Black Swan – Review

✯½

I’ve soured on Darren Aronofsky heavily over the years: I remember when I first saw Requiem for a Dream and initially I thought that it was an emotionally draining experience and now it only ever manages to ring me as exploitative of its own characters’ misery at the hands of an agreeable message. But this was not something I found to be exclusive towards said film, because Black Swan, which may very well be his worst film yet, only manages to rub me in the wrong way for similar reasons. But for the many shortcomings of Requiem for a Dream, it never felt condescending in the way that Black Swan was, among many reasons it has only ever managed to leave such a bitter taste in my mouth. It seems so insistent that perfection leads to equally perfect art, and it’s a product so explicitly mechanical its own message only falls down upon itself and the one thought that came to my mind after finishing up read: “this is why I hate Darren Aronofsky.”

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It’s Only the End of the World – Review

At the risk of starting up controversy it was something that I still feel is worth noting anyways because in spite of being an LGBT Canadian, I don’t care for the films of Xavier Dolan outside of Mommy. While I have nothing but great admiration for the efforts that are put into the work given Dolan’s young age I still face great trouble even trying to connect with many of his own stylistic choices and said feelings have held me back from watching It’s Only the End of the World. Dolan carries a very aggressive nature when it comes to talking about how some of his own films feel, but nowhere has it ever been nearly as aggravating as it was in here. It highlights the worst sort of melodrama, and even as someone who is not a particularly huge fan, it was the least I would ever expect of Dolan.

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Jason Bourne – Review

If I were to be perfectly honest, I don’t like Jason Bourne as a character. Even though I like The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, a thought still runs in my head that I can’t say I love them because Jason Bourne has never hit me as all that interesting of a figure. Part of me was willing to trust Paul Greengrass returning behind the camera because his films were the only films in the series to have kept my interest because there’s a feeling that more conflict that surrounds the character overall even if the cinematography especially during some sequences can be rather jarring. In the case of Jason Bourne, it takes every last one of my pet peeves with the previous films and puts all of them into one product, in turn resulting in a true disappointment in every sense of the word. Continue reading →