black swan

this movie is definitely memorable because i got sick while watching this... now i'm at home in bed typing away as i wipe my runny nose with tissue and drink water even as my stomach revolts. some people enjoy being in bed and being sick. i don't.

back to the task at hand. i had heard about black swan last year because i heard it was a movie about ballet. note: i am a huge ballet fan - i studied ballet as a child and am familiar with terminology so i don't really get lost with ballet jargon when i hear them =) also, i love french - but i digress. the last ballet movie i'd seen (and loved) was titled centerstage starring a then-unknown zoe saldana (avatar). it was a quirky, cutesy teenage poppy film about how it's like auditioning for a slot in a ballet company and what they go through in order to get there (training, technique and such). black swan turned ballet on its head and sat on it. this is NOT your mother's ballet.

the movie actually jars you mentally and visually as it starts off with a shaky camera (my friend complained all the way through the movie that she was getting dizzy because of the camera movement) and natalie as nina sayers performing some ballet warm ups in front of a full-length mirror as she prepares for rehearsal.

on hindsight, now that i think about it, aronofsky did everything on purpose: the camera movement was done so because there were some pretty cool visual effects that worked well with it. i particularly loved the subtle vfx: natalie's skin would take on a scale-like texture in some scenes (you really have to look very closely or at least be very observant) and the very clever use of mirrors.

performance-wise, natalie really owned this. she deserves all the accollades and awards and very warm compliment from david letterman about her acting after he'd seen the movie. she does deserve the oscar. the subtle facial and attitude changes switching from nina to the black swan was so uncanny and only she could've pulled it off. great thing about this also is that all the actors embodied their characters. i wouldn't say that mila kunis would be right as nina because she was perfect as lily. great casting, by the way =) portman and kunis looked a lot like each other enough to confuse the two of them ;)

the mother was frickin crazy and i loved it. the name of the actress escapes me right now and i'm too lazy to check imdb for it but she was awesome. she reminded me of the mother in psycho. *chills*

the french actor - whom i recall i'd seen in ocean's 12 (or was it 13?) as the thief who slipped and slid through the floors of some museum - was really scary and gross and horny as the instructor who feels up natalie and gets to make out with both her and mila. his role was really vital in the movie n- i just realized that because without his pushing and prodding, black swan would've never come out.

as like any other "out there" movie, prior to seeing it, i was discouraged from watching because it was confusing and boring according to some people. well, i guess i send off a vibe that i'm stupid or something because they apparently haven't seen my dvd collection yet. i loved the film for taking risks and for them to have paid off bigtime. aronofsky deserves a lot of the credit too. he stayed with his vision and in the process came up with a brilliantly-directed picture that everyone, regardless if they like ballet or not, should see.

be prepared to be pleasantly surprised by both kunis and portman as they are actresses who have had the squeaky-clean images back in the late 90s and have both been slowly veering away from said reputation. look out for a really steamy scene between the two after they get stone ass drunk. that really made my jaw drop. overall, it's a 10 for me =)

127 hours

i always do my homework when watching a movie: i read about it, i check youtube and interviews with the actors, etc. one thing i found out about 127 hours was that it was based from a book which was written by aron ralston - the actual guy who fell into a crevice in the grand canyon and was stuck there yes, for 127 hours.

what made me watch the film was curiosity of how he actually got out - his hand was pinned between a huge boulder and a wall. i did later find out that he eventually cut himself, or rather his ARM to get free. watching the movie kinda was like watching twilight for me. i knew what was going to happen, i just didn't know how it would look on screen because i had imagined it differently. but i wasn't able to read the book, so i had no idea how this story turned out.

i have to say, i liked the parts where he was talking to the digicam and just being spontaneous about the whole thing. he'd be teary-eyed through the whole thing and that's what got to me. he would also address his parents - based on flashbacks, he had broken up with a girlfriend. the hardest thing to watch was obviously the amputation part. danny boyle really showed everything. and it. was. fucking. gross.

another pro? amber tamblyn. she's one of my favorite actresses and one of the most underrated ones out there. for those of you who don't know her, shame on you! she was joan in joan of arcadia, she was one of the girls in sisterhood of the traveling pants and she's been on house, general hospital and buffy, to name a few. the role in this movie had screen time of maybe 15-20 minutes only, but she was still at her top form. good casting, there. awesome!

as for james franco's tour de force performance, it was exactly that. i was so impressed! it was essentially HIS movie to carry and he did it so well. there was no question that he WOULD get nominations/awards for this, by far, his best performance in any movie - besides milk (where he was just perfection, BTW).

this redefines definition - of life, of love and of humanity. it shows the best and worst of man but also lets you down a path of discovery ~ discovery of your own strength and perseverance as a human being and what would you do if put in dire circumstances. if you like that shit - man triumphs over adversity - watch this movie. if you don't, then hey, it's one less story you have to tell, right?

the social network

bought the dvd yesterday and wasn't able to watch it the day it came out because some idiot told me not to. sidebar: DON'T LISTEN TO ANYBODY ELSE IF YOU WANT TO WATCH A MOVIE. lesson learned for me.

anyway, going in to it, i had already been forewarned by interviews from the cast members i'd seen on youtube that the movie is fast-paced. based on the dialogue at the beginning of the film, i think they were referring to jesse eisenberg's speech mannerism - which i find very adorable indeed! =) he's the best part of the movie and it was great casting all around. andrew garfield was amazing. i totally felt for him. i even gasped when the lawyer was going down the list of people whose shares were not touched apart from andrew's character's. poor boy.

biggest surprise was justin timberlake's performance. i have to say, even though i'm a huge fan of his, i never thought he'd be able to pull off a performance like that! he was AWESOME! but back to eisenberg...

BTW, adrienne palicki just got cast as wonder woman today ;)

OK, going back to the topic at hand, i dunno why but jesse just snuck up on me. i didn't know who he was - aside from the fact that he reminded me so much of michael cera (who i love too!), but other than that, i had no idea who this guy was! then i heard him talk and actually listened to what he was saying and BAM! right there. on conan o'brien's and dave letterman's shows, he nailed me. FIGURATIVELY.

eisenberg has a way of charming the panties off you because he's NOT TRYING TOO HARD TO BE CHARMING AT ALL. it's natural. it's simple. it's adorable. and i think that that was what captivated audiences while watching him in this movie. he wasn't TRYING to be mark zuckerberg, he WAS his OWN zuckerberg. yes, they kinda looked alike; yes, he exuded that smaart-ass, condescending attitude which is not the right appropo for whatever kind of environment, but whatever. he was fabulous and that's what made the movie.

if you think about it, the movie itself wasn't highly advertised - zuckerberg himself said he wouldn't watch it but then a few weeks later gave in and had a private viewing for his employees at no less than the facebook offices in california. the point is, something so small and simple but vibrant of a movie as this deserved and deserves all the accolades and awards it's getting: from best picture to best screenplay to sexiest geeks ;)

last thing i'll say about the movie was the captain of the ship: david fincher. i didn't realize that i'd already seen 5 of his films (yes, i looked at imdb - sue me!): curious case of benjamin button, zodiac, se7en, panic room and this - the social network. if you are like me and you've also seen these movies, you'd know what i mean when i say that fincher doesn't mess around. he's gritty. he's straight-forward and he's unbiased. i love the color, texture and overall look of his movies. it's dark and mellow-looking. i can't quite put my finger on it. but if you've seen 1 or 2 of his movies, you'd know what i'm talking about. so kudos to fincher and the cast for their brilliant film and i hope i see more films like these in the future =) cheers!