Movie Review: Black Swan

What people are saying about Black Swan is true – the film IS brilliant, and Natalie Portman is very convincing as the highly driven, perfectionist ballerina Nina Sayers. In a nutshell of adjectives, the film is confronting, graphic, sexual, tumultuous and a visceral experience which finishes on a thrilling climax.

There was a constant motif of mirrors - but what is real and what is just a reflection of reality?! Ooooh!

At first, we get the sense that Nina is nothing special notwithstanding her almost painful dedication to the world of ballet. Her mother is one of those pushy, helicopter-Mum types. A former ballerina herself, she is simultaneously supportive, yet she also feeds Nina’s warped view of reality by smothering her. Their relationship is unsettling at first – her mother tucks her into bed every night as if she is five years old, and opens a musical jewellery box which plays the tune to Swan Lake and has a rotating ballerina figurine as Nina sleeps – and gets progressively more disturbing as Nina embodies the persona of the evil Black Swan. A particularly chilling scene comes when there is a close-up of the broken ballerina figurine, rotating slowly to the haunting music of Swan Lake.

Seedy man Leroy 'seducing' Nina

Nina’s quest for perfection is the cause of her ultimate demise. “I just want to be perfect,” she says to the seedy ballet director Thomas Leroy. He chooses her to play the Swan Queen in the production of Swan Lake. Nina is the perfect White Swan – beautiful, controlled, uptight. However, she is a dismal Black Swan, not nearly captivating or sensual enough. Leroy, in an effort to loosen her up, questions Nina about her sex life and even tries to seduce her. It’s really awkward and just reinforces what a massive creep he is.

A major part of the film focuses on Nina’s psychosis. In the beginning, it’s almost suffocating to watch Nina’s daily life. It really does seem like she has no social life, no contact with anyone besides the people at the ballet company and her mother. But her encounters with Lily, another ballerina who is seemingly the perfect Black Swan-type dancer, trigger something dangerous. Nina’s OCD turns into hallucinations, fits of rage and self-harm. Here is where the film gets reeaaallly trippy – there is no telling what is real and what is imagined. This is also where the film gets graphic – blood, broken toe-nails, a rash that won’t go away. Oh, and a yummy scene where Beth (Winona Ryder), a has-been ballerina, stabs herself multiple times in the face with a nail file, though rest assured I think that was all in Nina’s head.

Nina is extremely threatened by Lily despite Lily being ostensibly supportive. Lily becomes her doppelganger, an alter-ego. In fact, in a lot of scenes, there are flashes where Lily turns into Nina in what is ultimately the culmination of one big mind game. Leroy’s words to Nina are true – “the only person standing in your way is you”. The final scenes are quite thrilling: the film goes in and out of Nina’s mind and you have no idea what is real and what is imagined.

Creepy

The other things that I found interesting was the way in which the ballet scenes at the beginning and at the end were shot. The camera moved with the dancers so that the audience had a front view of Nina’s face most of the time which looked cooler than it sounds. It gave a sense of really being there, as if you were on stage with her and experiencing the same things as well.

This film was chillingly good. And Natalie Portman got a Golden Globe for her performance, which is affirmation of the hype surrounding this film. I’m going to shut-up now.

9 out of 10.

~ Hurley Who?

Movie Review: Love and Other Drugs

Admittedly, the prospect of seeing Jake Gyllenhaal’s naked and artfully covered physique is probably one of the major reasons why women, girls and ladies watched this movie. While not a Gyllanhaal-lover myself, I concede that he does have a cute smile. Oh, and a hawt body. But enough about that. Love and Other Drugs was a conventional drama-rom-com dressed up in a few accessories – early onset Parkinson’s disease, the booming pharmaceutical industry and unconventional characters.

Anne Hathaway plays Maggie, who is in her 20s but has Stage 1 Parkinson’s disease. As a result, her attitude towards life is ‘what the hell – why not?!’ Which is why she decides to get with chronic womaniser and Viagra salesman Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) despite a somewhat turbulent first impression (lets just say Maggie’s handbag makes contact with Jamie’s eye… many times).

