Posts tagged Black Swan
“Your Highness” Your Lowbrowness
0April 18, 2011
(“Your Lowbrowness”)
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Your Highness looks like a stoner comedy, walks like a stoner comedy, and quacks like a stoner comedy, but the only way that audiences would laugh while watching this mess of a movie would be if they actually were on drugs.
Sure, James Franco is listed in the credits, but I am more inclined to believe that it is his evil twin, Frank Jameso, who is in this failure of a film. You know, the one who hosted the Academy Awards in 2011.
In fact, Franco doesn’t even get top billing in the credits. That dishonor goes to Danny McBride, who also wrote the movie and not so coincidentally gave himself the bigger role.
And rounding out this trio of turpitude is Natalie Portman, whose two distinguishing characteristics in this film are reminders of what she lost in order to make her next film, the excellent 2010 Black Swan.
But I procrastinate.
The story begins with a mildly amusing sight gag of a hanging that fails to succeed because the hangers are little people and they forgot to adjust the gallows for the height of the normal-sized hangee.
He is Prince Thadeous of the Kingdom of Mourn, played by McBride, younger and less accomplished brother of Prince Fabious, played by Franco–I mean, by the evil twin Jameso.
In fact, Thadeous is so weak that when he eventually expresses his overpowering obsession, it comes out only as the tepid, “It would be nice to be king.”
The main plot is that Belladonna, the bride-to-be of Prince Fabious and who is played by Zooey Deschanel, is captured by an evil wizard, and so Prince Fabious goes on another quest to rescue her, this time taking his stumbling, bumbling brother, Prince Thadeous, along with him, which is the second prince’s first quest.
Along the way they encounter Isabel, played by Portman, who is on her own quest. And so they join forces.
In other words, this is a sword and sorcery spoof.
However, mostly it is a waste of time that is lowbrow, knuckle dragging, tasteless, overblown, too over the top and too gross. No, make that three over the top and three gross and therefore four tedious and five unfunny.
Your Highness could even be called “Your Lowbrowness,” but then that would give it more credit than it deserves.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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22 Boom – Academy Awards Special – Episode 28
0January 22, 2011
In this television special 22 Boom hosts Dan Culberson’s Hotshots Reviews of Academy Award Winning Movies Alice in Wonderland, Blue Valentine, The Town, Country Strong, Inception, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right, The Fighter, The Social Network, and our Music video section with 3OH!3 – My First Kiss and Best Coast – Crazy For You.
Originally Aired – January, 2011
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“Black Swan” Ode to a Ballerina
0December 22, 2010
“Ode to a Ballerina”
BLACK SWAN is a psychological thriller about the world of ballet, an art form that has been around since 1581 and is probably not everyone’s cup of tea.
However, if you admire beauty in any form, would you prefer green or pekoe, plain or cream and sugar with yours?
Directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder, it is about one ballerina’s desire to dance the lead in a bold new production of “Swan Lake” and her pursuit of perfection in order to obtain the role.
Nina Sayers is a young ballerina whose technique is flawless, and as she tells her mother on the morning of the first day of rehearsal at the beginning of a new season, “He promised to feature me more this season.”
She is talking about Thomas Leroy, the director of the company, and he wants to open the season with a production of “Swan Lake” in which the star ballerina will dance both the roles of the white Swan Queen and the Black Swan.
Thomas tells Nina that if he was only casting the White Swan, the role would be hers, but a private encounter in his office with Nina convinces him to take a chance and cast Nina as the star of the production.
Can she handle the pressure?
Can she ignore the jealousy of the other dancers?
Can she measure up to the director’s expectations?
Now, naturally there are up-and-coming dancers involved, as well as other dancers who are past their prime, including Nina’s own mother, who gave up her promising career as a ballerina in order to have Nina.
And in a nod to the mythology of “Swan Lake” itself, the audience is forced to ask is the story real or is it surreal? However, in the case of the finished production, the surrealism works. And the music is not so bad, either.
Keep in mind that there is already a great deal of Oscar buzz about this wondrous and glorious film about a wondrous and glorious art form.
BLACK SWAN is a mythical ode to a ballerina which shows that being obsessed with the pursuit of perfection can lead to tragic results, and to paraphrase the words of Keats, “That is all you know and all you need to know.”
