Film Review: Black Swan

In many ways, Black Swan is the companion to Darren Aronofsky's 2008 Oscar nominated The Wrestler. In a crude comparison, you could say it's something like The Wrestler for girls, replacing said sport of wrestling with ballet. Indeed, the two films are strikingly similar in both their set-up, themes and conclusion. To a great extent, Aronofsky repeats the same formula with Black Swan, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Nina Sayers (Portman) dreams of being prima ballerina in her company's upcoming production, Swan Lake. When director Thomas (Cassel) makes her dream come true, he encourages the innocent and pure Nina to explore her 'dark side' so that she be better able to embody the dual role of Swan Queen and Black Swan. Obsessed with being technically perfect, Nina soon begins to feel both the physical and mental pressures of the role, not helped by the ambiguous intentions of fellow ballerina, Lily (Kunis).

The similarities with The Wrestler are stark. Both are set largely in dejected backstage environments which, in a sense, embody everything their characters are. Both live for their livelihoods and while this is admirable in many respects, it's also a depressingly drab and bleak existence. Both Portman and Rourke's characters go through extreme physical stresses of their respective professions as they push their bodies to the limit. Most of all, both films are tragic character studies about how far people will go to achieve 'perfection'.

Aronofsky certainly has a talent for turning out the best in his actors. Like with Rourke in The Wrestler, Portman, whose performance here won her an Academy Award for Best Actress, will probably be remembered for this more than anything else. While the strain appears more literal and physical at first, Portman carries Nina's transition into mental descent astonishingly as the physical and psychological stresses of the role become symbiotic. The metamorphosis from fragile, over-protected girl to aggressive, rebellious woman, while maintaining her sense of vulnerability, is nothing short of captivating as Nina's dual Swan Queen/Black Swan role manifests itself in her mind's reality.

In spite of the parallels with The Wrestler, Black Swan is sensational in its own right. Portman is excellent, dealing harrowingly with sensitive subjects, particularly allusions to anorexia and bulimia, in unflinching manner. There's a lot about this movie which is incredibly unnerving, but its themes are equally fascinating. As Nina declares in a moment of serenity, "I was perfect".

Film Review: The Expendables

A rogue CIA agent turned drug lord (Roberts) has funded a coup on a small island in the Gulf of Mexico through his puppet, General Garza (Zayas). Letting his emotions get the better of him upon seeing the state of the island, Barney Ross (Stallone) and his gang of washed-up ageing mercenaries return to wreak destruction on the bad guys. The plot is, quite frankly, a bloody load of shit. But let's be honest, you didn't come to see that, did you? To be perfectly clear here, by critical standards this is a terrible film. Deep, winding character arcs, Oscar-worthy performances and clever writing there is not. Neither is this a parody of those 80s action films like Commando and Rambo we grew up with. Rather, The Expendables is a film that could easily have come from the decade itself. It is a raucous ride fuelled with testosterone, coated in nostalgia with a sprinkling of dynamite.

All the characters in this film are incredibly generic, one-dimensional beings. There's the short guy, subject to the same joke throughout the film (Jet Li), the guy with the cauliflower ear (Couture), the obligatory huge black dude with a love of heavy weaponry (Crews), the wise old sage (Rourke), whose role is surprisingly rather small in this, and the inevitable member of the team you can never trust (Lundgren). One can only reason that if you're going to cast every action star on the planet in the same film then there really isn't going to be much room to manoeuvre around all the huge egos. For this film to be truly complete it would only have needed the presences of Jean Claude Van Damme, Couture's role evidently penned for him, and that weirdo Steven Seagal, both whom turned down Stallone's best efforts to sign them. Roberts is perfectly cast as the 'sophisticated' slime-ball bad guy accompanied by his massive bodyguard in the form of cueball 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. David Zayas' tinpot dictator, General Garza - whom you may recognise from the TV series Dexter - is just one big fat cliché. Indeed, everyone else takes a back seat to Stallone and Statham who actually make for a pretty entertaining duo on screen. There was definitely a little spark between the two, notably where in one scene Statham's Lee Christmas introduces himself as 'Buda' and Stallone as 'Pest'. Honestly, it's funnier than it sounds.

Of course, the talking point on everyone's lips was the inclusion of the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mr 'Die Hard' Bruce Willis. If Stallone had left it a secret for audiences to see in the theatre then you may have been forgiven for thinking this wasn't merely a bad publicity stunt. Cheekily however Stallone marketed the entire film on this 'gimmick', displaying it for the cheesy nostalgia fest it really is from the word 'go'. The scene itself adds absolutely nothing to the plot (or lack of) and one might easily be mistaken for thinking it no different to one of their Planet Hollywood gatherings. It really is full strength cheddar, but if you grew up with these bad-asses it is also jaw-droppingly cool. Even though the acting is so contrived and wooden it is nonetheless highly amusing to watch these ridiculously jacked geriatrics taking pot-shots at one-another, particularly one of Stallone's jibes at the Austrian behemoth.

As far as action sequences go The Expendables is absolutely insane where everything in this film defies logic. From Stallone running about 20 feet behind a plane and then making some immense jump to 'just' latch on, to the subsequent aircraft strafing the island's pier, to a moment involving Stallone, Crews, an artillery shell and a helicopter. It really is just preposterous. As well as explosions and big guns, the hand-to-hand combat is brutally awesome as you flinch with each bone-crunching twist. I literally pissed myself laughing at a part where Crews, wielding a huge shotgun, rampages down a tunnel blasting away generic soldiers. I'm fully expecting an amusing .gif of this to be present on the internet very soon.

Stallone is not the brainless muscle-bound idiot some people would believe. His career has actually seen some very poignant works and great pieces of writing. The Expendables however does not rank up among them. Is this a good film? Probably not. Entertaining? Hell yeah!