At first it’s just casual – they know what they signed up for. But then Jamie realises he loves Maggie in a memorable scene. As a person who has apparently never said those three words to someone before, it’s interesting/funny to see him hyperventilate at the realisation. Then there’s the hurdle of dealing with Maggie’s Parkinson’s. How do you deal with loving someone who you know will need you more than you need them? They break up and make up a number of times before their collective ‘epiphany’ (see below for details).

What surprised me was how effectively the emotional and sentimental scenes tugged on my heartstrings. There are a few very touching (literally, and figuratively… geddit?!) scenes notwithstanding the main ingredient to any rom-com: the ‘epiphany’ – a teary confrontation in rainy or dreary weather, preferably the result of a high-speed pursuit by boy in a car trying to catch up to girl who is ahead of him in a bus/cab/another car, where both boy and girl realise they cannot live without each other. Cue tears/hugging/kissing.

Another quintessential rom-com ingredient included a funny fat guy (we have Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill to thank for this). This time it was in the form of Josh Gad who plays Jamie’s nasty, sexually frustrated, unloved, unshaven younger brother Josh who is unceremoniously dumped by his wife. Some of the funniest lines in the movie came from him.

Cannot believe those two are related. Natural selection sucks.

Also, before seeing this movie I had read a few reviews that warned me that this movie is “sex, sex, sex”. While there are a few scenes of that nature, it was by no means a porno. In fact, I think the sex scenes added another emotional layer to the movie – you get the feeling that Maggie and Jamie truly have an exceptional physical and emotional chemistry.

First date - success?

All in all, it’s a good escapist rom-com. The attractiveness of the lead characters certainly help with marketing this movie. It’s funny, a bit dramatic, set against an interesting backdrop (the invention and boom of Viagra – the miracle little blue pill) and, of course, romantic.

7 out of 10.

~ Hurley Who?

Easy eh?

AT FIRST GLANCE Easy A is one of those All-American high school films which make me go "I will watch this at some sleepover.  Two years from now.  On a pirated DVD from Hong Kong."  The trailer made me yawn and irritable for more reasons than one - I was fixated upon the line where Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) says "Tom Cruise?" with a scrunched-up face to Amanda Byne's pious remark about some higher power judging indecencies.  I didn't get it, and I still don't.  When I watched the film I winced when it came to that line. Somebody please explain?


However the premise of the film, bar that single irritating line, is adequately original.  A modern take on Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Woman", Easy A scores high in its frank humour and refreshing focus on something greater than the usual fare of tension between girl loser, popular hotties and desirable male figure named Corey X.  Sadly, the fact that such an archaic concept of "hating on the whore" still makes perfect reasonable sense today is a disappointing reflection on feminist standings and gains.  What's more interesting is the entrepreneurial aspect of Olive's decisions to get in the red.  It's more or less a tale of "girl sells illusion of sex for money".   Whilst there is no actual hanky-panky going on, there's some kind of socio-tabloidesque prostitution happening here which I don't have a certifiable opinion on, but it's certainly interesting.  "Let's not, but say that we did" - marketing for teenage abstinence?  Or perhaps pathological lying?

This is how pretend-sex blossoms between a heterosexual girl and a homosexual boy.  

The best scene I must say, comes early on in the film when Olive turns down a camping trip with 'Big Tits' best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) to spend the weekend at home, belting out the lyrics to "Pocket Full Of Sunshine", courtesy of Granny's birthday sing-along card.  Happily the incessantly groovy song makes a recurring appearance as Olive's ringtone throughout the film, a massive perk to be sure.





Another highlight is the genius casting of Olive's parents in the form of Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci. Like the refrigerated-yet-still-fresh leftovers of the summer of '69, two such amazingly liberal and self-liberated parental figures could not be more welcome to teenaged viewers.  Amazing people.  And despite the  clichéd appearance of the token black adopted kid (Bryce Clyde Jenkins), it's feasible in a family as chill as this one.  Moreover it was probably inevitable that he got ticked off the list of 'what white people like'.

Relaxing is good for many reasons.  White people like to relax in the presence of a black person, as indicated.

