Review: No Strings Attached (2011) TH

Snuggles and pancakes not included

What if your friends step in and say you might be a hopeless fool to pass up what you have despite how unconventional it appears? Yet, those tingling little jitters aren't there, that is unless you're afraid to confront them or are purposely pushing them away.

Fifteen years ago Adam (Kutcher) tried to get a little somethin' somethin' at summer camp with an emotional ruse about his parents getting divorced but was deflected from the unaffectionate Emma (Portman). Adam and Emma by chance catch each other five years ago at a frat party and she invites him to her father's funeral as if it's just some "stupid thing." He shares that he likes her but she's again upfront that they probably won't ever see each other. Now, one year ago they stumble into each other for the third time and he gets her phone number. From a drunken stupor about finding out that his dad is with someone he knows, he ends up at her place naked, thus starting their physical, get-in-get-out, wham-bam-thank-you-mam entanglement that comes with no strings attached, rules and boundaries included to make sure of it.

This is a comedy first and foremost, though it begins a little too headstrong and in the audience's face as there's no build up to the point-blank jokes. It's incredibly self-aware of its own ridiculousness and it becomes forced at times. Though after meeting more characters and getting an outline, this handles the unabashed and crude humor a little better as it turns over to the relationship angle. Despite the R rating--which is more for drug use and cursing--this takes a PG-13-like route about the physical side and doesn't exploit the angle such as provocative pictures like "9 1/2 Weeks" or the more extreme "9 Songs" as it's a little more fun and goofy than seductive. "No Strings Attached" also transitions between phases of growth as they continue to see each other more frequently to the point of appreciating one another and liking the stability--yet still don't use those no, no words like "girlfriend" and "boyfriend."

This starts wild and crazy and then lessens down to a mildly serious simmer that leaves the characters both torn between regretful decisions and emotional tangles. If it's not obvious enough this is going to get a little sappy for the hopefully romantic and everybody's going to end up some kind of winner no matter if it's how they planned it or even if it is who they thought it would be with. But that should have been expected from the humorous angle, as there's nothing dark or racy about this. Sometimes even coming with hip and trendy music and playing on the immature angle despite everyone's age.

"No Strings Attached" on its surface is an easy movie that's made to be briefly rewarding and give a momentary good feeling when the credits roll. It comes with some challenges for the skeptics, such as how it deals with that coincidental thing called "Fate" that relationship movies abuse too often with all too convenient scenarios. Yes, this definitely has them--stumbling into each other at the coffee shop and all--but they're a little more buried than the normal formula as some complications arise and time is spread out. This borrows some conventions, as well as goes against a few, such as the guy being the fonder one despite growing up with an absent mother but instead a playboy, celebrity dad who chases tail.

The co-stars range from token black and gay guy, to socially awkward for the sake of quirkiness if we cinema goers haven't seen enough of it. The sister adds the element of marriage and the alpha male co-worker poses a threat by attempting to step in. Despite the cliches, some of the specific scenarios promote easy beguilement to the storyline even if they don't tally up enough to make this a classic down the road. Natalie Portman plays Emma by going through a few different phases from emotionless and direct to sentimental and confused. Her character development feels a little up and down as she attempts to transition back and forth till she's an adapted person, which makes the tone of the picture go from dealing with a risque subject, to a rom-com, to reevaluating herself by searching for answers. There's not much to anticipate from Ashton Kutcher's role as he plays Adam with a big heart, which makes him spontaneous, giving and sometimes a little slow on the upkeep and spaced out, which gives him that teddy bear persona that he consistently carries from movie to movie.

Director: Ivan Reitman (Ghost Busters, Kindergarten Cop, My Super Ex-Girlfriend)
Starring: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline, Greta Gerwig, Ludacris
Website: IMDB

REVIEW: Leon: The Professional (1995)

Director: Luc Besson

Starring: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman

Website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110413/

Mathilda: Is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a kid?
Léon: Always like this.

Excellence. The Professional is a 1995 action film that has a plot that’s been done many times both before and after. But when it’s done this well, you won’t find me complaining. This is a good, timeless story, and it’s carried out with grace, power and weight.

A big part of this is due to the actors. The film’s tryst of leads – Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman – all do awesome jobs and really act their hearts out. I think Portman might even be my favorite. I’ve never seen her act this well – not even in Black Swan. She plays a young girl who lives in a crappy apartment with her crappy misogynistic, seedy wart of a father and her family, half of which isn’t even really related to her. When they’re all killed because the father botched up a drug deal (including her little brother, who she does love), Portman seeks revenge and decides she wants to become an assassin.

This character is just wonderful, bringing out all the good and bad of a preteen girl (Portman was very young when she did this role). The scenes in the beginning where she interacts with her family are all very real, as they fight over the TV and shout at one another in a way so coarse and so real that I felt kind of uncomfortable watching it, just like I would if I was at a friend’s house and this kind of thing was going on. There’s one bit where she calls up the school for troubled kids that she’s enrolled in and poses as her mother, saying that she (Portman herself) is dead. That’s depressing. But I also think it really shows the kind of melodrama and over the top angst that a girl at that age usually has.

