December 2010 - Cinema Rat

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Cinema Rat - December 2010

All Good Things

SEARCH: All Good Things

Director: Andrew Jarecki

Writers: Marcus Hinchey, Marc Smerling
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella

Katie: "I've never been closer to anyone and I don't know you at all."

Following the paradigm of a newspaper, "All Good Things" keeps your attention like an intriguing, sinister article. Marking his territory, the director, Andrew Jarecki ("Capturing the Friedmans"), once again sticks his nose in a dysfunctional man whose family were oblivious to his true nature. But does the tabloid's cinematic dramatization overstuffs the psychological impact it brings on the reader?

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) or maybe Robert Durst is an heir to his father's golden goose real-estate business in midtown New York. Oppressive expectations have already risen but David shuts the door behind him. All it takes for Sanford Marks (Frank Langella), the father, to make his mark, is a toast to success.
Under Katie's (Kirsten Dunst) sink, David finds an escape route, a walk with her all the way down to meeting her down-to-earth family, intimacy in logistic terms and finally marriage.

"All Good Things" is a health-food store, a small one, selling pies, ice-cream and everything seems peachy and clean. Not for long in the eyes of his menacing father who in order to lure him back in the business, presses his well-hidden button, his mother's suicide, a beautiful woman just like his wife, he stresses.

But what is amiss? "Is there something wrong with you?" Katie asks but David is a hunted animal trying to walk away in silence from his dogmatic father's admonishments. The void inside him brings out the monster desperate for emotional and physical occupation in sadistic ways. Huffing and puffing and demanding for more, his soul is still left on that pavement along with his mother's dead body.

The dimly lit Ryan Gosling is exploring the inner sightings of an ambiguous figure retreating to practical madness in more ways than one. He manages to pull a few tricks up his sleeve from a lackluster script, frightened to describe the animosity of its tortured character's calm aggressiveness.

The vibrant return of Kirsten Dunst is caving in on the transformation from a cheerful free-spirited girl to a devastated woman interwoven with despair. An excellent performance in a script that does not pay much attention to her character.

While the filmmaker's wildly swerving train of thought did at one point flirt with coherence, past the midway point, David draws back and we're left in unfamiliar territory. Mixed feelings and a muddled viewpoint clears the premise's fog but it seems like a chance that was given to the script from the actors rather than a result of rudimentary lucidity from the screenwriters.

Andrew Jarecki never decided what his movie should be. A diary in documentaristic form or a pulp horror drama which condemns his protagonist in eternal hell. "All Good Things" leave aesthetically too many things in the open by mashing them up in a jigsaw puzzle like scraps from yesterday's newspapers.

What is a nightmare without a bizarre reality surrounding it? The descent to the corridors of David's mind resembles an unengaged conversation between friends, over coffee and tabloid articles, about the abnormal psychology of serial killers.

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December 29th 2010 @ 18:44

Posted By: Tasos K. - Category: No Category

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Black Swan

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Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writers: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz
Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel

Thomas: "Perfection is not just about control. It's also about letting go."

Sometimes words are not enough. Art is an experience delivered to the viewer in a form that will burrow his mind in a trance. What Darren Aronofsky seems to accomplish in Black Swan is not something to be taken lightly. The daring synthesis of elements, theatre, ballet, cinema, is what makes this film an antidote and I am saying this in a surprisingly good year for cinema.

The bizarre, feverish depiction of "Swan Lake" enters the stage not with a bang but a whimper, the sounds of cracking bones and gasping breaths, rolling around the spotlight of her fragile dream , Nina (Natalie Portman), twirls passionately with clockwork precision.

Unfolding through the eyes of a silent narrator, Nina, wakes in a dream-state reality of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". Questioning her dedication , the director, Thomas (Vincent Cassel) sees through her inability to transform into the free-spirited black swan and the filmmaker sets it as a point of reference, a map of the road to her own perfectionism. Thomas seems to aggravate Nina's tremulous fears by openly admiring Lily's (Mila Kunis) sexuality and seductive spirit. Doing her part, Lily, impetuously pushes her buttons one by one, letting her slide into anxiety and jealousy. The black and white criticism lives on in her mother's (Barbara Hershey) eyes, treating her daughter like a little girl, insinuating a haunting past.