The portrayal of religious zealots in this film was another commendable take. Amanda Byne's overly-wholesome Marianne functions as little more than the conservative plot device to stir up opposition, whilst her boyfriend/family/devotees/cult members are largely exposed as hypocritical sex-deprived perverts.  Go team!

Your teeth are too white.

Some faux-Christian noob. Twilight can only get you so far bro. The last shot of him in the film is of him scratching his balls.

The only thing that niggled was the amazing persistence of Hollywood films in perpetuating the MSSE (Miserable Secondary Schooling Experience).  Perhaps this may ring true in most American high schools.  But really, enough is enough.  I want to watch a film where a teenage noob-geek studies real hard for their SATs and triumphs by getting into Harvard.  Like Pandora from Skins, but with noticeably more effort.  


At the end of the day all is good as every Hollywood teen film should be.  Olive bows out gracefully with a song and dance, gets the guys she's meant to end up with and they ride off into the sunset on a lawnmower.

Moral of the story is - always trust Woodchuck Todd.

Thus painful as it is for me to end a review in this way, the cast and originality of the film made it difficult to resist cracking this pun - a big fat A for Easy A.

In the Falkland Islands a thumbs up can get you arrested, deported and fined 500 Falkland dollars.  Sticking out one's thumb heaven-ward is deeply offensive to the local culture.  

[disco.read]

Review: The Tourist

When news of this movie first came out, I think everyone was salivating. Angelina Jolie + Johnny Depp + Florian Von Donnersmarck = kickass movie. Then everyone saw the movie and changed their minds... I think they were justified.

In theory, this movie had everything it needed to be freakin' awesome. I think the problem was that it was missing an underlying charm/excitement/je ne sais quoi. I felt as if Johnny and Angelina just turned up on set every day, read their lines and left because that's what they were being paid to do.

The plot is simple enough: Elise (Angelina) is the lover of a fugitive who has had plastic surgery and is therefore unrecognisable, she picks up Frank (Johnny) to confuse the authorities into thinking Frank is actually the fugitive, they inadvertently fall into mutual love with each other, they spend the rest of the time dodging bullets in Venice from a gangsta.

The chemistry between Johnny and Angelina was absolutely dismal. I was expecting something more from these people who are supposedly the hottest people on this planet. The development of their relationship went from some limp conversation, a bit of staring, longing at each other through closed doors, a (somewhat) tame kiss and then an 'I love you'..... WHUT?! There was no logical progression underpinning this at all. Why would he love a woman who very obviously dragged him into a situation where he is getting shot at? Unless we're to believe he is so very superficial as to fall for her looks (but I don't blame him, she's smokin' hot, and the close-ups of her swaying derriere attest to that).

As to the storyline... the twist ending (which I shall not reveal) only made me more confused due to the improbability of the situation. Another gripe is that I felt there could have been something more intellectually stimulating embedded into the plot. There was also the concept and imagery of doubles which I thought could have been taken further given the ending. However it remained, at best, a superficial idea.

I guess the other reason this movie was so MEH was the hype surrounding the director Florian Von D who made The Lives of Others which was (most definitely) a superior film. This movie proved that it's hard to live up to your former glories.

I'll end on a good note by saying Angelina's wardrobe was yummy. But she was wearing a tad too much make-up. That's all.

It gets a 6.5/10

~ Hurley Who?

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

This film had a lot to live up to – and succeeded (to an extent). I had read some lukewarm reviews before seeing it, and was disappointed. This was especially off-putting considering the trailer practically had me salivating and I’m not even one of those extreme, diehard types.

This was by far the scariest film so far. The scene with Bathilda Bagshot, the Death Eaters’ gathering at the very start with ‘special guest’ Charity Burbage, Ron’s splinched arm… I’m not quite sure it was appropriate for the littler HP fans. That being said, I think the more gruesome bits added a bit of depth and realism – staying true to the darkness of the 7^th book. What I did find interesting was how the film-makers interpreted the Tale of the Three Brothers. The shadow puppety thing going on imaginative and quite cool.

