All posts in: Movie Review

27 Dec 2010

Movie Review: Somewhere

If I had to pick the shining star in this film it would be Elle Fanning hands down. The girl is a charmer and gives an effortless performance. She embodies both elegance and grace and brings life to her character. It is this liveliness and spark within her that causes a constantly brooding Stephen Dorff to wake up! Dorff plays Johnny Marco, an actor and playboy struggling to understand the purpose of his life. Yes, we’ve seen this plot played out many times before, but I assure you, it is not a quick transformation at all. Sofia Coppola has a unique style of direction that seduces the audience into a slow and quiet trance. This is an acquired taste, however, for it does not always sit well with some audiences. Her scenes are longer than usual with minimal dialog. The scene pans out giving us time to interpret what this actually means. There are even lengthy scenes of pure silence.

I can’t knock Coppola’s directing style because I think the film is brilliant. It is beautifully done, but it does lack substance at times. A bit of an explanation in some parts would have been helpful. Although I sometimes felt lost throughout the film due to the sporadic moments in Johnny Marco’s life , in the end, I believe I was lead to the right place.

It is a film worth watching, but it is entirely up for interpretation. It is not a film like Black Swan, in which you instantly know that it is a fantastic film.

17 Dec 2010

Movie Review: Black Swan

After months of waiting, I finally had the opportunity to see Black Swan starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. The trailer was just enough of a tease to give you a taste for the film, but not enough to give away the whole movie. The costumes done by Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, the movement and art of ballet dancing, and the direction of the film were mesmerizing. It was downright thrilling in the sense that it was constantly tantalizing the audience and made to push our boundaries and test our comfort zones.

Before actually watching the film, I had read a number of interviews from Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis regarding their controversial sex scene and the grueling ballet training, which had lead to both the actress’s 20-pound weight loss each. I’m still debating if whether or not reading those articles affected my reaction to the film or not. I do have to address that while there were parts of this film that did make me uncomfortable, not including them would have harmed the overall atmosphere of the film.

Does Natalie deserve her nominations for this film? There is no doubt. I was surprised by both the performances given by Natalie and Mila because I simply have never seen them in roles quite like this one especially from Mila. Natalie was bold, daring, graceful, and exquisite. Mila playing the role of Lily was the ever-so-popular indie pixie dream girl, therefore you simply loved her. You weren’t given a choice about that.

When I left the film, I was unable to make the immediate decision of categorizing Black Swan as a good or bad film. It was neither. It is one of those films that cannot be given a label. In my eyes, it was disturbingly artistic and sometimes too much for me to handle. That doesn’t mean that I was borderline considering an early exit, in fact, I was challenged by it. At the very end of the night, I ran my friend Nick who had recently watched the film as well. When discussing it, he had told me that he loved it. Typically after watching films, to decide whether he liked it or not, he’ll ask himself if he could have thought of a better ending to it. “I couldn’t. It was perfect,” and we left it at that.

This movie is not for everyone, but you’ll know whether or not you want to watch the film after you’ve seen the trailer.

25 Oct 2010

Movie Review: Catfish

About a month ago, my brother urged me to check out the trailer for “Catfish.” I dismissed him pretty quickly because for some reason I was imagining an action type flick starring Clint Eastwood about the dangers of fly fishing…I don’t know. I wasn’t into the title, but it just goes to show how wrong I was because Catfish had absolutely nothing to do with any of the above.

When buzz about the film/documentary started showing up on my news blogs, I finally checked out the trailer. Curiosity got the best of me, and I researched all over the internet to solve the mystery that the film appeared to be. As shocked as I was to find out what I did, I really wish someone had advised me against it.

Tonight, I took a break from studying for a quiz to watch the film and my brother was right. It was as good as he said it was. Catfish was a documentary done by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman following Ariel’s brother Nev as he meets and begins a relationship with a girl named Megan Faccio over Facebook. As their relationship progresses, Nev realizes that some things just aren’t adding up. Henry, Ariel, and Nev decide to investigate by paying a visit to Megan in Michigan where they discover that things aren’t really what they seem.

I’m going to do my best not to give anything away because the movie poster above has even told me not to. I do, however, think that this film is very much in tune with the way our generation deals with social networking, communication, and technology in general. This is not a sexy film. It just so happened that Catfish and The Social Network came out around the same time and while they both are “Facebook” related, I view The Social Network as more of an entertainment type film. It had a huge build-up from the first time we heard about it until it blew up in our faces during opening weekend. Justin Timberlake is in the movie – that’s just unfair. With Catfish, you are getting a sense of reality and I know I have to be careful when saying “reality.” These are three normal guys that have never been heard of before, but yet we’ve been here. We have been in Nev’s shoes at some point in our lives. It’s hard for me to pinpoint what it is I like about the movie because it’s a few things. It’s the fact that these three guys share a level of commitment to the real life situation turned documentary. It’s the idea that technology does not substitute for the need of belonging to something.

It is creepy at times, but this is not a thriller. It is suspenseful, honest, and raw. It is…really just hard to believe. That’s all.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFKe75Q6eVw]