2008 best picture nomineeRating: 16/20 (Mark: 18/20; Amy: 15/20)
Plot: Randy the Ram's career wrastlin' peak was twenty years ago when he heroically won an epic bout against the Ayatollah. Now, he struggles to make ends meet, sometimes paying rent on his trailer-park property and supporting his drug and lapdance habits by winning B-league local wrestling matches and working part time at a supermarket. A heart attack and multiple staple injuries force him to reflect on his life, his career, and where he's at in both of them.
This excels when it stays gritty and harsh. Mickey Rourke and Marissa Tomei (as the wrestler and the stripper respectively although vice versa might have been interesting) give realistic, gutty performances, and the handheld cinematography, something that occasionally bugs the heck out of me, works really well to bring you right into the action during the wrestling scenes, into the physical pain during the post-match locker room sequences, and into the emotional struggles of the characters. This is Aronofsky's best film (I think. I don't remember Pi too well.), but he has a way of stepping on the narratives a little bit. That happens here with a spelled-out-for-the-non-thinking-crowd Hollywoody scene preceding Randy's debut as deli counter guy, some artsy sound effects, and some unnecessary incidental music. This has interesting things to say about identity and survival, and the ending is about perfect. It works really well as a dark, depressing study of an extremely flawed individual and packs a real emotional punch, not like those fake wrestling punches even though some of the direction might make it feel like that. Confession: I don't really know if Marissa Tomei's acting was any good in this, and I really doubt any other heterosexual male will be able to tell either.
This broke the tradition of seeing only comic book movies at my brother's house.
5 comments:
well, i was going to put this on hold at the library, but it is too new. it's actually checked in at our favorite branch, so if i wanted to drive there right now, i could watch it tonight. but since your rating is lower than mark's, i think i will just wait til it is a bit older or happens to be on the shelf. i am not a heterosexual male, so maybe i can see if her acting is any good.♥♥♥
You trust my rating more than Mark's?
I can think of at least two great think things to say about her "acting". This film feels somewhat like a chiche, and Rourke's character does something so stupid involving his daughter that it made it a little hard to pull for the guy; but the acting is great, and the ending you mention is perfect. A 16.
If we are going to rank these movies on your one to twenty scale, I would give this one about a 14. I did enjoy seeing Roarke and his cartoon face and body work the scenes. But the script and production values screamed cable television movie being shown on the big screen.
I enjoyed it, I guess, but its not a movie I ever need to see again.
Are you referring specifically to the dialogue? I'm not sure the writing was exceptionally good or anything. I did think the movie looked good though. I didn't think it looked like a made-for-television movie or anything like that. I liked the grittiness, and the handheld camera work was well done (for once).
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