Black Swan

   A thrilling challenge to maintain your sanity.

  Nina’s life has always been a perfect movement, flawless technique with graceful motion. After years, dedicated to the craft, dancing in the company core, she is given the chance to shine. Challenges mount: the scorn of a retired star; remorse for her role in that retirement; newfound desire for a new member of the company core; the malignity of that desired member; the spite of a particular core ballerina; affection and faith from the company director; and, her mother’s peculiar concern; plus, her own lingering doubt. Can she transform her passion for the science of ballet into passion for the art of dance and the tragedy of “Swan Lake”? Or, will she spin from the stage into tragic failure?

   Very well directed, this film will defy the viewer’s certainty of reality. Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis perform brilliantly and are wonderfully choreographed as ‘twin’ ballerina’s equally attracted and opposed, to the ‘Swan Queen’ and to each other.

B / R
11 December 2010 (reposted)
By Frank Jaymes

Starring: Natalie Portman; Mila Kunis; and, Vincent Cassel
Featuring: Barbara Hershey; and, Ksenia Solo
With: Winona Ryder; and, Benjamin Millepied
Writers: Andres Heinz; John McLaughlin; and, Mark Heyman
{plus (original composer) - Pyotr Tchaikovsky}
Director: Darren Aronofsky
{plus choreographer - Benjamin Millepied}

Star Trek

A Bold New Beginning For Gene Roddenberry’s Creation!

Jim Kirk was born in outer space, across the galaxy, in the wake of a stellar event with a heroic finale. On Earth he became a reckless, adventurous, dangerous, care-free, young man. Brilliant but without ambition, abandoning the legacy of his parents... until the day he met Captain Christopher Pike. Now, he will take-up a new challenge and find an ambition which few can match.

For twenty-five years a threat has loomed across the galaxy... waiting for Starfleet’s flagship and it’s famed captain and first officer! James Tiberius Kirk and Spock are young and inexperienced; yet, they face an enemy harboring for them much anger and contempt.

Taking incomplete threads from the short-lived series, “Star Trek: Enterprise”, this film has dared to ask: What if everything we know were to change? It’s an amazing concept, wonderfully made reality! This film is filled with bits reminiscent of Trek past but it’s shape and sustenance is fascinatingly fresh!

Masterfully written, performed, directed, produced and effected, this is a Must-See film... and it’s just the beginning!

A / PG2

Starring: Chris Pine; Zachary Quinto; Karl Urban; and, Zoe Saldana.
Featuring: Bruce Greenwood; Simon Pegg; John Cho; and, Anton Yelchin.
With: Leonard Nimoy; Eric Bana; Winona Ryder; and, Ben Cross.

Reel Review by Josef