In hindsight, I made the mistake of reading the 7^th book a few days before I saw the film. I thought it would help jog my memory, but all it succeeded in doing was making me more aware of all the parts in the book that they cut out. Not a good thing having my subconscious screaming at me for 2.5 hours - ie. Wormtail’s non-death. I was also acutely aware of the parts that the filmmakers had added in, like the scene with Harry and Hermoine and the radio in the tent after Ron leaves. (Though I thought that was quite sweet and touching, and added a bit more to Harry's character than just brooding and painful scars... literally and figuratively). The film was also a bit sexier with the raunchy scene with Ginny asking Harry to 'zip her up' and Ron and Hermoine at the piano in 12 Grimmauld Place. But the filmmakers milked every drop of sadness out of Dobby’s death. I thought Dobby’s extra lines at the end when he confronted Bellatrix/Narcissa were a bit overkill, but I guess a lot of people would have considered that the most emotional event of the whole book.

Sexy.

One thing which did bother me was Rhys Ifans who played Xenophilius Lovegood. I had a very clear picture of him in my mind whilst reading the book, and Ifans did not look at all like what I expected. This was slightly off-putting for me, and I guess it highlights a problem with film adaptations of books – readers will have their own version of how the scenes should be played out visually. (Same thing goes for Mundungus Fletcher)

Rhys Ifans... not the Xenophilius I was expecting.

I guess if you judge this film as a self-contained entity, it kinda sucks. There is no time for lengthy explanations as to why – everything just happens. The plotline isn’t always coherent (especially to those who have forgotten what happens in the book) and I didn’t feel any sense of natural flow. But if you see it for its purpose – as a time-filler between the 6^th film and the last installation – it’s quite good. The film is true to the book, appropriately dark and dramatic and well-acted.

Edward Darcy gives it a 7. I’d give it a 7.84 out of 10. (A bit arbitrary I know, but 7 is not enough, 8 is too much, 7.5 is slightly not enough… hence the 7.84)

~ Hurley Who?

Who's Reviews - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

It seemed like a good recipe: topical subject matter, a follow-up from an immensely popular 80s movie, same director, same big-name actor... But to be honest, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps failed to live up to the hype. I left the cinema disappointed: the trailer has a lot of explaining to do.

The gist of the whole movie is revenge. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) wants revenge on Bretton James (Josh Brolin - who has a fantastic rage scene at the end where he destroys a priceless artwork... best scene). Jake Moore (Shia) wants revenge on Bretton James but then he sets his sights on Gordon Gekko. It's pretty circular. And the whole 'payback' thing got a bit tired at the end. The movie is 15 mins and one plot twist too long.

And maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to the finer details of the dialogue, but I also felt that the plot progressed in a bit of a stilted fashion. The scenes in the movie seemed contrived, and some ideas (like why Shia really wanted $100m for the development of some alternative energy project) seemed completely random and unexplained - I couldn't help thinking "but WHY are you so interested in this project?"

I love Carey Mulligan, who plays Winnie Gekko - Gordon's daughter and Jake's girlfriend/fiance/babymamma - with an American accent which was not bad. Susan Sarandon was probably the only other woman I saw in the whole movie. She played Jake's mother in an extremely peripheral and underdeveloped role. It is very much a male-centric film. It could have used some fresh female perspective (or am I just being biased?) because there are only so many scenes with slicked hair and clean-cut suits that can be tolerated in one sitting.

Overall, the plot seemed to opt more for style than substance. Given the subject matter and the timely nature of the film, it could have gone a lot further in terms of making an impact, rather than throwing words like "moral hazard" around.

I'd give it a 7/10. Edward Darcy agreed though he suggested a range between 6.5-7.0. Final conclusion: not as good as you were hoping. Money might not sleep, but it put me to sleep.

~ Hurley Who?

PS. Profuse apologies for the very un-punny joke.

Belated movie mash-up

I realised that I had written these movie reviews only to save them on my laptop and forget about them forever. Until now.... But, to be honest, does anyone even care about these movies anymore?? Read on, if you dare.

~~

Toy Story 3

SUCH a great movie! The people at Pixar have fantastic imaginations. I loved the new characters: an evil strawberry-scented Care Bear, a freaky-looking lopsided-eyed baby and a flamboyant Ken doll. Not to mention Pixar seemed like they were catering for the ‘double-digits’ crowd with issues relevant to older kids (eg. Andy going off to college). And it was hilarious. 3D effects a great too.