Mirroring her role as the Swan Queen, Nina slowly descends into madness while ascending her role from fantasy to reality and shattering the manipulative reflection of her limited abilities. Defenseless before her own insecurities, the White swan pukes out the obsession to strive for perfection, transforming her view and unlocking the fearless and decisive Black Swan. She can let herself go without remorse reaching the gripping crescendo.

The cast was spot on

Clouding us with Nina's existential fragility, Portman offers a communicative dualism unlike anything before. She keeps the balance on her character's many faces carrying a weight that could be unbearable for most actresses today. Her performance is transcendent, chilling and surely Oscar-worthy. Mila Kunis acts as a mentionable antithesis that drives the story forward and is a starting point for her career. Hershey will most likely get the supporting actress award, highly deserving it and the never-disappointing Cassel is the plot's vessel portraying a carnal, power hungry director.

Validating the premise of the movie, Aronofsky literally roams symbolism and brings back an elegant, perverse darkness. Artistically stunning cinematography and intentional messy use of close-ups and shoulder shots offer to the central theme a hallucinatory feeling. Kafka's influences are spread throughout the descending ladder of Nina's frightening, grotesque psychosis.

Like ballet, the physical fatigue it takes to perform is always reflected on the rehearsal mirrors. Where mirrors were, audience now is, reflecting back the nightmare of performers entertaining a voracious crowd. Monsters come in many forms and in "Black Swan" you could never point a finger towards good or evil. Every tragedy is a bewildering travel that questions reality's existence.

Thomas: "When I look at you, all I see is the White Swan."

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December 26th 2010 @ 22:48

Posted By: Tasos K. - Category: No Category

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Sleuth

SEARCH: Sleuth

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: Harold Pinter (screenplay), Anthony Shaffer (play)
Stars: Michael Caine, Jude Law and Harold Pinter

Milo: "I'm beginning to respond to your charm."

Voyering on the scripted mirror of self-importance lies the workshop of character study that is Sleuth. I wanted to stay away from this movie and Kenneth Branagh in particular but I watched it, leaving my ego on the astray. Licking cigarette butts and tasting unhealthy mints, one hour and twenty-five minutes later (one hour less than the original) my eyes were still wide open. I suppose that's my way of giving a compliment to the remake of Mankiewiz's 1972 movie.

Andrew Wyke's (Michael Caine) house is a technological marvel, cold and empty, it reflects a stage where his narcissism dwells. Through surveillance cameras. comes Milo. ringing the bell. Five minutes in and Helen of Troy started the fire. The gloves are off and the verbal spar initiates. We're left to watch the satire unfold.
Sick humanity's Freudian cilivization aside, we're being put through the entirety of artistic manipulation into a game of chess. But I digress, Milo Tindle (Jude Law) mumbles the name of the game himself, tennis. Three sets and three acts of a script made to offend your egocentrism or theirs. Wit, I just put this word there with no apparent reason other than the familiar impact it has on the reader. But the witty characters have claws and fight each other for their worth.
Not only a game of honor but also one of the preservation of manhood. As it is delving deeper into narcissism, it lights up the unknowable homoerotic tendencies and slaps them around with a rainbow full of loneliness.

The directional motivation behind and underneath surely is symbolism. It's a theme of the ages and Branagh understands the need to surface the meaning of involving the characters in direction and acting between them, as they move on with their mentally dangerous game. Andrew pushes Milo's acting buttons but Branagh through his pretentious trickery never does.
The motif is sensationalism and the film has all the weapons, the problem is that most of the time they shoot blanks. Jude Law once again proves he's not a porcelain dummy actor and Michael Caine in Laurence Olivier's shoes, brings something different to the character, perpetuating as a basis, his desperate loneliness.