My 'Top 5' movie picks (w/ mini reviews) of the week to watch on your down time. Enjoy the additional movie quotes, stills/screen captures and promotional pictures.
All of the movies listed below this week fall under the psychological/thriller genre that will turn those wheels in your head and are rated R. And to be honest, most of these movies just make you want to light a ciggie.
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Released: 2010
Rating: R
The Black Swan tells the story of an extremely troubled young ballerina Nina (Portman) who deals with paranoid schizophrenia (although that is never outwardly addressed) under the additional stresses of becoming the next leading star, dancing the part of the Swan Princess in an adaptation of The Swan Lake. As she falls under the pressures and stresses of her newly found spotlight as well as her hard-set need to be 'perfect', it triggers her mental issues to resurface as she becomes excessively paranoid, aggressive, vulnerable, self-destructive, self-mutilating, sexually promiscuous and has wild hallucinations. Controlled by her domineering mother (is that all just in her mind?), jealousy towards Lily (Kunis) the free-spirited ballet dancer, being sexually provoked by the Ballet director Thomas (Cassel) and battling her own irrational thoughts and behaviour, The Black Swan is nothing but a beautiful downward spiral for Portman's character as she begins to truly embody her roles as theSwan Lake's white and black swan.
It is a very sexual movie, where each of the characters become seduced at some point- especially the lesbian scene between Portman and Kunis, which has been widely spoken of. There is a raw, sexual energy in this movie mixed with anger, perfectionism and frustration. It also has many cringe-worthy moments, due to painful and somewhat gore-y scenes. However it has to be said that, although ballet is a part of the movie and the main character's struggle, this is not a "ballet movie". It is merely a movie about a mentally troubled girl who happens to be a ballerina.
But you will definitely be able to enjoy the costumes, make-up as well as marvel at Natalie Portman's flexibility and 'ability' to dance, seeing that she is not a professional dancer. Although, that point has been debated upon, I think that no professional dancer could have taken on and portrayed Portman's character to the depth and with the talent that she did. If anything Natalie should be applauded for the hard effort she has put into this movie, which included 6-8 hour dance lessons per day with professional ballerina Mary Helen Bowers, on a strict 1200 calorie diet.
Definitely a must-see. Not a movie recommended for children.
Movie Quotes:
Nina: I just want to be perfect.
Thomas: The only person standing in your way is you.
Thomas: That was me seducing you, it needs to be the other way around.
Nina: I felt it. Perfect. I was perfect.
Thomas: Thank you, Nina! It's very nice. It's very nice, but I knew the white swan wouldn't be your problem. The real work would be your metamorphosis into her evil twin. I know I saw a flash of her yesterday, so get ready to give me more of that bite.
Lily: Did you have some sort of lezzie wet dream about me???? Was I good?
Director: Michel Gondry
Released: 2004
Rating: R
Like most relationships today, things very often go from the honeymoon stage and turn into complete sourpuss. That is what happened to Joel Barish (Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Winslet), who have a rough break up after a long relationship together. So what would you do if you could skip the post-relationship grief and erase that person from your memory...permanently.
When Joel, a miserable and introverted fellow, finds out that Clementine, his spunky and spontaneous ex-girlfriend, got her memory erased of him, he looks into the clinic founded by Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Wilkinson) and decides to do the same. He is taken through the process, one that is led by Dr. Howard's "nurses"/"assistants"- as you would call them- Stan (Ruffalo), Patrick (Wood) and Mary (Dunst). As the night goes on while Joel is unconscious under sleep medication, we dive into his dreams of memories with Clementine that are about to be erased. Halfway through Joel realizes that this is not what he wants anymore, but it is too late and there is no way to tell the doctor. Towards the end of the procedure the storyline unfolds a twist prompting Mary, the secretary, to reveal the truth to all of Dr. Howard's patients.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind brings to question the idea that most humans have probably at some point of their lives wished existed. Perhaps you had a terrible memory or experience somewhere, or went through a harsh break-up yourself that you wish you could just forget or get a second chance at. What will Joel do to save his relationship with Clementine that is about to be erased? Can he do anything about it? Will true love truly prevail?
