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12/28/10 - A great night out at the movies
Why I enjoyed my Tuesday night
Two reasons:
Black Swan
The performance of a lifetime
Black Swan is one beautifully grotesque movie. It is extremely dark and disturbing. It is also very true to human nature and the lengths that some people will go to get what they want. It utterly terrified and touched me at the same time. It redefines “getting the part”. When the credits rolled, I instantly wanted to see it again. It’s easily one of the best movies of 2010.
Black Swan contains moments of sheer scary brilliance that even the best horror films don’t even touch on. There are scenes which include the following: skin being ripped from a person’s finger, a woman jabbing a nail file into her own face, and a brutal murder involving a mirror shard being stabbed into someone’s abdomen. Each of these scenes serves a very specific and meaningful purpose. They establish the protagonist’s slow descent into the realm of insanity. The pacing in this movie is phenomenal.
Speaking of that protagonist, her name is Nina Sayers and she is brilliantly portrayed by the gorgeous Natalie Portman. Portman deserves to be and will be nominated for an Academy Award and it certainly would not hurt my feelings if she just so happened to win it. This is without question her finest performance to date. Vincent Cassel gives a remarkable performance as Thomas Leroy. Kudos also to Mila Kunis, whom I really like in almost anything. She is most widely recognized as Jackie from That ‘70s Show but she has done a great job at establishing herself as a fine actress. The sex scene involving Portman and Kunis is both shocking and interesting and I don’t mean “interesting” in a perverted way.
She just wanted that part so badly. That’s all it was. She knew she would have to sacrifice a lot to get it. But she didn’t suspect that she would go this far. Her mother tried to warn her. She waved it off as her being too “overprotective”. She should have listened. But she got the perfectness she was always aiming for. Unfortunately, it came at an irredeemable cost.
Go see Black Swan. It was well worth the $8.50 I invested in it.
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True Grit
Better than the original?
And, directly after Black Swan, I saw another instant classic, True Grit. The Coen Brothers have done it again. However, for the first time in their careers, they have crafted a Western. But True Grit is not a Western in the traditional sense of the word. Actually, it’s not really one at all; it just simply takes place in the Old West. Everyone has seen the trailer by now so I’m sure they know that it’s about a little girl who hires a man to hunt down the man who killed her father. But, as is the case with all of the Coen Brothers films, it’s about so much more than its surface reveals. It’s about determination, friendship, surprisingly, and, of course, what it takes to have true grit.
The Coen Brothers have always written fantastic dialogue. Every scene in True Grit crackles with wit and, in a lot of instances, humor. My favorite scene involves Cogburn and LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) having a shootout with pieces of cornbread. I haven’t laughed that hard in quite some time on any movie. It reminded me of the absurdity that the Coens brought to the table with the highly underrated The Big Lebowski, which also starred Jeff Bridges in probably his most recognizable role as The Dude.
Bridges is one of the best actors in the world and he hams it up in the best way possible as Cogburn. In the original True Grit from 1969, John Wayne portrayed Cogburn and it garnered him his only Oscar ever. Bridges will receive a nomination but he probably could care less because he played the part how he wanted to and that’s that in his mind. No, the real star of True Grit is Hailee Steinfeld. She portrays Ross and, oh gosh, she is amazing. This girl is 14 years old and she steals the whole movie. She’s already been nominated for a SAG Award and will undoubtedly be on the list of Academy Award nominees. Matt Damon and Josh Brolin don’t do anything on their parts to garner special attention but they do some pretty good work.
True Grit is not perfect nor is it the Coens’ best movie but I’m willing to overlook the small stuff in favor of the big picture. It doesn’t get any more exciting than the gunfight scene between Cogburn and a group of outlaws. It doesn’t get any funnier than target practice on cornbread. It doesn’t get any more touching than when Cogburn carries Ross the rest of the way after her horse dies. For a pure adrenaline rush and the bittersweet feeling of ultimate closure, it doesn’t get any better than True Grit.
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Final thoughts:
Wow. December 28, 2010 was a great night at the movies. I had the honor and privilege of sharing the experience with my brother Caleb and Jennifer Cortina, my very best friend in the world. I saw two movies that will both go on my top ten list of the year. Of the two, Black Swan was probably my favorite (Caleb disagrees). I connected with it on a primeval level while my enjoyment of True Grit came more from what was happening on-screen. But both are terrific. I’ve read all of the critics’ reviews. They generally like both films but disagree that they are the stuff of greatness or will be remembered years from now. I don’t care what the critics say. I loved both movies and will remember them the rest of my life.
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