Black Swan- for men

Rating: 9/10 (3 November 2014)

We were deciding on movies to watch at the local cinema and somehow I mixed up the plot lines of Daniel Radcliffe's "Horns" with "Whiplash," and thought it was a horror movie. We ended up deciding to see this. I was half right- this was a horror movie. Not a horrible movie, but a horror movie. It shows how blind ambition can descend into obsession and how mentoring can turn into sadism.
This is the second movie I've seen in a week where two strong characters are played by two strong actors and that's what makes this film work. The first was, "The Judge." In this movie, it's like the scene in West Side Story where Tony and Maria only have eyes for each other and everything else is a blur. You can see glimpses of how the other musicians feel about the showdown, but the show is clearly Teller's and Simmons. What made Teller's performance to me is the contrast between his obsessive desire to be great and respected to just having a poker face in a pivotal scene with him and Simmons. Teller's face is a blank stare where you don't know if he's thinking, "What's my next line?" or "On, a twisted level, I understand where he's coming from." or "This man is sadistic man trying to justify it." So without the verbal and non-verbal cues, you have no definitive answer to how he really thinks of his mention. And Simmons is Simmons, as usual.
The other thing I appreciated was that it kept me on the edge of my seat like any good thriller. Most of the time, I can call a movie from beginning to end because of it's predictable plot. This one I had no idea what would happen next. I was tense the entire movie and it took a minute to finally catch my breath when the movie faded to black. You can't even say that there was no reason to have such a visceral response because no one died, because well, you can't. Masterfully done, with subtle closeup shots that you wonder whether they were done as clues or just shots to be closeup shots. And being a jazz aficionado, it helped to have an awesome soundtrack. Look forward to buying it because the performances of the pieces in the movie were unmercifully short.