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Dec. 3rd, 2010
Black Swan - NYT Critics' Pick
Dec. 3rd, 2010 06:43 am
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan.”
On Point, on Top, in Pain
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: December 2, 2010
A witchy brew of madness and cunning, “Black Swan” tells the story of a ballerina who aches, with battered feet and an increasingly crowded head, to break out of the corps. Played by Natalie Portman in a smashing, bruising, wholly committed performance, the young dancer, Nina, looks more like a child than a woman, her flesh as undernourished as her mind. When she goes to bed at night, a nearby jewelry box tinkling “Swan Lake,” a crowd of stuffed animals watches over her, longtime companions that — as Nina and this dementedly entertaining film grow more unhinged — begin to look more like jailers than friends. More
Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in “I Love You Phillip Morris.”
A Winning Smile Makes the Scamming a Breeze
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: December 2, 2010
Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Steven Russell, a notorious real-life con man now serving a 144-year sentence in a Texas prison, hot-wires “I Love You Phillip Morris,” a nervy comedy that bills itself as an “improbable but true story.” More
Rare Exports (2010) NYT Critics' Pick
Dec. 3rd, 2010 06:53 am
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Peeter Jakobi, left, with Per Christian Ellefsen, plays a sinister Santa in “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.”
Discovering a Sinister Santa in Finland
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: December 2, 2010
The Santa at the center of “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” is not the sort Mommy is likely to be kissing beneath the mistletoe (or anywhere else) this year. Rather, the focus of this bizarre Finnish fairy tale — as black as anything the Brothers Grimm could have dreamed up — is a sinister old codger who chews off ears and whose demon minion kidnaps innocent children. Ho ho no! More
Zoe Simpson and Mark Duplass in “Mars.”
An Animated Space Odyssey
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: December 2, 2010
Beginning with accidentally sprayed Russian mucus and ending with deliberately deployed American urine, the plot of “Mars” owes at least as much to bodily fluids as it does to science fiction. Low key, low budget and low energy, this animated space odyssey from the writer and director Geoff Marslett accompanies three mismatched astronauts to the red planet and the search for new life forms. More