video review : Falling Down

video review : Falling Down

The most interesting character here is an Army-Navy store owner who also happens to be a sexist racist neo-Nazi. “I’m your friend”, he says to the movie’s actual bad guy, but Bill Foster doesn’t want a friend. He just wants to go home to his wife and kid. The problem is that he’s divorced and the wife has a restraining order against him. He was an abusive husband, she suggests to police, and a nut. His breaking point comes when he gets stuck in a traffic jam one hot day.

From there, the former Notec worker abandons his car and goes on a one-man rampage on his way back “home”. The violent outbursts he lets loose when confronted with even the most minor of annoyances from the people he encounters along the way; his rage is often laced with socio-political rants; serve as an action-packed plot device. It’s the overall believability factor; some of the things he and other characters say or do are over the top; that goes against it.

my rating : 3 of 5

1993

video review : Black Swan

video review : Black Swan

I don’t get the aesthetic allure of ballet. What I appreciate on a sexual level is watching dainty girls parade around in tights. If Black Swan is a realistic representative of the ballet world, I’m not alone in my perversion. Lewd sex is a major theme here. It’s a driving force for nearly every major character. Even the relationship between mother and daughter had me anticipating a sex scene between the two.

The problem is that the story is too ambiguous. The diegetic reason for that is because Nina, the dancer it revolves around, tends to hallucinate. She apparently has a major mental disorder, perhaps brought on by said Mommy, whom she still lives with and clings to at the age of twenty-something. Black Swan, a movie that wasn’t really engaging in the first place, soon loses its way in a barrage of horror-flick clichés.

my rating : 2 of 5

2010