black swan

i walked away from black swan wondering if i liked it or not...i wasn't exactly sure...but the movie has stayed with me more than most i've seen recently, so i'm going to go with "liked it".

the trailers for the movie are pretty accurate: is this stalking / sabotage thing only in nina's (natalie portman) head, or are people around her really trying to psych her out? everytime the viewer thinks he has it figured out, suddenly it's turned all around again. this happens half a dozen times, at least.

a tad heavy on the black vs white theme in set decorating particularly with the ballet director's office, with random white and black props tossed in the background.

i also had a small quibble with how meek nina was in her "white" mode...could someone in this art form have gotten where she got, with no backbone? but, that made it all the more gratifying when the black swan emerges throughout the movie.

and the black swan "performance" is easily an emotional highlight of the movie...pretty awesome. it's reported that natalie portman studied ballet for a year in preparation for this role. i wonder what real ballet dancers think of her technical performance.

same director as the wrestler, and requiem for a dream, both of which i like a lot.

(note: the eyebrows made their appearance)

natalie portman's eyebrows II

dear project leader:

remember when i posted the comment about natalie portman's eyebrows a few weeks ago? here's what i was talking about:

the keywords "natalie portman's eyebrows" are the keywords that have driven the most traffic to this blog, just so you know.

natalie portman's eyebrows

dear project leader:

this alien saw brothers today (tobey maguire, jake gyllenhaal, natalie portman's eyebrows, and a bitter little girl with chubby cheeks). it was actually pretty good...this alien stayed awake the whole time, though much of the audience seemed distracted. maguire's character was absolutely insane (as the previews showed); this alien could hear several members of the audience wondering how they could get PTSD so they could lose 50 pounds, too...maguire was breakably thin. gyllenhaal's character wasn't quite as endearing as the viewer was supposed to believe.

portman's eyebrows did their weird "upset face" thing where they're completely flat from the outsides to about the last 3/8" inside, when they suddenly bend STRAIGHT UP her forehead.

and poor mare winningham (from st elmo's fire), already playing a grandma-wife to sam shepard.

the part (also in the preview) where little girl blurts out that mommy and uncle were having an ongoing sexual thing wasn't quite believable to this alien. but maguire's big bag of crazy was totally believable. this alien thinks toby is not going to be confronted anytime soon, for fear that he's carrying a fire poker in his back pocket.

note: the lighting in several scenes was...shaky. like the guy holding the reflector screen was shivering. odd.

the husband found the movie very affecting, fwiw.