One Ugly Duckling Hoping To See A Black Swan

I know, this is one trailer that’s been doing the circuit for a long time. Way too long. It’s almost as bad as when I was in America and I went to see Transformers. They showed the teaser trailer for Cloverfield at the beginning, and after getting all hyped up and excited about it, like a giddy school-girl does when she hears a boy fancies her, I was dumb-struck when I found out I had a year-long wait. They seem to be doing this more and more. I understand you need to get people interested in advance, but surely, a whole year is way, way too long. Way.

Anyway Black Swan is my new lust-after movie. I’m desperate to see it. I stumbled onto Dan Aronofsky a couple of years back. Skimming through my Sky channels, I noticed Requiem For A Dream had been on for just a couple of minutes. There and then I decided to tune in. About 2 hours later I sat, staring silently at the T.V. I had cried so much I was clutching an empty toilet paper roll. The film actually blew my mind apart. I spent the rest of the night trying to digest what I’d seen, and then I decided I would never watch it again. After that I developed a curiosity with the director and I proceeded to watch The Fountain. Another film that, whilst it didn’t have quite the same still-shock effect, was so interesting and beautiful I was mesmerized. Then of course The Wrestler, which I would say is probably his most mainstream film to date (anyone else noticed he’s going to be directed Wolverine 2?), but it was fantastic. What a great performance by Mickey Rourke eh? I’ve still got to watch Pi, but don’t you worry yourself over it, it’s on the list. Chillax.

But Black Swan is currently plaguing my mind; its feathers are tentatively tickling my film fancies. I’m hoping against hope to get last-minute tickets for the London Film Festival Gala Screening, but I don’t think many people will change their minds about going. It’s going to be huge. Nevertheless, I shall continue to click refresh on the BFI LFF homepage just in case. Yes you may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one… *thanks goes to John Lennon*

Here’s the trailer if you’ve been in space circling the planet for the last 4-6 months and haven’t managed to catch it yet. It’s going to be hella good.

Related Articles

• Toronto: Taking a twirl with Black Swan (timeoutny.com)
• First Look: Natalie Portman In ‘Black Swan’ (pinkisthenewblog.com)
• International ‘Black Swan’ Posters (slashfilm.com)

Villains are the new Superheroes in Despicable Me

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes we all like a good old family flick, but with the multitude of child-friendly movies out there, is there a new twist to be taken? A road less travelled? Well how about making the villain the protagonist of the story? Despicable Me does just that, in entertaining style. Okay, so Disney’s Emperor’s New Groove may sort of already done it, but this is animated man, give them a break.

Steve Carell voices Gru, the bestest, greatest supervillain there is or ever was (not sure why I haven’t heard of him before really…). But with a new kid on the block trying to steal all the dastardly plots to ruin the world, Gru needs a new plan to maintain his status. So what does he decide to do? Only steal the moon of course. Part of his diabolical scheme is to adopt three little kiddie-winks too, cute and annoying in equal measure. Okay maybe annoying tips the scale a little, but that’s just my child-fearing opinion. These little brats, urr I mean, cuties, manage to show Gru the meaning of life, seemingly knowing more about it than he does.

The minions are probably the funniest part of the movie, go and see it in 3D and hang on for the end credits, a nice little way of using the latest technology and have a bit fun. If you’ve got kids who love 3D and fancy a bit of mindless entertainment then this is a worthy choice.

Thumbs midway for me.

 

Related Articles

• Despicable Me, review (telegraph.co.uk)
• Steve Carell’s ‘Despicable Me’ Trumps ‘Eclipse’ (movers.net)
• Steve Carell wants an evil role (mirror.co.uk)

Blast from the Past

Image via Wikipedia

Having Sky TV has done nothing for my productivity levels. Everytime I wander into the living room aimlessly my arm seems to wander towards the remote and, completely independently of my mind, flick through the movie channels for a bit of film-friendly procastination.

Today my finger clicked ‘Select’ on Erin Brockovich (2000). Despite its tendency towards over-dramatisation and Julia Roberts constantly-ready-to-spill-out bust line, this movie has got some good things going for it. It’s got the cutesy kids and it scores highly on the play-with-my-emotions meter, but at the end of the day it’s a movie with a bit of heart. It’s also one where the female protagonist goes around showing the men that whatever they can do, the women of the world can too. Even if we do like wearing short mini-skirts and low-cut tops while we’re doing it.

And let’s not forget the Oscar winning performance from Julia Roberts, an award that she well and truly deserved for her portrayal of a former beauty queen who wasn’t afraid to take on a massive corporation to get justice. In short, the beauty queen done good.

Watch this when you can, but if you’ve got a bit of a soft side make sure you have some tissues to hand…