Classic Movie Review: Black Swan (2010)

Artistic and unsettling, Black Swan is a prime example of Darren Aronofsky's ability to create an uncomfortable and distressing film experience that audiences simply can't turn away from. Through a twisted and dark artistic lens, this movie asks one important question: how far will someone go for perfection? Through an overemphasized and dark view of the world of ballet, we receive a twisted and psychological flick that leaves us questioning our own emotional and mental states.

Nina (Natalie Portman) is an aspiring and dedicated ballerina whose entire life is ruled by her pursuits in the art form. When her company begins production on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Nina becomes the front-runner for the role of the White Swan, however her lacking range restricts her from playing the contrasting Black Swan. Competition begins as Lily (Mila Kunis) assumes this opposite role, and we begin to glimpse into Nina's dark emotional distress and mental illness as she vies for perfection in her performance.

An obvious starting point in an analysis of Black Swan is its artistic style. This film is Aronofsky at his best; assuming his token surreal and disturbing style in creating a truly beautiful and dark flick. The style of the film can be seen as a reflection of Nina's psychological distress, and as she spirals further downwards in her mental state, the artistic form of the film follows suit. As the movie progresses it becomes increasingly surreal and figurative as we glimpse deeper into Nina's emotional schizophrenia and anxiety. Basically, expect to come out of this movie questioning whether anything actually happened or not. But not in a clichéd kind of way.

Just as beautiful as the film's style is the acting in the movie, and not without recognition. Natalie Portman's incredible portrayal of the twisted and tormented Nina snagged her the Academy Award for Best Actress, with Mila Kunis also receiving praise for her performance as Nina's twisted counterpart Lily. Natalie Portman's ability to convey such a wide range of emotions in this movie, from love and lust to schizophrenia, ultimately creates an incredibly dynamic and diverse character out of Nina.

Much like Aronofsky's other movies (Requiem for a Dream, Pi), Black Swan is disturbing and uncomfortable, but ultimately impossible to stop watching. We as the audience get to see the dark embodiments of Nina's struggling mental, emotional and sexual states, and respectively feel almost as messed up as Nina by the end of the movie. Grim and beautiful, Black Swan is definitely not just a boring film about ballet. As Nina states at the climax of the movie, "I was perfect". And the film was too.

Jason Bourne

The last movie in this series The Bourne Legacy was considered to be a disappointment by some fans due to the fact that despite his name being in the title, the movie distinctly lacked everyone's favourite amnesiac super weapon. There's no such confusion with this movie however, as you can't name it Jason Bourne and not have Matt Damon front and centre. This return to the character we know and love is all well and good, but it still follows the exact same formula that we saw in the original three movies.

Jason Bourne (Damon) has finally recovered from his amnesia, but is trying to live a quiet life under the radar. He is forced out of hiding however, after his old ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) has hacked into the CIA database, taking files about all the black op programs that the Agency has run in the past and ones they will run in the future. A team is assembled to hunt for Parsons and, by association, Bourne and is led by Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), a young agent working in the Cyber Ops Division. She is overseen by the new Agency head Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), who is keen to protect his new Iron Hand program, even if that means sending an assassin (Vincent Cassel) to kill indiscriminately.

This is the first film in the series in which Tony Gilroy has not been involved in the writing process, but unless you know what to look for, the story doesn't seem like it has changed much. It does take into account the new world in which we live and while Bourne isn't trying to expose anything, he does get caught up in a new program which involves tracking everyone's social media posts and looks at the argument of giving up privacy for security. This storyline does take a back seat and while it is interesting, there isn't a lot of time given to it.

The action is everything we've come to expect in a Paul Greengrass movie. Lots of short choppy hand to hand combat, something that Bourne is an expert with. However, some shots of the action felt a bit off. There is a scene where Bourne falls off a rooftop and is aided with some CGI. This feels really out of place in a movie series that is reliant on all the action being done for real. The car chase at the end of the movie went way over the top too, for the level of plausibility we've come to expect. While the movie does talk about emergent technologies that can help in the intelligence field, the ones they take for granted seem extremely advanced. It's not that easy to gain access to a Berlin CCTV system from all the way in the US, but this movie shows us that anything is possible if you tap at a keyboard.

The characters were interesting enough for me, but again they were following in the footsteps of the same characters we've seen before. Control room woman backed by shady older man in charge of ruthless agent who tries to stop Bourne. While Vikander and Jones played their parts well, it just seemed like a paint by numbers. I will say however that Vincent Cassel was a standout as the ruthless assassin, but only because he seems like he does that as a side job (that or the professional thief that he was in Ocean's Twelve). I will say that Riz Ahmed was a standout in this movie, not just because his character was new or topical, but because he was very believable as the tech company head that he was playing.

So, is Jason Bourne worth seeing? I know that I have just gone on and on about how it's the same movie we've seen before, but it's still very good. The action sequences are beautifully choreographed (yes, they can be even when the camera is bouncing around) and the spy stuff feels genuine enough. It's a great two hours to sit down and try to make sense of the story (it's not that confusing) as Bourne retraces yet more steps to discover more of his past.

Classic Movie Review: Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008)

As the title of this review suggests, this is going to be a two part review to cover the two parts of the French gangster film Mesrine which is about the gangster Jacques Mesrine.

Everyone loves a gangster film. I think it's the appeal of watching something that many of us would never even dream of doing. Even more appealing is when these films are based on real criminals. Such is the case of Jacques Mesrine, a French gangster who committed many robberies, murders and kidnappings across France and Canada in the 1960s and 70s. His life was violent and brutal and ripe for a movie to be made about him.

This first film chronicles his life from 1959 to 1972 and his beginnings in the criminal underworld of France. After returning from military service in Algeria, Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) is forced to look for work. Despite his father getting him a legitimate job in a factory, he is drawn to work for Guido (Gérard Depardieu), a gangster to whom he is introduced by his childhood friend Paul (Gilles Lellouche). Mesrine starts to show a great aptitude for successfully carrying out robberies and begins to make large amounts of money. On a holiday to the Canary Islands, he meets Sofia (Elena Anaya) and he soon marries her after she becomes pregnant. After a stint in prison in 1960, Mesrine promises Sofia that he has left the criminal world, but is soon dragged back in.

Mesrine soon is divorced from Sofia after physically abusing her and begins committing robberies with Jeanne Schneider (Cécile De France). The pair eventually have to leave France because of the attention that they are getting from rival gangsters. They settle in Montreal and Mesrine meets John-Paul Mercier (Roy Dupuis), who becomes his new partner in crime.

This film portrays Mesrine as a likeable guy, despite being a murderer and thief. There is a moment during his first robbery where he has to think quickly to avoid being caught and this results in a lighthearted moment, but most of the film tends to head toward darker and more tense moments, including times when he has to murder rival gangsters or break out of a rather harsh prison. The movie uses glamorous shots and clever editing techniques such as split screen to show the lavish lifestyle that Mesrine leads.

Vincent Cassel is amazing in the lead role. I had only previously known him for roles in Oceans Twelve and Black Swan, but he can do so much with a major character like this. Gérard Depardieu plays the role that is perfectly suited for him in Guido, he carries off the menace with the threat of violence so well. Both Cécile De France and Roy Dupuis support Cassel superbly in the latter part of the film as their characters change so much.

Mesrine: Killer Instinct is a great beginning to this saga. The filmmaking is suave and portrays the 60s in the cool light that they were. Cassel is such an absorbing leading man.

Tune in next week for the review of Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1.