Toy Story 3, by Lee Unkrich

Going through some of my old files, I ran into this little piece I had forgotten to have written and thus never published. I was still in Aussie when I saw this movie, so reading this few lines revived many of the nourishing memories I have from that incredible summer. Coincidently, yesterday I met with some of the people I meet half way across the globe. So I decided to publish it even if it might not be quite updated. Here it is:

I finally went to the world’s largest IMAX. Its size is overwhelming, however, seeing a feature film projected on it did not make me as tired as I was expecting. Being part of the Disney and Pixar generation, and thus having grown up along side of their characters and stories, I could not miss the continuation of Toy Story even if I had not especially liked the previous two.

It was interesting seeing Toy Story with another mind-set. In fact, I was talking about it with my mom and it was interesting to compare our completely different interpretations of the underline meanings of the story. She saw the film as making a stand towards our materialistic culture characterized by not valorizing things and constantly feeling a need to buy something new. Instead, I watched it with my 10-year-old mind-set, seeing it as a lovely fantasy world which I have always secretly hoped it was true.

Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky

Everybody kept telling me how amazing this film was, but during the hectic times of final exams I was not able to see it before leaving the US for christmas break. I was so upset, sure that Black Swan had to be one of those visually striking films that deserve the big screen rather than the monitor of my mac. I was right about that. But luckily, given all the buzz that the film has received, it found its way out of the small independent movie theaters into the commercial ones, and it was still on once I came back to Boston. It was definitely a beautiful film. The use of lighting was impressive. Natalie Portman seems to dance with the camera, and thus the audience. Nevertheless, I did find the aesthetics and use of black and white a bit overdone.

Apart from the visuals and the aesthetics, I had many problems with this film. It did not go deep enough into subject and issues it raises. For example, the fact that she cuts herself to stay in control of something in her life was not truly analyzed. This issue is something that is very present in our society, even if it goes unnoticed most of the time. People tend to know and talk a lot about eating disorders but not about other kind of coping mechanisms such as cutting yourself. However, the film uses it more as a way to gross out the public rather than to make a stand.

The ending completely ruined the film for me. It takes away any kind of credibility that it was trying to build all along. The fact that she supposedly danced beautifully for her whole performance even after having stabbed herself just turned me off completely. If they were doing a psychological film, they should have drilled more on that instead of going off tangents that distill its credibility. Along the same lines, what was going on with her mother? Couldn't they honestly make a better casting decision?

It might be that I had very high expectation for this film, but it just didn't work out for me.