But she wouldn’t be anything in this movie without Jean Reno, who plays a quiet, reserved hitman named Leon, who lives in the same hotel that she does. When her family is killed, she begs him to take her in, and when she finds out he’s an assassin, she goads him into teaching her how to kill, too. Now, this character isn’t really that original – he’s been done before. The relationship is pretty reminiscent of Terminator 2, with Schwarzenegger and the kid, as well as many other action movies. It’s a very traditional story. But Reno really sells his character, and I found his wide-eyed innocence coupled with the stoic demeanor endearing. He really seemed like the kind of guy who was good at his job but didn’t want to be, like he was forced into it by unfortunate circumstances.

Oldman is…well, it’s Gary Oldman, you know the kind of character he plays, because it’s the same character from The Fifth Element (another Luc Besson movie) and from Book of Eli – a weird, over the top, sadistic madman. Does he just have a quota for these kinds of roles that he has to meet or else they’ll fire him? He does OK here. I found him very entertaining, but his character didn’t have much development and wasn’t one of the more interesting parts of the story. By the end, when you start seeing him more often, he sort of brings down the atmosphere and makes the whole thing more generic.

The directing is powerful and sweeping, with everything falling into place like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. There are emotional parts and action-packed parts, and they come together quite wonderfully. The movie is basically about the common bonding between two people and how they help one another. It touches on themes of friendship and humanity – there’s a running thing about how pigs are better than humans because they don’t cause any harm or violence to others. This movie isn’t going to change anyone’s life, but it does tell a good story and does it well. 

Review: Black Swan (2010)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis

Website: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan/

"I just want to be perfect."

-Nina

Darren Aronofsky is a puzzling director, but he has gotten better since the rather overwhelming – to the point of being a burden to even watch – Requiem for a Dream. The Fountain was artful, if not a little lacking in substance, but where he really got good was The Wrestler. That was just a great movie. And continuing this brilliance is his new film, Black Swan. Let’s get started, then!

This is a really great movie without any kind of restraint as it hurtles through boundaries like a blazing hellcat. Aronofsky’s directing is spastic and harsh. The lighting is very cold, unsettling in its mass of clinical whites and dark, dank shadows. And so the atmosphere is set.

Black Swan is a film about passion and obsession. Natalie Portman's character is driven by a maniacal lust to become a dancer, and the things she goes through - all this physical and sexual madness - is just insane, and yet she perseveres. She really puts on a masterful, captivating performance and makes you believe that she really is this character, Nina Sayers.

And let’s talk about Nina for a second. She really is a great character, with enough depth and texture to her that you really feel like she’s an actual person. Nina is beautiful but insecure and somewhat childish. She lives with her mother in a small apartment in a crowded city and really, really wants that big role in the ballet production coming up. She thinks that it will define her, like she can’t exist and be happy with her existence without this one, prideful achievement. Her mother is domineering and strict and most likely had something to do with her fragility and insecurity.

This is a movie about a lot of things, among them art, work and all kinds of sexuality. It merges the real life trials of doing demanding work like ballet dancing with shocking, often grotesque psychological horror that is subtle and fleeting and yet horrific at the same time. Nina experiences cuts that appear out of nowhere on her back, arms and hands. There are several jarring, nightmareish scenes throughout the film that accentuate and pepper Nina’s gradual mental decline.

She gets involved with another dancer named Lily (Mila Kunis), who she sees as a threat to her and her role in the performance. Even though she doesn’t have much of a reason to, Nina slowly grows more and more certain that Lily is trying to kill her and take the role for herself. There is the infamous lesbian scene between the two of them. It really drives home the amount of sexual tension there is in this film. The lesbian scene is not even really sexy, or arousing at all. It’s really more creepy and unsettling than anything. Female nudity can only do so much in the face of this film’s dark, crawling sense of fear and shadowy atmospherics. The film does an outstanding job creating paranoia inside the viewer, and the result at the end is a unique blend of sensuality and fear, two opposing forces colliding and interweaving into the movie’s madness. It is one of the film’s strongest points.

One scene that sums up the theme of the movie is when Nina goes to visit a broken ex-dancer in the hospital, because it just points out the viciousness and immediacy of the profession she’s chosen. There are no demons here, no spooks around the corner or ghosts in the belfry – just the cold, hard fact of her job. People come, people go, so you have to get that special part, make your mark on the scene and seize the day while it’s still yours, because tomorrow it could belong to someone else. It’s a dangerous edge to teeter on, and as people are emotionally driven and irrational, they may not be able to deal with it. The mind is fragile, easily breakable, easily given in to pressure.

This fragility and fleetingness is really the core of Black Swan. The climax of the film involves a stunning, breathtakingly good ballet performance from Nina and a subsequent collapse in blood. She works herself to the bone. Death for her art. The utmost devotion to it. Beautiful, haunting, demented and unforgettable, Black Swan is a dark trip from a director on his way up. One of the year’s finest.