Black Swan

The next edition of film reviews from Tillman 313 is the film Black Swan. I should start by saying that Black Swan is not a film for everyone. It’s a psychological thriller that centers around the famous ballet Swan Lake, hence Black Swan. Swan Lake is about a princess that is turned into a swan.

The basic plot of the film involves the main character Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) being chosen for the lead role in Swan Lake. This is the first lead for her at this prestigious ballet studio and she couldn’t be more excited. However, the lead for the ballet must be able to play as the White Swan as well as the Black Swan. The White Swan is very structured and innocent, whereas the Black Swan is more passionate and fluid in the motions. Nina is not passionate or fluid. A new girl comes in, Lily (Mila Kunis), and she has a personality that fits the Black Swan role. As Nina competes for her role against the newcomer Lily, she finds a dark side in herself.

The film was made in 2009 and released in 2010. The two main actresses, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, both trained extensively for the film. They trained for six months prior to filming to obtain the proper body type and muscle tone. Portman trained in ballet, cross-training, and swimming for five hours each day. Kunis trained in cardio and Pilates, working out five hours daily, seven days a week, and lost 20 pounds from her already 117 pound body. The actresses really committed to their roles and without their extreme commitment to film and their roles, the film would not have seemed realistic, something critical for this film.

After being released, the film made a significant profit compared to its budget. The film was made for 13 million dollars and made 329 million dollars worldwide. The return of the film was 25 times what it cost to make; that is not bad for a film that was released as an awards contender. In the Academy Awards, the biggest awards ceremony for film, Black Swan was nominated for five categories: Best Direction, Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Actress. They came away with one win for Best Actress for Natalie Portman.

This film is one of the most well done films that were released in 2010. It is smart and the direction is flawless by Darren Aronofsky. It is a nice change of pace if you want to think about a film after and discuss about the meanings or certain items in the film with your fellow movie watchers. In my opinion, this film is a strong 5 stars out of 5 stars. Granted, this film is not for everyone because it does have its moments at times that include strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language, and drug use which leads the MPAA rating of R.

My next movie review is Shawshank Redemption. Look for it within the next few days. Until next time readers.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Welcome back readers. Hopefully my last post, Inside Man, has kept you wanting more reviews of films and I’m looking forward to continuing to provide that service. The latest post from Tillman 313 is about the film Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animated stop-motion film that was released in the fall of 2009. The film is based off of the novel of the same name written by Roald Dahl. Dahl also wrote the immensely popular novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which has been made into the classic, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, released in 1971, and the remake, released in 2005, starring Johnny Depp.

The plot of the story revolves, as you may have guessed, around Mr. Fox, voiced by George Clooney. Mr. Fox is a cunning thief that steals anything he can from three farmers. One day his wife, voiced by Meryl Streep, tells him that she is pregnant and she wants him to take up a more serious, less dangerous profession. He agrees and the film jumps ahead to two years, or twelve fox years, later. He has a child, and has a respectable profession, but the simple life is not for him. He resorts to his old ways of thievery and endangers his family, as well as the rest of the animal community. The three farmers force the animals underground and due to limited food supplies, the animals band together for one last job to fight for what’s theirs.

The director of the film is Wes Anderson. He has been around the movie business since 1994 when he wrote the short film Bottle Rocket. Due to the success of the short film, he filmed a motion picture, based on the short film, starring Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson. Anderson has also directed the films The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou. During the filming of The Life Aquatic, the collaboration of Fantastic Mr. Fox began. Five years later, the film was released.

Fantastic Mr. Fox has a fantastic voice cast. Headlined by the talents of George Clooney and Meryl Streep as Mr. and Mrs. Fox, the film also boasts voice work by Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, and Michael Gambon.

Stop-motion is not a new direction style but has never been incredibly popular in the film industry. Hopefully with Fantastic Mr. Fox more films will take the same approach instead of using costly CGI, that is incredibly necessary. But that might just be me.

The way it was filmed was by using puppets and using metal plates to help manipulate the face. The most famous stop-motion films involving puppetry are Coraline, Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This film is really well done and the voice cast worked together nicely. Overall, through a great story, based off of the novel by Roald Dahl, and direction by Wes Anderson, this film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. It did not do well at the box office, making only about 21 million dollars out of an estimated 40 million dollar budget. Reviews were fairly positive on most major film sites and my review for the film is 4 stars out of 5 stars.

If you want a fun children’s film that has a great story, I’d recommend checking it out. Upcoming film reviews are Black Swan, Shawshank Redemption, Rio, and Lord of War. If you want me to review any others, let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Inside Man

This is my first movie review. I’m not sure if I’ll continue but I thought that I’d like to give a shot at using my knowledge of film to help educate those around me and to either recommend or not recommend a film. I guess I should give you a reason as to why I want to write about film… I absolutely love watching to films at the theaters. I have over 500 movies in my collection and know a lot of movie trivia that people probably shouldn’t know. The websites that I check daily are Rotten Tomatoes, SlashFilm, Moviefone, and IMDb.

But, I should get to my first review. A few weeks ago, I watched Inside Man with my roommates. I’ve seen this film many times and no matter how many times I see it, there are always subtle things that I have missed that I catch up on. The film was directed by Spike Lee and released in the spring of 2006. I should let you know that I didn’t see it in theaters. I bought it in 2008, if I recall correctly.

The first time I watched Inside Man, I was blown away. The cast is amazing. The story is original. The direction is unique to other films of the same genre. The cast features Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Christopher Plummer. Denzel Washington, whom I’m sure you have heard of is a two-time Academy Award winner. Clive Owen is probably a little less known but is breaking big in America. He is a British actor best known for Children of Men, a cult science-fiction film released in 2007. Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer have both been in the entertainment business for numerous years and add great supporting roles that add an extra dimension to the film. Chiwetel Ejiofor is least known actor of these but has been steadily building his career through his great supporting roles in American Gangster, 2012, Salt, and Children of Men.

Anyway, the film is not about the actors that act in it; it’s about the story. The plot of the story revolves around a bank robbery. Dalton Russell (Owen) is the bank robber. Keith Frazier (Washington) and Mitchell (Ejiofor) are the detectives. Russell is not your every day robber though; he has taken everything into account including the entrance, robbery, and even his exit. He is a perfectionist and the smartest robber that either detective has either dealt with. With every move Frazier makes, it seems as though Russell is one step ahead of them. The bank president (Plummer) enlists the help of a high-profile negotiator (Foster) to help him secure a safety deposit box at the scene of the robbery. The heist takes place throughout the day, and this heist will go down as one of the most elaborate that we have ever seen.

The director of the film is Spike Lee. He is most known for Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and this film. He does something fairly atypical for this film. He directs the film in two parts interlocked. His film compromises of the present, placed during the time when Frazier and Mitchell are interrogating the hostages, and the past, placed during the bank robbery itself.

It’s an extremely well-done film that reveals a different perspective to the over-played bank robbery story. Spike Lee obtained a great cast for the film and the storytelling was very good as well. My rating for the film is 5 stars/ 5 stars. It is one of the best movies I have seen and one of my favorites.