black swan + joan rivers
speaking of transformations into black, we did go see Black Swan last weekend. i know a lot of my friends were waiting with breathless anticipation for Tron and went opening night, but honestly i have almost zero interest in seeing Tron (although i did hear the soundtrack kicks ass (“Daft Punk’s Best Movie Yet” haha)). not to prejudge too much but it’s just not generally a genre of film i get excited about. but Black Swan is totally my thing and i was VERY EXCITED about it. it did not disappoint. it’s not for the faint of heart. i will try not to let any spoilers out here and just say that the combination of gorgeously bleak cinematography, dance, costuming (Rodarte!!), paranoid characters, schizophrenia and HEARTPOUNDING ANXIETY will leave you shaken.
while amazing and quite a departure from her normal self-confident-woman roles, i’m not sure that Natalie Portman’s performance deserves any more accolades than Barbara Hershey’s, who plays the part of Scary Stage Mom a little too well. THAT was some intensity. Mila Kunis was……Mila Kunis. no big stretch on her part as far as i could tell, not that much different than most of the other characters i’ve seen her do.
the story was decent (not saying more due to spoilers), but i loved the style of the film more than anything. if you’re not into artsy-noir, maybe Black Swan isn’t for you, and in that case you should go see Tron.
.::.
in other movie viewing reports, i also recently watched the documentary about Joan Rivers, “A Piece of Work“, and was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. lots of great recent history about the comedy world, but WOW – such an amazing woman. at 75+ years old she’s working non-stop, taking red-eye flights, traveling until 3am and getting up at 6:30 to work, doing multiple events a day, and as agile mentally and physically and as anyone i know, let alone most 75 year-olds. watching her made me tired and i’m not even 35 yet.
say what you want about her face (the plastic surgery thing is of course mentioned but not a huge part of the film at all), i was utterly astounded by the amount of wit and energy this woman has – STILL. i can’t even imagine what a dynamo she was 40 years ago. i’ve read that people age dramatically after they retire/stop working. she’s definitely proof that if you never slow down, you never grow old.
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Did the Black Swan terrify you? I thought it was one of the genuinely scariest movies I have ever seen. No big stretch on MK’s part? What about her crazy ballet training she had to undergo? It’s so multilayered. I loved how Rodarte did her practice wear. Like how she would have one shabbily crocheted leg warmer on her arm, etc.
I think JR was super-open about cosmetic surgery in her documentary. It seemed sad and based in body dysmorphia. She never thought she was beautiful enough. Weren’t there some amazing 60s fashuns in her archival footage?
i know that both Mila and Natalie trained very hard for their roles, and did almost all of the dancing themselves except a couple of difficult lifts. they also both lost almost 20 lbs, which on their tiny bodies is sort of incredible. so while MK’s dancing and commitment to the role was impressive, i maintain that her *character* wasn’t much of a divergence in style than most of the others i’ve seen her do, including the recent “Book of Eli”.