November 25, 2008

• thanksgiving’s cool and all, but where the hell are this year’s Oscar contenders?  thanksgiving through new years is usually littered with the films studios hold back in hopes of boosting their oscar chances.  this year we get… MILK?  and AUSTRALIA?  really?  did i miss something here?  san francisco’s gay rights mayor and the a baz luhrman film, which right off the bat has a seizure causality factor of ten judging by his previous films ROMEO AND JULIET and MOULIN ROUGE?  the Che Guevara biopic is releasing in December but i’d already like to take a fat wet dump in its open mouth for some reason. 

  that leaves…  THE WRESTLER. 

  i could pretty much talk non-stop about the great small films Pi and Requiem for a Dream.  in fact i’ve been droning on and on about them for several years now.  fantastic little films of constant energy and, yes, unhappiness to say the least.  Requiem has by far one of the most unsettling yet fitting endings i can think of off the top of my head.  those are Darren Aronofsky films and qualify as masterpieces in my book.  he stretched himself too thin when he tried to make The Fountain, but not too far, imo.  it’s not a great film but still deserving of credit for trying because he really attempted to make an epic film, in every sense, with limited resources.  the result could have been much much worse.

  all three of those films had an extremely edgy soundtrack and a dizzying visual flashiness about them that made the films complete sensual experiences.  the first two, Pi and Requiem, were so quick paced and emotionally jarring that they felt like action thrillers.  The Fountain had a more subdued pace but was no less technically advanced, i think.  from what i can tell, Aronofsky’s next film THE WRESTLER is going to be less about the techno-whiz-banginess though and more about the human stories, something unfairly overlooked in his previous films.  this is new territory for him and i’m uncontrollably excited to see the results.

  i’m also excited to see what some people are calling a mini-revival performance for a once hugely promising actor, Mickey Rourke.  it might seem hard to believe now, but Rourke was on the short list for the next great actors way back then.  this loser nobody on tv named Bruce Willis was accused of being the poor man’s Mickey Rourke.  can you believe that?  i’m not sure when it happened but Rourke took a complete fucking nosedive into insanity shortly after his quick rise.  and it’s painfully obvious that he started roiding up somewhere in that span of craziness to make his face all disfigured and barry bonds-esque.  check him out here in DINER.  see if you can recognize him.  crazy right?  anyway, it would be cool if he could pull a John Travolta a la PULP FICTION and show the world that he’s still useful in front of the camera.  seeing as how the film’s story, a washed up pro wrestler is dealing with lost fame and a fucked up life of maturity, probably exactly mirrors Rourke’s own personal life at some point, i don’t see why he shouldn’t kill this role and get some recognition.  we’ll see though.  he’s still a fucking nutcase. 

  THE WRESTLER is also co-starring Marisa Tomei, who plays a stripper friend of Rourke’s, and Evan Rachel Wood, someone who will only become a bigger and bigger star — mark my words.  repeat: Marisa Tomei.  stripper.  run, don’t walk. 

  watch the trailer here.  it’s not flashy but i am simply starved for some Aronofsky.  are you nearly as excited as i am? 

  • 2:41 pm
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