NOAH Review

Forget Paramount's horrible marketing strategy. Forget Glenn Beck. Forget everything that's been and said and done surrounding the film prior to its release, relating to Christian audiences, blasphemy, whatever else. This is a Darren Aronofsky film first and foremost. Let's start there. A clean slate, just like the earth after the flood.

The darkest biblical tale from the Book of Genesis, the story of Noah and the ark, is the premise of the writer and director's sixth feature. God, unsatisfied with his creation and what man has done to ruin it, decides to wash away the earth with a catastrophic flood, leaving Noah the task to start anew with his family and a boatload of animals. Aronofsky, who penned the script with frequent collaborator Ari Handel, takes liberties with the original story, adding in fantasy elements wherever the bible left holes. God is only referred to as the Creator and there are Watchers, towering rock monsters who help Noah build the ark. Aronofsky takes this age-old epic and applies it to the way we live today, with a ferocious message on anti-war and environmentalism, demanding the question of an almighty power doing this all over again to a world we seem so hellbent on destroying.

The acting is solid across the board, led by Russell Crowe who commands the screen as the chosen Noah, shouting his aggravation to the skies, and brooding, steadfast with his determination to the task. His wife, Naameh (Jennifer Connelly), presents a symbol of humanity and the fragility of life, who questions her husband's unwavering fate to God when faced with the most shameful of deeds -- that is, killing one's own in order to keep in God's vision of a world free from man. There are also Noah's three sons, Shem (Douglas Booth), Ham (Logan Lerman) and Japeth (Leo Carroll), along with an orphaned girl who the family takes in, Ila (Emma Watson, further proving her post-"Harry Potter" acting chops). She is to be Shem's wife and becomes the most crucial of all.

The visual effects ramp up as the stakes heighten, and a presentation of the dawn of time recalls Aronofsky's experimental side. And the score from composer mainstay Clint Mansell is robust and gorgeous. Technically speaking, the film is a marvel. Yet while there's a whole lot of howling and shockingly blunt violence in spurts, the whole ordeal surprisingly lacks a level of dramatic tension. And if Aronofsky wanted to deviate from the bible, he could've gone a whole lot weirder -- and it probably would've worked better if he had. 

"Noah" shares the mad obsessive nature of the protagonists from "Pi" and "Black Swan" and the clunky, overreaching ambition of the director's lesser work, "The Fountain." While a fine display of grandiose filmmaking, the spectacle doesn't work as much else. It's been a lot of hubbub over a movie that isn't actually all that interesting. Aronofsky should do himself a favor and get back to the art house.

BLACK SWAN Review

"Black Swan" (2010)

Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" is reminiscent of the director's previous work, "The Wrestler." Both films show a struggling person trying to perfect their professional career in performance. There a wrestler and here a ballerina. Both films also boasted an unforgettably physical and demanding performance from an actor. There Mickey Rourke and here Natalie Portman. This, however, is also an even better film. It is an exquisite horror film through and through echoing the feel and paranoia of Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and the electric eroticism of David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive."

Let's first make this clear: Natalie Portman deserves an Oscar for portraying Nina Sayers, the dedicated young woman who loses her mind in the face of her own obsessive strive toward perfection. It is a sublime performance of good and evil, dark and light, the themes of Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" that consume Nina, and it is fearless.

It is a new season with a ballet company in New York City where Nina performs under the scrutiny of director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). He is intelligent but arrogant, egotistic and frightening, a beast rumored to allure the principal ballerina of his choosing. Nina is selected to star in his reimagining of "Swan Lake," and though she is ecstatic, the pressure is on. She is replacing the former principal and Thomas' former lover, Beth MacIntyre, who is ferociously bitter and played by Winona Ryder in a role so brief yet enormously powerful and haunting.

New to the company is Lily (Mila Kunis), a free spirit from the west coast who flows with carefree expression and sexuality, the opposite of the frigid Nina. She enters as a professional rival but also a personal role model as Nina wishes to embody Lily's confidence. It is also what Thomas wants from Nina: more feeling, less technique.

It is clear Nina has been a dancer all her life. She lives in a cramped apartment with her mother, played pitch-perfect by Barbara Hershey, who loves her daughter dearly but is oppressive and overbearing calling Nina her "sweet girl." Nina's mother was once a ballerina herself, and one can't help but get the feeling she's now living vicariously through her. When Nina returns home, it's like returning to her jail cell.

Lily enters Nina's life and wants to free her from her own self-control. Mila Kunis is superb as the sultry temptress, especially during an intoxicating scene at a night club. Nina instead begins to lose herself as she blurs the line between performance and reality. The film opens inside Nina's dream and continues as a hallucinatory nightmare from there.

Thomas wants to see both sides of Nina, the white swan which she excels at but also the ferocity of the black swan, the one with which she struggles to convey. This use of black and white in the film is to be expected, but Aronofsky puts it to work in playful and tantalizing ways with visual effects that are subtle but chilling.

