The Fighter

A quick note: this is my first boxing movie so for me cliches could seem fresh.

I was fairly dubious about The Fighter, the trailer didn't make it seem particularly exciting, and at that point I didn't really consider Mark Wahlberg a good actor. I'm so glad I was wrong.

The cinematography isn't amazing and I didn't really notice the music. But where The Fighter shines is in it's direction and cast. Mark Wahlberg is brilliant as Micky Ward. Frankly he deserved an Oscar nod but due to it's lack of showiness many people will feel it's Christian Bale's show. While he's great as the drug crazed boxer wash-up, Micky is the emotional centre of the film. Thanks to him I found myself cheering when he got a punch in and cringing when he got hit (OK I didn't really cheer, I didn't want to disturb the audience.). Mixing in the ring shots and clips which almost seem like the real thing, the fights are truly spectacular.

But for those who don't want to see two blokes smash each other about, the drama outside the ring is brilliant as well. The clashes between Micky's family (including 7 incredibly scary looking sisters) and his girlfriend and trainer work really well, as they don't make either party seem right, and show the difficulty Micky faces in choosing who to trust.

Despite it's gloomy nature, this could easily be one of the most uplifting and brilliant films of 2011.

Sorry for the lack of a review last week

Last week I fractured my little finger , so I haven't been up to it. But soon I'll do my review of the fighter....Bye...

Black Swan

So I've just decided to start a movie blog, as I spend so much time watching films (yeah I'm really lazy). So anyway here's my first post. If it goes well next year I can break out the champagne. Non-alcoholic champagne. OK lemonade.

Black Swan, simply put, is a beautiful film. It has a subdued colour scheme of mostly blacks and whites, it features recurring motifs of swans and some sort of reflection appears in energy every scene. Matthew Libatique, the director of photography, deserves a lot of credit. As does Clint Mansell, for composing yet another amazing film score. It's dark and twisted recreation of the music of Swan Lake is powerful, and fits the film perfectly. Well should fit it anyway. Unfortunately when the characters speak the beauty of film stops. The language they use is vulgar and ugly, and doesn't match real speech at all. And the story is pretty much a joke as well. Rather than making a tense psychological thriller, Darren Aronofsky has made a cliched horror film, which the audience should be able to guess every single twist.

This film was meant to be Natalie Portman's best role, and I would love to report this was true. In fact before I saw the film I thought the fact that ballerinas were getting cross at the fact that she isn't a ballerina was ridiculous. I thought "The main part has to be someone who can act.". But the truth be told a ballerina could of done it with ease. This isn't some complex role, it's just a run of the mill horror character. All she has to do is cry, squeal and occasionally get angry.

On an up note though, some of the scenes stuck with me for a while, and it does have some haunting elements. But ultimately it's a disappointing cocktail of Vincent Price and high art.