still want to see The Artist, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Tree of Life and Hugo
Spoilers in this Review
Black Swan is considered to be the “sister” film of Aronofsky’s previous film The Wrestler. It makes sense, in Black Swan we see a performer that is at the beginning of her stardom while The Wrestler deals with the super star at the end of his career. In terms of achievement in directing, it’s by far the best movie out there. I really hope he gets the Best Director Oscar because this film shows how good of a director he is. He was able to turn a movie about a paranoid ballet performer into a psychological thriller. While The Wrestler was subtle and full of emotion in its story and character development, Black Swan is an in your face and cold (could be seen as one of its faults but I thought it was intentional) type of movie. Vincent Cassel’s performance has been under appreciated from the critics, he’s one of the best working actors out there right now. A personal top 5 film of 2010 8.5/10
It’s fascinating to see that the Coen Brothers had already developed their directorial style in their first film. There are a few characteristics in Blood Simple that later show up in other films like Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and Miller’s Crossing. I rather not give away too man details, but once you see these films you’ll understand why. The dark humor, symbolic shots, tension, and overall pessimism are all present in Blood Simple. Strong directorial debut, but they’ve easily done much better films. Still, this is worth checking out. 7.5/10
I’ve decided that with my reviews, I will be focusing on three factors: smell, taste, and if it’s a session beer. First up is Anderson Valley’s Hop Ottin’ IPA.
Smell: You can easily smell hops, and it’s one of those “earthy” type aromas. Very enjoyable.
Taste: The citrus hops in this IPA really stand out, and I would have to say it’s one of the bitterest IPA’s I’ve tasted. It’s a straight up “hop bomb”. As a hop head, this beer delivers. If you want to try your first IPA, avoid this one.
Session? Nope. If you drink more than two, your tongue will probably start to get numb. And that’s beside the fact that you will get drunk quick.
Overall score: 8/10
Spoilers in this review
What a crappy movie. It takes about 70 minutes before it really picks up, and the build up to it was so pathetic that in the end, it just wasn’t worth it anymore. There aren’t any interesting characters in this one except for Micah, who was in the first one. And the worst character is a Hispanic nanny that speaks perfect English but just decides to talk to everybody in Spanish. Of course, she’s the one that warns the family about the evil spirits. Duh! You can’t have a horror movie without a Latino talking about the dangers of the devil or the bad spirits. There were numerous scenes that were almost identical to the first one. All it’s really showing me is that the evil spirits are some bored ass fools.
Budget: $2.75 million
Gross: $171.76 million
Oh great, another fucking Saw type franchise in the making. 2/10. I have to give it two points for that hilarious levitating baby scene.
This review has no spoilers
Dogtooth is a brilliant, twisted, and hilarious black comedy from Greece. It’s no surprise that it won the Cannes’ “Un Certain Regard” which is awarded to the most “original and different” movie. It’s also gorgeous to look at. Not just in the subject matter, but visually this film could easily pass as something Kubrick would have done in the 2000s. Yeah, that good! 8.5 /10
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Social Network is one of my favorite movies that came out in 2010 and one of Fincher’s best too (personal favorite is Zodiac). I find the recent backlash to the movie a bit funny, in which most of it has little to do with the movie itself. One of the popular complaints is that it’s an “Oscar-baiting” movie. Really?! Where are they?! It’s an extremely stylized courtroom drama that shows you different point of views of the people that were suing Mark Zuckerberg. And since Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t interested in sharing his side to the story, then we can’t take this movie as an actual “bio-pic”. Sure, some of the themes (friendship, betrayal, etc) in the movie are pretty common but it was done in a fresh way. It also brings up a debate not really shown in movies right now which is business ethics in the internet world. My only complaint about The Social Network is how the filmmakers lead you to believe what the reason was for Mark Zuckerberg to build Facebook. It wasn’t really necessary, and if it was taken out it probably would have been a perfect 10/10 score for me but instead it’s a 9/10 and easily a Top 5 of 2010.
