In the wake of my review of "Black Swan" someone asked me how I could already deign to declare it "the movie of the year" when it was merely early December and so many potentially quality movies had yet to arrive onscreen? My answer: when you see the Movie Of The Year, you know. You don't need to ponder it or consider it or debate it or examine evidence because you just......know. Yup. That was it. There she was. Game over.
I honor "Black Swan" as my Movie Of The Year because of the way it made me feel, because of the way it took me there. Where? There. To that beautiful place I ceaselessly crave where physically I'm in a movie theater but mentally I'm not, to that place where the movie leaves the pesky screen way behind and sashays down to where I am and says "hello" and wraps itself around it me and won't let go, not even when it ends, because it's still with me when I'm staggering down the street and still with me during my post-movie whiskey at the Firkin Pheasant because I need a post-movie whiskey to settle my frayed nerves and my shattered soul and my beleaguered mind and still with me when I awake that night, suddenly, in bed in a pool of sweat because I just had a nightmare (literally) about that scene where Nina peels that skin off her finger. Shudder.
I honor it as my Movie Of The Year because of the way it transcends any and all genres. Whether it's a psychosexual thriller, horror, camp, melodrama, a gaudy drive-in exploitation horror flick set at Lincoln Center, or a sports movie (oh, just punch me in the face) is of no interest to me. Let everyone else discuss the arbitrariness of what it's "supposed" to be. It's visceral, man, that's what it is, as visceral as the cinema gets. You know what I think "Black Swan" is? I'll tell you what I think it is. I think it's a masterpiece, and while I employ an insane amount of superlatives on this blog the term masterpiece is one I use only when truly deserved. It's deserved. Truly.
I honor it as my Movie Of The Year because I just want to live and ensconce myself in every moment of its 108 minutes. Perhaps there is some bit of profound technical wizardry that results in that shot near the end when Nina has become the Black Swan and as she's dancing onstage her face moves forward, right toward the camera, with what feels like this unmistakable, breathless WHOOSH! and all three times I've seen it it's pinned me back in my seat because I can feel it - I can feel it! right here in Chicago! - and perhaps it is the film critic's job to analyze this sequence in slow motion, millisecond by millisecond, to ascertain why this moment makes me feel like I've just seen God but I don't want to. I don't want to!!! I just love it, I just love the indestructible gloriousness of that moment in the same way I love the indestructible gloriousness of the whole film. And isn't that enough?
1. Black Swan. See directly above.
And after saying so much about #1 I will attempt to say everything about #2-5 via one sentence descriptions.
2. Winter's Bone. "Nothing survives but the way we live our lives."
3. Salt. An inhaled chocolate malt of delicious awesomeness.
4. Rabbit Hole. A subtle sledgehammer.
5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. "Thundercats are gooooooooooooo!!!"
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
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6 comments:
fun top 5! i still haven't seen rabbit hole yet. on my list.
I'm surprised to see Salt in there I must say even though I haven't seen it. Scott Pilgrim was disappointing for me, I thought it was quite boring and redundant.
I didn't think I'd like Scott Pilgrim and, believe me, I know The Social Network is a "better" movie but, man, something about it just made me sit up and pay attention. To quote the blowhard on line at the movie in behind Woody Allen in Annie Hall: "It just hit me on a gut level."
And as for Salt, well, it's a strange love affair but a love affair nonetheless.
Other than Black Swan which I saw coming a mile away (bah, humbug) I like the originality of this top 5 (not that mine is "original" - but I digress). Yay for Salt (though I didn't love it) and Scott Pilgrim because its irresistible - to me at least.
Capturing the exact appeal of Black Swan in words is something so many and yet so few have managed to do.
My pretentious way of saying good job.
Andrew: I do try to make my lists from the "heart", which sounds horrifically cheesy but so be it. It's the truth.
Simon: Thank you. I've just become so tired of all the overanalyzing of this movie when it's so clearly impervious to analysis.
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