9/10

Sex and the City 2

Needless to say, I didn’t have very high expectations for this movie. The dialogue was excruciatingly drawn-out at times, especially at the beginning. I think some scenes were included just for the hell of it (eg. bringing 2 changes of Ferragamo, Dior etc clothes for a stroll in the middle of a desert in Abu Dhabi… what the?!) which is a shame because things like this detracted from the real reason why women like SATC so much – that is, it openly discusses real and, at times, taboo issues which women face. Also - the end turns into a bit of a shamble as Samantha goes berserk but it is kind of hilarious as well.

But the clothes. Ohhhh, the clothes. A close up of Carrie’s gold, sparkly Louboutin’s in the first few minutes had me practically salivating. Only one gripe – outfit repeating. Since SJP became Creative-Director of clothing label Halston Heritage, I guess she is just milking it for all it’s worth. There is one Halston Heritage dress which SJP wears in 3 different colours and 2 different lengths. It’s pretty, but was it really necessary? (She also wore the same dress to the MET Gala Ball this year. Overkill.) The Emilio Pucci gown you see Carrie wearing on the SATC 2 posters looks better in the film (probably due to the fact that the movie posters were over-photoshopped). THAT is a hot dress.

If you watch it, bring earmuffs. It would be better if you only saw the clothes and didn’t listen to what the characters were saying.

6/10

Robin Hood

Kinda crappy. Cate Blanchett is ok, but I couldn’t accept her as a brunette. Russell Crowe is old and a bit grey. The King looked a bit to Mediterranean and not English enough. To be honest, nothing much really happens for the duration of the film and the climax (ie. epic battle) is short.

6.5/10

Eclipse

Oh. Mah. Gawd. IT’S EDWARD! And Jacob! [Shirtless!]

Oh Edward... I will love you, lyk, 4 everr.

That alone is probably enough to get the attention of Twihards, but this instalment of the Twilight ‘Saga’ is actually… good. Shocked?

It’s the darkest of the three as the threat of Victoria, the evil vampire, looms close.

I guess all you need to know is Edward is still hot, Jacob is still hotter and Bella is still an emotional, angsty teen (much like D.Read’s post below).

7/10

~~

Thanks for making it to the end.

~Hurley Who?

Who's Reviews: Inception

Since everyone’s talking about it and 8^th St always has its hand on the cultural pulse, it was pretty inevitable something about Inception was going to pop up sooner or later. And we can all breathe a sigh of relief after being subject to the mindless Hollywood crapola (Knight and Day anyone?) or the endless sequels/remakes (Karate Kid, Marmaduke – UGH, and dare I mention SATC 2?!) we’ve been seeing in the cinema of late.

You’ve probably heard the rough storyline of Inception. Leo (just a wrinklier, manlier, more rugged version of the baby-faced Jack from Titanic), or should I say Dom Cobb, manipulates dreams along with his team comprising of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and others. A (I’m assuming) mega-rich Asian corporate big-wig enlists this team to carry out the very tricky task of ‘inception’ – planting an idea into someone’s head - to carry out his own evil, devious and immoral/unethical business strategies.

If that’s not complicated enough, add the slight distraction of Mal (Marion Cotillard, such a French hottie), Cobb’s deceased wife, who keeps popping up in his dreams and killing other people (in the dream, that is). Clearly he has a bit of a guilty conscience.

The first half of the film revolves around Cobb teaching Ariadne (Ellen Page) about the ins and outs of delving into someone's dream. The second half is where the actual inception takes place. It’s completely messed up, but in a good Christopher Nolan-esque way. Think all the drama of The Dark Knight but a bit more intellectual.

Jo-Go. Best dream, hands down.

What the film does so well is to juggle a conceptually tricky idea yet still manage to keep the film approachable enough so that the general mouth-breathing public is able to keep up (or am I being too cynical about the intelligence levels of the wider community?). In saying that, however, it does take some degree of effort to understand exactly what is happening as the film goes in and out of four different ‘levels’ of dreams. Each level is visually spectacular and apparently each had its own colour palette to make it easier for the audience to subconsciously distinguish between them.