Watch, and find out!
Movie Quotes:
Joel: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Howard: Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but it's on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.
Howard: Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but it's on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.
Clementine: Maybe you can find yourself a nice antique rocking chair to die in.
Mary: Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders. Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil. Found it in my Bartlett's.
Clementine: You're not a stalker or anything, right?
Joel: I'm not a stalker. You're the one who talked to me, remember?
Clementine: That is the oldest trick in the stalker book.
Joel: Really? There's a stalker book? Great, I gotta read that one.
Joel: I'm not a stalker. You're the one who talked to me, remember?
Clementine: That is the oldest trick in the stalker book.
Joel: Really? There's a stalker book? Great, I gotta read that one.
Clementine: When I was a kid, I thought I was. I can't believe I'm crying already. Sometimes I think people don't understand how lonely it is to be a kid, like you don't matter. So, I'm eight, and I have these toys, these dolls. My favorite is this ugly girl doll who I call Clementine, and I keep yelling at her, "You can't be ugly! Be pretty!" It's weird, like if I can transform her, I would magically change, too.
"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! / The world forgetting, by the world forgot / Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! / Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."- Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope
Director: James Mangold
Released: 1999
Rating: R
Everybody's a little crazy sometimes, especially in the 60's.
Girl, Interrupted is a movie adapted from writer Susanna Kaysen's (Ryder) journal of her 18-month-long stint at a mental hospital in her teenage days. She, like many young people today, feels like she doesn't quite belong anywhere. Although she comes from a well-off family, she is different from everybody else. A bit of a recluse, moody, irrational, illogical, has lack of motivation, sexually promiscuous, obsessed with the idea of death and is generally clouded by dark thoughts. After a failed attempt at suicide Susanna is sent to Claymoore, a mental hospital where she meets a house of other patients and discovers the true understanding of the human psyche and the multitude of more severe problems people have.
At Claymoore, Susanna forms a close relationship with many of the girls who range in psychological problems, namely Lisa Rowe (Jolie) who is a diagnosed sociopath who enjoys turning the house upside down, domineering the other patients, getting sassy with attending nurses and often escapes only to be brought back more f*cked up than before. Here we see the ups and downs these girls go through as Susanna discovers herself and the path that she needs to embark on on the road to recovery.
An interesting mix of mental disorders are represented in this movie, including: borderline personality disorder, anorexia, sociopathy, depression, pathological liars and so on. The movie depicts these girls as generally "normal" people with odd quirks. It is quite a dark movie with a dark outlook of the world, feminism and the realm of psychology. It is also brutally honest about the human emotion, added with a pinch of clever remarks on nurse Valerie's (Goldberg) behalf.
Not for the faint of heart, as there are some very raw and depressing scenes throughout the movie but it is also balanced with humour and Susanna's uplifting self-revelations. A powerful movie not to be missed.
Movie Quotes:
Susanna: Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60's. Or maybe I was just a girl... interrupted.
Susanna: Oh my God...a guy I know was just drafted.
Janet: What's his name?
Susanne: Toby.
Janet: Well he's dead now
Janet: What's his name?
Susanne: Toby.
Janet: Well he's dead now
Susanna: I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.
Susanna: When you don't want to feel, death can seem like a dream. But seeing death, really seeing it, makes dreaming about it fucking ridiculous. Maybe, there's a moment growing up when something peels back... Maybe, maybe, we look for secrets because we can't believe our minds...
Susanna: How am I supposed to recover when I don't even understand my disease?
Valerie: You know, I can take a lot of crazy shit from a lot of crazy people. But you - you're not crazy.
Susanna: Oh yeah? Then what's wrong with me? What the fuck is going on inside my head? Tell me, Dr. Val, what's your diag-nonsense?
Valerie: You are a lazy, self-indulgent, little girl, who is making herself crazy.
