Not the most lyrical title for a blog post, but it's how I feel. I just had the most visceral reaction to a movie in years. As a former dancer, I mistakenly thought I would enjoy Black Swan, a thriller set in the ballet world. Boy, was I wrong. I actually started yelling at the screen once the end credits started rolling."What the hell was that? I HATE this movie! I want my two hours back. That made me sick. I feel nauseous. Why would someone put something like that out there that just makes you feel like total CRAP?"
And here it is getting Golden Globe Nominations and some good reviews, but it's one of those times I have to ask "Are all you people high?" I mean, there was a scene where much of the audience laughed at how bad it was, it was so awkwardly uncomfortable. I don't need to see all that vomiting, blood, and porn. And Winona Ryder's turn as an over-the-top jilted aging ballerina was cliche and just plain bad. I blame the director. And maybe the writer, too. Yet there was a smattering of applause at the end of the movie. I can only hope they were clapping because it was over. I felt agitated, angry, bitter, and generally disturbed for a good half hour after we left.
At least Michael Medved had his wits about him when he tweeted this:
"N. Portman's BLACK SWAN: if you don't like ballet, you'll hate the movie. If you love ballet, you'll REALLY hate the movie. Good acting, but..."
The good acting was not worth being traumatized. Do not make Black Swan your next date movie. Trust me.
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5 comments:
i didn't hate it as much as you per se but i had no expectation going in. i'm not sure what all the fuss is about- i hate movies that mess with the audience just as much as they mess with their maincharacters. poor natalie portman. the end was way over blown too. but man wasn't that black swan demonic? i kept thinking that the one absent view was sanity and good. and that their only choice as characters was to either lose themselves and be destructive, corrupt or repressed and neurotic- either leading you to crazytown. its a bad reflection of what it is to be an artist if those are your only 2 options. certainly its a soulless flick if its anything. that or a film that shows the ultimate end of all method actors.
you know because at the end she's all like "i felt it" and you're all thats complete bullshit. felt what? death? destruction? demonic oppression?
;)
K. - Exactly! What a crappy last line. And who even cares that she felt it, whatever "it" was.
Your quote "I don't need to see all that vomiting, blood, and porn" makes me laugh this holiday season. Thank you.
Maybe the title of your new memoir, Staci?
Monk! I LOVED it. Was my birthday movie. I think you either love or hate Aronofsky. I will admit to not being able to watch a few scenes and I think I actually climbed into MT's lap at one point. As for the "absent view" - I think I saw it more as part of her decent into madness - that we didn't really know what or who the other characters really were because we were seeing everything through Nina's eyes.
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