Black Swan (2010)

Director Darren Aronofsky is a unique beast in Hollywood. A filmmaking auteur, his five films have been wildly different but always exceptionally challenging and distinctive. With Black Swan, a remarkable experience in psychological horror, his work continues to evolve in this way. In short, a young New York ballet dancer, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), is given the chance to live her dream portraying the “Swan Queen” in a performance of Swan Lake under the demanding, watchful eye of revered director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). Overwhelming pressure from the ever growingly closer performance, her obsessive mother and guilt of stepping into the place of Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder), a once beloved performer now shunned by Leroy, takes its toll and Nina slowly descends into hallucination and extreme behaviour. What becomes clear early on is that the film’s narrative is Swan Lake, making Black Swan, the movie, an achievement perhaps to overwhelming to comprehend after just one viewing.

Retrospective #2: Dirty Harry (1971)

Dir. Don Siegel

"When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher's knife and a hard on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross"

Blue Valentine (2010)

Set in an unknown, unimportant time and place, Blue Valentine is the story of a couple, Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams). As well as their young daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka). The story, in the direct sense is about their first meeting, their falling in love, marriage and eventual divorce. However, the film never plays it that straight. And it doesn’t always limit itself to questioning only their relationship. It goes beyond one couple's existence, inevitably analysing the notion of what love can mean between any two people.

Green Zone (2010)

Set almost directly after the US invaded Iraq in the search of WMDs in 2003, Green Zone follows Military Chief Roy Miller (Matt Damon) as he leads his squad through an anarchic Middle East environment heroically looking for said weapons. Constantly coming up with “a donut” at the end of his missions, he becomes increasingly suspicious of how the intelligence he is receiving is leading him to dead ends. With the help of a paranoid Iraq citizen, a CIA agent (Brendan Gleeson) and a strong desire to make a difference in the face of war, he takes on a risky path to the truth.

American: The Bill Hicks Story (2010)

After want seems like years of build up, a documentary about legendary comic, Bill Hicks, has been finished and out into the world. Often insightful and obviously funny, it should be said that American is in no way a fence sitting approach to Bill Hicks the man, or his legacy. This is a doco made by people who loved him for people who loved him.

The Town (2010)

The Town deserves to be called very good, being extremely well constructed and consistent in almost every aspect. It’s far from being the perfect genre flick, and perhaps with a bit more experience under his belt, director Ben Affleck in future will be able to iron out the kind of things that prevent it from truly being brilliant. Or rather, expand on others, because while it is severely entertaining, it spreads itself from action piece to heavy drama without truly capitalizing on either. His striking potential (as director) is completely cemented with The Town however, which followed his acclaimed debut, Gone Baby Gone.

The Magician (2005)

To paraphrase leading Australian critic, David Stratton, “Not everyone is going to like the idea of spending an evening at the cinema with Ray”. Ray being of course being the protagonist , the hitman, that grinning guy on the posters and basically the fellow we are locked shoulder to shoulder with ‘home video’ style for almost the entire length of The Magician. To count disliking Ray to the point of not being able to enjoy or even watch the film is not wrong, but rather maybe missing out on what an accomplishment this film is for it’s young writer/director/star, Scott Ryan. Fresh out of film school and made with merely three thousand dollars of his own money, Ryan’s Magician is an excellent example of what can be achieved when you have passion and ability.