I nearly didn’t go see Black Swan; the case for not seeing it was pretty compelling. But, I had finally convinced an equally reluctant friend to go see it with me while we were back home; the rationale being that it would eat up 2 hours that would otherwise be spent in some other bleak and miserable way. She backed out after coming to her senses. I mean, I understand. Darren Aronofsky is a total tool and all of his movies suck. They’re absolutely unwatchable in the most boring way.
Well, Black Swan pretty much sucks too, but it was surprisingly… I don’t know… watchable. Other people I know seem to have pretty extreme views of it; either shouting “Oscars! Oscars!” or else reviling it in any multitude of ways (my favorite being the review in Slate).
Anyway, my one word review of the movie is: “Eh.” At least I was able to burst out loud laughing several times. Other times, I was looking up into the projection booth watching the film go through the projector. I guess I don’t have much to say about it, but in the year 2010, is it still considered an interesting thing to do with a narrative film to never reveal if what has been shown is “real” within the diegesis of the movie? My vote is no.
In other news, James Benning’s film RR had it’s Los Angeles premiere at Filmforum a couple of weeks ago. His last 16mm film (I don’t even want to start in on that topic), it’s a series of shots, each of which showing a train passing through a landscape, lasting as long as it takes the train to pass through the frame, or until it comes to a complete stop. Of course, that description gives no real indication of what watching the film is like. It was breathtaking to behold, and absolutely enthralling.