Black Swan: Aronofsky's latest MindFreak

Black Swan

Reviewed by Adam Minor
   

Darren Aronofsky is a master at presenting the human condition. From his first full-length film Pi to his newest Black Swan, Aronofsky's characters feel real. Real enough to be scary. His films are frightening, not because they're violent or horrifying, but because they present very real human emotions. Until Black Swan, his Requiem for a Dream was the pinnacle of his frightening and realistic depiction of the depravity of human condition. Requiem focuses on the addiction of drugs as the gateway to psychosis, whereas, Black Swan’s catalyst is the consuming drive to perfection.

Filled with a general creepiness, Black Swan shows the decline of Nina (Natalie Portman) into schizophrenia after being named Prima Ballerina for her company’s rendition of Swan Lake. The production requires the dancer to play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who personifies guile and sensuality. Her only competition for the role is a new dancer named Lily (Mila Kunis) who represents the role of the black swan just as well as Nina represents the white.

Constant pressure from her overbearing mother, her passionate director and her own self drive Nina insane. She begins hallucinating and perceiving Lily’s intentions incorrectly. Seeking solace from the ballerina whom she replaced only leads her to further psychosis. She starts seeing odd things happening to her body. While her behavior represents her gradual acceptance of her “black swan” side, she hallucinates physical changes to her body.

You might find it surprising that I would herald this film as a success in the special effects division. Ever more so when you find out that it's not for the hallucinations she experiences. Special effects are a common practice in Hollywood, but they are done so seamlessly in this movie that there’s an added layer of creepiness on top of all the other layers.

Aronofsky continues to impress us by having character-driven stories that provide us a peek into the real-life experience of mental illness.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Rite - exorcism never ends... and the devil still lingers!

The Rite

Reviewed by Sab Khan

The Rite is a terribly grave and horrifying movie featuring Anthony Hopkins as Father Lucas, Colin O’Donoghue (the hottie) as Michael Kovak, Alice Braga (the journalist) as Angeline, Ciarán Hinds as Father Xavier and Rutger Hauer as Istvan Kovak. Exorcism is not a new topic and when your mind is still occupied with the reminisces of “The Exorcist”, it is a speck thorny to replace those mystifying scenes. But “The Rite” still rocks as Hopkins plays the exorcist who works in Rome and is considered to be the life-saver of more than 2000 possessed souls.

Mikael Håfström, the director of the movie bases the film on The Rite, a book written by Matt Baglio (an Italian journalist) but lets Michael Petroni (the writer of the movie) create the complete structure. The story sets up with Michael Kovak who's working in a funeral-home but his thoughts are sceptical and his belief in God is fading away. For that matter, he joins priest school and is almost done with the four years of pre-ordination boot camp for priesthood. The reverent senior father is aware of the boy's exceptional qualities of head and heart. Therefore, he sends him to Rome for a special exorcism class. There, he’s invited by Father Lucas to assist him in casting away the devilish spirit who has possessed a pregnant teenager. Although I didn’t get the concept of presenting Gastini as pregnant, but I guess it was to create an element of uneasiness and oddity.

The location has been manipulated by Håfström very well as Rome is already an ancient city famous for myths. The young priest doesn’t seem to believe much in these affairs and in one scene he speaks up his mind in front of the reverent Father, but then you see, one grimy glance with a tint of smile in deep blue eyes from Hopkins was enough for his queries.

The leading roles are all played by the male protagonists of the movie and Alice Braga doesn’t have much to do on screen. The nature of her job leads her to indulge in a heavy discussion about the existence of God with Kovak which ends in a friendship at the end.

The movie is not-so-very non-enthralling, thanks to our all time favourite Hopkins whose presence in the movie adds to the element of horror and dismay. Håfström didn’t let any part of the movie go away with the connection of spooky spots and people. Most part of The Rite keeps the audience at the edge of their seats and I would recommend the movie to the freaky fans of freakish stuff.

Rating: 3/5