An Education

So sometimes a film will sit in my queue forever and by the time it pops up in the mailbox, I've quite forgotten why I stuck it in line in the first place. An Education was a little sleeper that sort of shocked everyone by getting a trio of Oscar nominations including Best Picture a couple of years ago despite the fact that almost no one had apparently seen it. No one went to see it because nothing blows up in it. That said, I loved it. Want to watch a smartly written, smoothly acted period piece that perfectly captures 1961 (albeit in Europe,) from the clothes to the cars to the feminist angst? This is your film.

Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is 16 and like all 16 year olds before and since - itching to get on with her life. Her father (Alfred Molina) dreams that she will attend Oxford where she might catch herself a suitable husband to assure her future, and all things bend to this singular goal. Bored with the drudgery of school and the simplicity of the average adolescent boy, Jenny finds herself enamored with the sophisticated David (Peter Sarsgaard,) a MUCH older rogue who gives her a ride home one rainy day. David is the bearer of a different life - of clubs, concerts and art galleries - all the things she's been waiting for. To stay the course or leap, to gain the education of books or of life? What 16 year old is up to that decision?

Carey Mulligan was nominated for Best Actress deservedly. Her Jenny is whip smart and yet sooo naive - it was a brilliant balancing act. Sarsgaard was deliciously slimy. And then you have Molina AND Emma Thompson in fine supporting roles. Director Lone Scherfig perfectly captures the era. But the real star of this film was Nick Hornby's screenplay. I can't remember when I've enjoyed dialogue this much. See the fine website here.

The Kids are All Right

All the rage at Sundance, nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress, said actress being the wonderful Annette Bening, with Julianne Moore AND Mark Ruffalo, so somehow I was expecting something. Hmmmm. Fairly early on in The Kids Are All Right one of our 'excellent at the communicating' lesbians attempts to explain a bit of pornography that one of the kids has discovered in Mom's sock drawer. Kid asks mom why not watch woman on woman stuff? Mom's reply: those films usually have two straight women pretending... and it lacks authenticity. BINGO!

Synopsis: Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) are raising their two kids in suburban marital bliss when younger male child decides that he needs to discover his biological father and talks older female child into making that happen. Enter bio-dad (Mark Ruffalo) to disrupt marital bliss. He's an honorable bohemian and there is much good advice, and food and wine and all is peachy right until he beds one of the lesbians. That about covers it.

I'm not at all offended by a film normalizing same sex marriage and parenting. I am offended by said film using two straight actors with zero chemistry (zip) to play one dimensional gay stereotypes. That said I also find it vaguely offending that there is a great deal of sweaty adulterous heterosexual sex in a film that is supposed to be about a committed gay couple and their kids. And that the heterosexual guy is ultimately portrayed as the heavy, when pretty much everyone is behaving abysmally. Why, oh why, did this film get so much attention?
I guess because no one makes films about real gay people leading real lives. Skip this and watch Brokeback Mountain. Website here.

Black Swan

I usually don't read stuff written about a film before I write my little review, but I saw Black Swan in the theatre and that was quite a while ago. So I checked out the synopsis on the website... and then I checked out a couple of other sources, and I have to tell you that a lot has been written about this film and most of it is... well, misleading? at best. This isn't a psycho-thriller... it isn't a story about a dangerous friendship... or rivalry in the world of ballet. Black Swan is about mental illness and the descent into psychosis. That the protagonist just happens to be a ballerina contributes significantly to the surreal nature of that psychosis, to be sure. Oh, and sex. It's definitely a movie about sex.

Nina (Natalie Portman) is a talented ballerina striving for her first starring role. She's a cliche of sorts, dedicated to the point of having no life at all, living at home with her overbearing mother, childlike, naive and very, very needy. When her slightly sleazy director offers her the role of the Swan Queen, he maintains that he doubts she can handle the part of the Black Swan; she's far too virginal to play a seductress. To make matters worse, a new girl has joined the troupe, a sexpot named Lily (Mila Kunis) who seems interested in the starring role herself. As Nina is urged to explore her sexuality and to push her limits farther and farther, things start going ... odd. Is Lily out to destroy her or seduce her? What's with that rash? And can she really embody the guile and cunning of the Black Swan? Perfectly.

Natalie Portman portrays the fragile Nina perfectly indeed and earned every inch of that Oscar for Best Actress. Despite the fact that this story is deeply sexual, writer/director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) manages to keep things hot without letting it slip toward porn via clever camera angles and minimal nudity (the infamous lesbian scene is mostly implied.) But more importantly the onset of a psychotic break from reality is really pretty accurate. Little hallucinations gradually lead to bigger and bigger delusions until Nina (and the audience) is not sure what is real and what is not. And like most people with mental illness, Nina is primarily dangerous only to herself. For that, I applaud Mr. Aronofsky. I will try to forgive him the prerequisite overbearing mother archetype. And whether you enjoy ballet or not, the final dance is quite possibly one of the most breathtaking scenes on film. Period. Website here.