was literally trembling with fear.

The movie is arresting in all its technical aspects. Its stark lighting and black and white palette is visually stunning. It frequently tracks characters' movements, more often rough, nauseating, and immersive instead of the more typical smooth, dreamlike voyeurism to which we are accustomed. The editing is pitch-perfect: it gives us fluid transitions alongside beautiful compositions, it integrates plot progression with taut suspense. The thematics are compelling and powerful, revealing Aronofsky's focus on central concepts that likely mirror his own life. The story shares the same basic framework as all of his other films. An outcast discovers a hobby or talent. It becomes an addiction that soon consumes their life. It finally metamorphoses into an obsession for which they will sacrifice everything they used to cherish.

Aronofsky's Black Swan, for all its technical prowess and thematic underpinnings, is a movie that ultimately rests on the actors' shoulders. Winona Ryder, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Vincent Cassel shine in their roles, but none of them take your breath away quite like Natalie Portman. She delivers a phenomenal performance. She plays the timid, virginal ballerina to perfection. Her ultimate reversal into the sexually uninhibited black swan seems equally effortless. She simply becomes her character--none of it is acting. She is the reason to stop whatever you're doing right now and see this movie. But no matter when you see it, now or ten years from now, I have no doubt that it will still be hailed as a masterpiece.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/

The Wrestler (2008)

4/5

Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is a phenomenal piece of work. He takes a subject most audience members know little about, professional wrestling, and envelops us in it, enraptures us through an unexpected intimacy with its performers. Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a wrestling superstar 20 years after his glory days. We see him still wrestling in school gyms and run-down sports clubs, and at first we think he's desperately clinging to some faded, tattered notion of the greatness he once was. But we slowly realize he isn't; the fans are still there, and every single one of them knows his face and his long, magnificent history. They are closer to him than his family, and they are the only ones who understand him. The Ram is a compelling entry into the ever-growing list of film protagonists, and one I can't remember seeing anything like before. Mickey Rourke makes this movie what it is.

His life is in shambles. After suffering a heart attack from an intense match, he is told that he can no longer wrestle. He wants to see his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) again, to reconnect with her, so that he won't be hated in her memory. But his long history of absence, while only hinted at, runs deep through their words, their looks, and their movements. Much is said while little is shown. We see how much hurt a small mistake can make.

Marisa Tomei plays a stripper who is also getting too old for her performance, with plans to retire soon. Their relationship is strictly business, but after the Ram's heart attack, he breaks the rules and asks for more. We see glimmers of hope, as with his daughter, and we see mistakes and missed opportunities. We understand the power of bad timing. We empathize with a man we may not like or agree with, because we see his humanity in ourselves.

I have yet to talk about Aronofsky's directing. It is, in a word, personal. Voyeuristic, but close. It brings us into a foreign world, it shows us wonders as if they're commonplace, and it does so with humility. Aronofsky lets his actors perform, he lets the message settle; the directing never overshadows the content. I can see that being difficult for Aronofsky. He strikes me as an arrogant director, but clearly he has exhibited both restraint and intelligence in this film, and in so doing has demonstrated his love for the art form.

While I found myself liking the film cognitively, I didn't feel the same way emotionally. Except for the title song, I didn't really feel it speak to me. I want to see this movie again. I think my rating would change. I want to fall in love with this movie as I saw others fall in love with it. But I can't honestly give it a higher rating than 4. I'm sure you can though, so I highly recommend it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/

The Fountain (2006)

4.9/5

The Fountain is first and foremost a journey, intellectually, emotionally, and thematically. There is a surprisingly seamless quality to the film, as every scene and setting shares the same hues and composition. And the compositions (basically every single shot) are absolutely breathtaking in beauty. Aronofsky has created an amazing theoretical experience, one that is difficult to comprehend. Despite that, it is extremely confident in itself--it does not dumb itself down for the audience to better understand. This confidence carries the movie; if made by a weaker director, it wouldn't have worked. He gives it some unknown, ethereal quality that makes me love it. Hugh Jackman's acting was powerfully real and heartfelt, made stronger by the emotive music.

The problems arose as a result of some of the best aspects of the movie. Its abstract nature and faith in the audience's intellect made any possibility of immediate understanding difficult. It will take a lot of time and thought to perform even a partial analysis. The beautiful shot compositions were a bit jarring, because Aronofsky didn't take into account transitional shots that would smooth out the flow. These weren't necessary evils; they could have easily been prevented had Aronofsky simply thought about them. Even so, these faults were relatively small.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0414993/