Ted (2012)

“Come on, I do NOT sound that much like Peter Griffin!”

 

We’ve all seen Family Guy. We’ve all seen American Dad. Well, if we haven’t, we should have, but I digress, which is rather worrying as thus is only the second sentence. But we all know what to expect from a film by Seth MacFarlane- exactly the same sort of thing but with live action instead of cartoons and that. And that’s exactly what this film delivers, and rightly so. Anything else would be disappointing.

Yes, the plot may be a bit clichéd: a man in his thirties has to choose between his girlfriend (who represents responsibility and adulthood) and his best friend (who represents childhood, literally, in fact, as a bear!), but eventually gets to have his cake and eat it. It’s a cliché, and a rather simplistic one, which rather insultingly implies that all men are children and all women are boring. None of that really matters here, though. The plot is just something to hang the cool stuff from.

Ted himself is not only voiced by Macfarlane, but probably represents a side of him which we also see in the similarly voiced Peter Griffin. Other familiar elements are the involvement of Patrick Stewart and the many pop culture references. I’m pleased to see that Macfarlane loves Flash Gordon as much as I do. I’m also pleased to see that Ted has managed to achieve promotion in his chosen career in the same way I used myself! I’m amazed, though, to see such a massive bong. Ted knows how to party. It’s interesting, not for the first time in a recent Hollywood film, to see how liberal the United States is these days when it comes to cannabis. We Europeans have a lot to learn.

Mila Kunis is brilliant and sexy, while Mark Wahlberg carries the film with charisma. But neither of them can match the sheer awesomeness of the film’s two stars: the gorgeous, historic city of Boston, one of my favourite American cities, which looks stunning here, and Macfarlane himself, who is obviously a genius. This film is brilliant for the exact reasons that you would expect it to be. Giggity giggity!

Black Swan (2010)

“Get ready to give me more of that bite!”

This is only the second film helmed by Darren Aronofsky that I’ve seen ( I reviewed π a fair while ago), and already he’s threatening to become one of my favourites. The previous film, an early effort, was low budget and independent, while this is a big Hollywood film, but the directorial style is just as uncompromised. This film, essentially, rocks. It’s intense. It’s clever. Once again there’s a focus on the inner life of one character, although I suppose I‘d have to see more of Aronofsky’s films to know whether this is a thing of him. But this film rules. Sod it, it’s about ballet, and I loved it. Do you have any idea how little I knew or cared about ballet?

In reality, though, this film could be set within any milieu where the competition is intense and overpowering. It’s hard to see a more extreme example of this than in the life of the ballerina, though; out of a large chorus there are only a few who make it big. The dietary restrictions are impossibly draconian. Joints are cracked as part of a regular ritual sure to guarantee consequences later in life. The sacrifices made are huge, and yet it may lead to nothing, as was the case with Nina’s mother, who simultaneously places her hopes in her daughter and jealously puts her down.

This is not a healthy lifestyle in any sense. In the case of Nina there is disturbingly graphic self-harm, sexual favours given for the sake of a good role, and ultimately derangement of a kind which is beautifully demonstrated throughout the film; only towards the tragic denouement do we realise just how many of the events have happened only in Nina’s imagination. The film is a slow unravelling of one obsessed young woman’s life, and it’s riveting.

Natalie Portman carries the film, with credit also due to Mila Kunis as the grounded and stable Lily and Vincent Cassel, so great in La Haine, as Maestro Thomas LeRoy, in the first time I’ve seen him in an English language film. LeRoy is a deeply creepy individual, using his power over these desperately ambitious, attractive young women in ways which are desperately predictable. Also worthy of praise is Winona Rder as Beth, whose fate prefigures the horrors which await Nina and point towards the meaninglessness of such obsession. Only those such as Lily, with a sense of perspective and a life outside ballet, survive relatively unscathed.

The climactic scenes, of Nina’s performance, are deeply clever, sublimely directed, and lead us to question much of what we’ve seen. This is a very clever, very visual and delightfully weird film which takes an art house sensibility and puts it into the relative mainstream. It’s a must see, whether you follow ballet or not.