Movie Reviews for 2011

The Black Swan!

Nina (Natalie Portman)a woman fighting a constant battle within herself. The adult within her was suppressed her entire life. If you noticed, she spoke in a childlike manner. Her mother never allowed her to grow up. She was her perfect little girl and she always babied her like one. Did you notice how her mother got her way when she threw a tantrum and motioned to throw out the celebration cake? This was a clue to how she manipulated Nina throughout her life. She was surrounded by stuffed animals and a ballerina music box as a constant reminder. Not unusual in the normal sense, but it was probably a reinforcement that she was still mommy’s little girl. If you noticed later, Nina got rid of those things and began to behave in more of an adult-like manner; although, rebellious. The pain she inflicted against herself was probably due to her need to feel (coping mechanism?). Did you notice her mother’s paintings were of people or possibly self-portraits of herself experiencing pain or feeling tormented. Maybe that’s what Nina felt being an adult was suppose to be like since she probably seen these paintings throughout her life so she took it one step further. Or maybe the self-infliction was something real that she could feel in her life and it helped her get through difficult situations. Her ballet Director always told her to feel her role. She was reminded of that when he made the comment about her understudy 'not faking it' when she danced. Nina knew the understudy was a very good dancer and could replace her and she was not going to allow that to happen. Nina was caught in between the recently retired ballet lead who she tried to emulate and her understudy. Nina was a perfectionist and she could dance the part flawlessly, but couldn’t display the feelings or the emotions (a darker side) needed to play the Black Swan role. She would resort to pain again to get her through this and it would be the ultimate pain to nail the ultimate role! Remember her last comments, “I felt it”, “It was beautiful!”. I thought her metamorphosis into the Black Swan was spine tingling and beautiful! I’m sure there’s more to the story, but watching it a second time gave me better insight.

Additional thoughts: It occurred to me most of the pain was imagined, not real. The worse physical pain she endured was from scratching herself. Most of the physical pain was psychological. She had to put herself in the frame of mind she was experiencing pain to get her through a particular ordeal. Ultimately she had to experience greater physical pain to overcome the added pressure of being the STAR of the ballet. But she was not prepared to carry out such a physical act so she had to projected it as someone else being hurt. This would also allow her to believe she was the aggressor. So she psychologically stabbed her nemesis. This would be the catalyst to nail her darker side when playing The Black Swan. Remember what her ballet director said after kissing her for the first time that he was seducing her and said it had to be the other way around in order to play the Black Swan. Think about all of the times she imagined seeing a twin of herself (her want-a-be seducer or aggressor?): her following herself (her acting as the aggressor), her performing oral sex on herself (a clue of her wanting to be the seducer), in the bathtub scene (not sure, but I have to believe it has to fall in line with being an aggressor or seducer since she was masturbating). Also during the scene when she was masturbating in bed (after her director gave her the assignment to go home and touch herself) and she turned over as if on top was an act as being the seducer. This movie was an exceptional, thought-provoking,sexual, and psychological thriller.

The Fighter

Phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal! Christian Bale hit it clear out of the park! He was a carbon copy of the real character! He totally blew me away starting with the opening scene! I was like, "Who is this guy?" He just placed himself in the same league as Daniel Day Lewis who I considered to be in a league of his own. Well now he has company! The last fight scene almost had me on my feet. What a great ending! Just when I thought the ending couldn't be topped, Christian choked me up with the closing scene on the couch during the interview! Wow!See More

The Rabbit Hole

Blue Valentine

Somewhere

True Grit

The King's Speech

Japanese American Museum of San Jose

I recently visited the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) and discovered some interesting facts. The museum is comprised mostly of pictures, artifacts, and factual information surrounding the unlawful encampment of Japanese Americans during WWII. But I also discovered other historical facts of  interest as well. I always knew of the Japanese picture brides who migrated to Hawaii, but was surprised when I read about  five ships (Kamakura Maru, Shinyo Maru, Taiyo Maru, Tenyo Maru, and the Tatsuta Maru) that shipped Japanese picture brides to SF from Japan circa 1920. It took the ships 16 - 17 days  to sail across the ocean to deliver the picture brides to their prospective partners. Another interesting and appalling fact during the encampment of Japanese Americans (and I want to emphasize 'Americans') during WWII was a motion on Congress to steralize Japanese females to prevent additional Japanese from being born withnin the camps. It  makes you wonder what the mentality of  the US goverment was like. On a less serious note, I also discovered a somewhat humorous fact about a Japanese soldier PFC Takeshi Kazumara from Hilo, Hawaii. He was the shortest GI in the US Army at 4'9" and 98 lbs. with a full field pack. He wore 2 1/2 EEE shoes! There is an ongoing project that was initiated by the museum for Japanese Americans who are living in the surrounding area and who were former detainees to submit pictures of those days along with a short story. Currently there are several posted within the museum accompanied with some very interesting stories.  The most intriguing story I observed was of Chizuko Judy de Queiroz a former detainee of the Poston Relocation Center in Arizona. She was detained  from 1942 - 1945. She was only nine at the time when she first arrived. Within the JAMsj are watercolored paintings of her most powerful memories appropriately named 'Camp Days 1942-1945'.. There are literally about 140 paintings on display and I remember reading the caption on one, which struck me.  After living in the camps for some weeks, Chizuko realized something was wrong and commented to her sister 'Everyone here looks Japanese'. If you're interested in a bit of Japanese American history, please visit the JAMsj located in Japantown, 535 N. Fifth St., San Jose, CA.. They are open Thurs - Sun from 1pm - 4pm.