Susanna: Oh yeah? Then what's wrong with me? What the fuck is going on inside my head? Tell me, Dr. Val, what's your diag-nonsense?
Valerie: You are a lazy, self-indulgent, little girl, who is making herself crazy.
Susanna: Am I in trouble for kissing an orderly, or giving my boyfriend a blowjob?
Susanna: I'm ambivalent. In fact that's my new favorite word.
Dr. Wick: Do you know what that means, ambivalence?
Susanna: I don't care.
Dr. Wick: If it's your favorite word, I would've thought you would...
Susanna: It means I don't care. That's what it means.
Dr. Wick: On the contrary, Susanna. Ambivalence suggests strong feelings... in opposition. The prefix, as in "ambidextrous," means "both." The rest of it, in Latin, means "vigor." The word suggests that you are torn... between two opposing courses of action.
Susanna: Will I stay or will I go?
Dr. Wick: Am I sane... or, am I crazy?
Susanna: Those aren't courses of action.
Dr. Wick: They can be, dear - for some.
Susanna: Well, then - it's the wrong word.
Dr. Wick: No. I think it's perfect.
Dr. Wick: Do you know what that means, ambivalence?
Susanna: I don't care.
Dr. Wick: If it's your favorite word, I would've thought you would...
Susanna: It means I don't care. That's what it means.
Dr. Wick: On the contrary, Susanna. Ambivalence suggests strong feelings... in opposition. The prefix, as in "ambidextrous," means "both." The rest of it, in Latin, means "vigor." The word suggests that you are torn... between two opposing courses of action.
Susanna: Will I stay or will I go?
Dr. Wick: Am I sane... or, am I crazy?
Susanna: Those aren't courses of action.
Dr. Wick: They can be, dear - for some.
Susanna: Well, then - it's the wrong word.
Dr. Wick: No. I think it's perfect.
Susanna: Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is... Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. They were not perfect, but they were my friends and by the '70s most of them were out living lives. Some I've seen, some never again, but there isn't a day my heart doesn't find them.
Lisa: Razors pain you, rivers are damp, acid stains you, drugs cause cramps, gun aren't lawful, nooses give, gas smells awful, you might as well live.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Released: 2010
Rating: R
"Drama set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding nearby."- IMDB
However as the story unfolds, we come to find that the Marshal (diCaprio) has a haunted past himself and has ulterior motives for being on the island. Not only is he trying to find the murderer who he believes killed his wife (Williams) but he is set out to prove that the hospital uses brain surgery on their patients, which was highly experimental and ethically wrong back then. Shutter Island takes its audience on a roller coaster ride up and down Teddy Daniels' messed up psyche with flashbacks and hallucinations, unfolding suspenseful pieces of the puzzle that throw you off at every turn. Is his partner Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) really his ally or is he just playing a part? Is the Marshal really crazy or is he made to seem crazy by the hospital's chief warden Dr. John Cawley (Kingsley) and staff to keep the truth from being exposed?
It is one of those movies whose ending and happenings are very ambivalent, which will leave you talking about it for days to come. A wonderfully complex story to be interpreted any way you like.
Movie Quotes:
George: You'll never leave this island.
George: Don't you get it? You're a rat in a maze.
Teddy: Baby, I love this because you gave it to me, but it is one fuckin ugly tie.
Warden: We wage war, we burn sacrifices we pillage and plunder and treat at the flesh of our brothers and why? Because God gave us violence to wage in his honor.
Teddy Daniels: I thought God gave us moral orders.
Warden: There is no moral orders as pure as this storm. There's no moral order at all. There's just this: can my violence conquer yours?
Teddy Daniels: I thought God gave us moral orders.
Warden: There is no moral orders as pure as this storm. There's no moral order at all. There's just this: can my violence conquer yours?
Rachel:You're smarter than you look, Marshall, that's probably not a good thing.