"Black Swan" is about an inner battle with Natalie Portman at its center, a woman tragically consumed by the demands of her profession while losing sight of all else. Her own life becomes "Swan Lake," and in effect the film garners an operatic and melodramatic style with Clint Mansell's take on the orchestrations of "Swan Lake" swelling through every scene which grow into an exhilaratingly manic, gorgeous and demented tour de force of passion. This is one of the year's very best films.

After a bit of a mid-summer slump, August churned out some notable movies, and now the year in movies really kicks into gear for the beginning of Oscar season. And even though some have been calling 2010 a lackluster year for movies so far, they need to hold their tongues before looking at what's to come. With that, listed below are the top 10 films I'm most looking forward to go see between now and December.

10. Love and Other Drugs

Director Edward Zwick, who's used to directing big Oscar bait flicks like "Defiance," "Blood Diamond" and "The Last Samurai," tones it down a notch with this down-to-earth romantic comedy starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. Although the plot seems pretty familiar of the genre, what gets me excited about it is Gyllenhaal and Hathaway working together for the first time since "Brokeback Mountain." Both are gifted actors and seeing their playful side together could be frivolous good fun, and who knows, maybe even something a little more.

9. It's Kind of a Funny Story


Here's another comedy, this time in the vain of those low-key indie comedies like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno." This will most likely be this year's rendition with the breakout star Zach Galifianakis of "The Hangover" taking on a still silly yet also slightly more serious role. I'm less excited about this movie than I am anxious just to see how it turns out. The young actors, Emma Roberts and Keir Gilchrist, look promising, but my worry is this: could we be looking at Galifianakis overkill? Either he'll shine here or just be too much.

8. Hereafter

It's another Clint Eastwood film, this one starring Matt Damon and another one meditating on the possibility and consequence of death. So, it's basically Eastwood back in his usual directing form after his little break with "Invictus," which did not meditate on death. Not much has been released about it aside from a brief synopsis telling of three people who are connected through some form of brush with death. Gloomy stuff, but it could also be powerful stuff à la "Million Dollar Baby."

7. Machete


You read that right. "Machete," the fake trailer from Robert Rodriguez which premiered in "Grindhouse" is now blown up into a feature length movie from Rodriguez himself. It stars Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez and, yes, Lindsay Lohan before she got hauled off to jail. If "Planet Terror" is any taste of what this is going to be, I'm totally there for all the uproariously bloody, absurd and hilarious action.

6. True Grit

The only thing I know about this latest from Joel and Ethan Coen is that it is a western remake of a 1969 original of the same name. We've learned from "No Country for Old Men" that the Coen brothers have excellent control of the western genre, so I'm definitely looking forward to this one. It stars Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin.

5. Another Year


What can I say? Mike Leigh cannot go wrong, and every review coming out of Cannes for this one was a rave. I have no idea what it's even about, but according to the trailer that just got released, it looks to be simply about people and relationships and, well, life in general. In other words, what Leigh does best. And it stars Jim Broadbent who I love.

4. Somewhere


After "Lost in Translation," my love for writer/director Sofia Coppola officially began. That movie still ranks among my top favorites of all time. This woman could pretty much direct a commercial about laundry detergent, and I'd be more than thrilled to see it. In any case, her newest film seems to be very similar in style to "Lost in Translation" with a focus on the relationship between two people, this time one between a man and his young daughter. It's going to have some great music from Phoenix, too.

3. The Social Network


The first trailer for David Fincher's new movie was a wondrous tease. Now that the second trailer is up, we can see some of the acting chops this movie has to offer, especially from Jesse Eisenberg most notable from movies ending in the word "land"--also known as "Adventureland" and "Zombieland." The movie boasts a timely and intriguing premise, too, about the founding of Facebook. The hype for this one is running high, and I'm sure Fincher will deliver.

2. Black Swan


Like Coppola, anything directed by Darren Aronofsky I'm going to be excited to check out. "Requiem for a Dream" is a classic and 2008's "The Wrestler" was an absolute knockout. And so, upon hearing that his latest movie would be about a ballet dancer, I was immediately fascinated. Then came that startling photo of Natalie Portman with a porcelain-white face and black makeup. Finally came the trailer which was astonishing and breathtaking. It absolutely solidified in my mind that this was one of the most anticipated movies of the fall for me.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1


Well, it's Harry Potter and it is, without a doubt, the movie I am most looking forward to seeing. And it's not just because I'm some sort of Harry Potter junkie or crazy fan. This isn't "Twilight" we're dealing with here. These are legitimately great movies, each and every one of them, and I don't see how this one could be any different. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" even made it into my top films list for last year. It was that good. And since this first part of the franchise's finale is coming from the same filmmaking team, we're more than likely looking forward to something just as good. Besides, we gotta see how this whole thing ends.