Trippy, eh?

The CGI effects are quite brilliant and mind-boggling, and the eye candy (I’m talking about Jo-Go, not Leo) is not too bad either. Marion Cotillard is FREAKY! But in a good way. I think she’s really stunning, though I’ve talked to some people who have thought otherwise.

To be honest, I thought Ariadne was completely redundant as a character even if I did love Juno. My other qualm was the music. Ok, it was effectively dramatic at times, but it was overkill in certain circumstances. Oh, and the much-debated ending. But I won’t spoil that for those who haven’t had the opportunity to watch this film. Besides those things, the movie was damn good. An intellectual and visual treat!

This movie gets 9/10. For realz.

~ Hurley Who?

PS. Hope I didn’t spark a ‘IS JO-GO HOT OR NOT’ debate with my above comment/s.

Who's Reviews: Get Him to the Greek

A strange movie choice, you might say. Well, forced to choose Get Him to the Greek due to the fact that Lucifer and I missed the Prince of Persia session, we were slightly disappointed that we were not going to see chiseled, hairless Jake Gyllenhaal abs, but, rather, Russell Brand’s shock of hairy chest.

The movie is about Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) who is an English has-been rock star planning a comeback concert at the Greek Theatre in LA. Jonah Hill (the cute, chubby dude) plays Aaron Green who works for a record company and is responsible for getting Snow to the Greek Theatre in LA (hence the title of the movie). Of course, things do not run smoothly and in the process of getting Snow from London to LA via Las Vegas, hilarity ensues.

The movie opens with Aldous Snow’s video clip for African Child, a song which was named the 3^rd worst thing for African life (or something to that effect), losing only to “famine and war”. Yep. It’s bad. African stereotypes all round, truly nasty scenes (eg. Snow ‘giving birth’ to an African baby) and writhing, half-naked women galore. The rest of the movie is littered with references to today’s pop culture – there are cameos by Christina Aguilera, Mario Lopez, Pink, the list goes on.

Rose Byrne, plays Jackie Q, Snow’s former girlfriend and a big pop star in her own right. She is hilarious and also brings a bit of seriousness to the movie in the tokenistic ‘confrontation scene’ with Snow. The movie is also peppered with snippets of Jackie Q’s music videos which are hilarious tongue-in-cheek parodies of today’s sexed up female vocal artists.

But there are some truly hilarious moments. Diddy/Piddy/P. Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs (or whatever you call him these days) plays Aaron’s boss, Sergio (weird name, huh?!). He is a diluted version of Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (note to all: YouTube Les Grossman. You will thank me later). Sergio’s on-going joke about mind f-ing people is quite funny, but after seeing the beauty that is Les Grossman, no-one can ever quite match that performance and I got the feeling that Diddy based a lot of his performance on Grossman.

Another hilarious scene is where Aaron takes a “Jeffrey” – a delightful concoction of every illicit drug known to man (coke, heroin, speed, weed etc). He goes MENTAL and let’s just say in the midst of the chaos, people stroke furry walls, someone gets whacked with a guitar, Aaron gets raped by an over-eager Pussycat Doll-wannabe and Sergio gets hit by a car.

Of course, there are the terrible, terrible cringe-worthy moments. For example, in one scene, Aldous Snow insists that Aaron hide a small bag of heroin in a very private place as they are going through airport security. The movie does not shy away from tasteless laughs such as this. There is another scene so contrived that I spent the whole time cringing and that is where Aaron’s girlfriend, Daphne, insists that she, Aaron and Snow have a… threesome. And. It. Actually. Happens. AWKWARD!

There is no denying that Get Him to the Greek is crass, overtly sexual and in-your-face. But Lucifer and I were surprisingly touched by the vulnerability Russell Brand managed to show towards the end of the movie – underneath all that hair is a truly sweet person (when he is sober) who is emotionally quite fragile. That aspect made the movie a little more enjoyable.

Get Him to the Greek gets a 6/10 from me, 6.5/10 from Lucifer. But for being surprisingly emotional and touching, and if we’re nicer, it’d be a 7/10.

~ Hurley Who?