Warden: You're as violent as they come. I know. because I'm as violent as they come. Don't embarrass yourself by denying your own blood lust, son. Don't embarrass me. If the constraints of society were removed, and I was all that stood between you and a meal, you'd crack my skull with a rock and eat my meaty parts.
Teddy: Why are you all wet baby?
Director: Mike Nichols
Released: 2004
Rating: R
Closer is a complicated and unconventional love story that paints love as less than perfect as it scrutinizes the psychology of love under a harsh spotlight. It speaks of sex, attraction, deceit, lies and tangled emotions. The movie starts out with the fateful meeting between an American stripper Alice (Portman)- which we come to find is a fake identity- and British writer/journalist Daniel (Law). Fast forward a few years and we see a dramatic flip in their characters, where previous seeming nice-boy Daniel is now a "bad boy" who meets and falls in love with Anna (Roberts) an American photographer and whose perverted antics on the internet leads to him accidentally matchmaking her with a successful dermatologist/surgeon named Larry (Owen). From here, a complicated love square forms between the two constantly mate-swapping couple.
Full of sex, spice, heartbreak, jealousy and betrayal. This movie does not portray love, romance or trust between 2 people in a very positive light, but is unfortunately more realistic than the fairytale stories we are accustomed to seeing. It is interesting how it delves into the psyche and dynamics of 2 people in a relationship, how easily love ruthlessly crumbles and the sometimes shameful and dishonourable reasons we stay with a person.
Who finishes the story with love? Who finishes with heartbreak? Does love always prevail? Do we always end up with the one our heart truly wants? The complicated story of love in the real world.
Movie Quotes:
Larry: I know who you are. I love you. I love everything about you that hurts.
Anna: We do everything that people who have sex do!
Larry: Do you enjoy sucking him off?
Anna: Yes!
Larry: You like his cock?
Anna: I love it!
Larry: You like him coming in your face?
Anna: Yes!
Larry: What does it taste like?
Anna: It tastes like you but sweeter!
Larry: That's the spirit. Thank you. Thank you for your honesty. Now fuck off and die, you fucked up slag.
Larry: Do you enjoy sucking him off?
Anna: Yes!
Larry: You like his cock?
Anna: I love it!
Larry: You like him coming in your face?
Anna: Yes!
Larry: What does it taste like?
Anna: It tastes like you but sweeter!
Larry: That's the spirit. Thank you. Thank you for your honesty. Now fuck off and die, you fucked up slag.
Dan: Didn't fancy my sandwiches?
Alice: Don't eat fish.
Dan: Why not?
Alice: Fish piss in the sea.
Dan: So do children.
Alice: Don't eat children either.
Alice: Don't eat fish.
Dan: Why not?
Alice: Fish piss in the sea.
Dan: So do children.
Alice: Don't eat children either.
Dan: I fell in love with her, Alice.
Alice: Oh, as if you had no choice? There's a moment, there's always a moment, "I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it", and I don't know when your moment was, but I bet you there was one.
Alice: Oh, as if you had no choice? There's a moment, there's always a moment, "I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it", and I don't know when your moment was, but I bet you there was one.
Alice: No one will ever love you as much as I do. Why isn't love enough?
Larry: Of course she enjoyed it. As you know, she loves a guilty fuck.
Larry: A good fight is never clean.
Alice: Lying's the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off - but it's better if you do.
Dan: "He was a convivial fellow" - meaning he was an alcoholic. "He valued his privacy" - gay. "He enjoyed his privacy" - raging queen.
Alice: It's a lie. It's a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully, and... all the glittering assholes who appreciate art say it's beautiful 'cause that's what they wanna see. But the people in the photos are sad, and alone... But the pictures make the world seem beautiful, so... the exhibition is reassuring which makes it a lie, and everyone loves a big fat lie.
Alice: I'm not a whore.
Larry: I wouldn't pay.
Larry: I wouldn't pay.
Alice: I don't want to lie. I can't tell the truth. So it's over.
Alice: I don't love you anymore. Goodbye.
Have a good week! ;)
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