FEBRUARY'S MASTER: DARREN ARONOFSKY
In an effort to consistently update this place, I'll now be running a few monthly and/or weekly special series that will focus on a certain movement, director, actor, film, etc., of my choosing that I feel ever so inclined to write about. Each month I'll select a new director whose filmography I have completely ventured through, and rank then the films from worst to best (Ed. Note* - The films are listed as title, year released, a rating based upon the /100 scale, and the country of its production) including brief thoughts on each. Considering the lack of time to prepare for February and the eagerness to begin the series, I chose American filmmaker, Darren Aronofsky (hopefully Noah doesn't ruin his career). Years Active: 16 # of Films: 6 Notable Accolade(s): Winner - Best Director (Black Swan): Independent Spirit Awards Nominated - Best Director (Black Swan): Academy Awards, DGA, & Golden Globes Winner - Best Feature (The Wrestler): Independent Spirit Awards Winner - Best First Screenplay (Pi): Independent Spirit Awards Winner - Directing Award (Pi): 1998 Sundance Film Festival 05 PI 1998 | 58 | USA
Largely influenced by the work of Japanese auteur Shin'ya Tsukamoto - specifically his Tetsuo films - Pi is a black-and-white ode to the nature of the metallic and the mathematic. Blending both genre and narrative, Pi follows a paranoid mathematician as he struggles to find the key to a supposed universal pattern. Now, while the film's premise is unarguably high brow the proceeding execution lacks a strong enough narrative drive to maintain interest. Above all, the ambition and vision that Aronofsky displays throughout - hinting at larger future ideas - exhibits the keen eye that the director/writer has for the synthesis of story and imagery. Boasting perhaps the only notable performance of Sean Gullette's career and introducing the audience to eventual Aronofsky mainstay, Mark Margolis, while Pi is not terribly exciting nor effective, it remains as an intriguing introduction to the man who would later utilize paranoia as a masterful tool.
04 REQUIEM FOR A DREAM 2000 | 71 | USA
A film that is best experienced upon first viewing, Aronofsky's sophomore feature is regarded as one of the most disturbing films of all-time (and rightfully so at that). Lazily coined at times as a, "drug movie," Requiem for a Dream is a film that encompasses addiction as a whole. From television, to diet pills, to red meat, to heroin, to emotion, Aronofsky veers an overtly stylized scope into the lives of four connected Coney Island inhabitants. Now, while the film set a new precedence for the boundaries one could push in terms of content at the beginning of the aughts, Requiem is - as loosely mentioned before - a film best experienced only once. Upon initial viewing, Requiem for a Dream hits harder than most features ever have. However, through repeat viewings the spotlight is eventually given to the technical aspects rather than the previously affective. Story and subtext become secondhand as the film's constant stylization and early 90's MTV nature eventually give off the effect of a 100-minute Nine Inch Nails music video, rather than the initially heart wrenching examination of addiction. Overall, the film remains a hallucinatory and nightmarish glimpse into the realm of the overly consumptive and allowed Aronofsky to play even more with character development and the manipulation of narrative.
03 THE FOUNTAIN 2006 | 76 | USA / CANADA
Perhaps the culmination of his career thus far in 2006, The Fountain is an absolutely mind-bending, multi-narrative, sci-fi/fantasy film that attempted to redesign/define the genre(s) just as 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Matrix did. While never critically or commercially reaching those heights, The Fountain has since gained a deserved cult status among film buffs. Spanning a millennium, Aronofsky pits Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz as doomed lovers/companions in three different eras: a Spaniard Conquistador and Queen in the 16th-century, husband and wife in the 21st-century, and eventually an "astronaut" and presumably a Tree of Life in the year 2500. The most ambitious of feature Aronofsky's filmography, it remains mind-boggling how a film with such a grand scope manages to work at a mere running-time of 96-minutes. Visually stunning, written with a deft subtlety yet layered with attention to character and setting, and featuring - dare I say - the best score of any of his features, The Fountain is Aronofsky's large scale vision and ambition finally realized.
02 BLACK SWAN 2010 | 86 | USA
Largely considered to be his current masterpiece, Black Swan elevated Aronofsky to the mainstream's general public in a way that no film of his before had achieved. A new age thriller of near Hitchcockian proportions, Black Swan utilizes atmosphere and tone to execute its intentions. Boasting a beyond stunning performance by Natalie Portman and great supporting work by Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and Barbara Hersehy, Black Swan is above all an actor's film. Relying largely on its performances to enhance the erratically and ever changing nature of the film, the emotions displayed are as starkly contrasted as the film's imagery. A film shrouded in the arts, Black Swan walks its "protagonist" Nina, en pointe, nervously and hesitantly through familiar themes found in Aronofsky's cinematic past. An examination of identity through passion, genetics, and sexuality, Black Swan can be seen as both a companion piece to The Wrestler and a further elaboration of the thematic analyses found in Requiem for a Dream.
01 THE WRESTLER 2008 | 88 | USA / FRANCE
The back-to-back one-two punch of Aronofsky's career that is The Wrestler and Black Swan comes as no coincidence. As Aronofsky himself put it, "Wrestling some consider the lowest art—if they would even call it art—and ballet some people consider the highest art. But what was amazing to me was how similar the performers in both of these worlds are. They both make incredible use of their bodies to express themselves." While Nina's transformation in Black Swan was fueled upon self-doubt in herself, her past, and her ability to perform, The Wrestler's Randy "The Ram" Robinson is a man of conviction. Far past the end of his career, it becomes a fascinating polarity as The Ram exudes more passion and pleasure in his profession than Nina does (who we meet at the supposed launching platform of her career). While the film has its fair share of dark and gritty moments, The Wrestler can be considered "the heart" of Aronofsky's filmography as it is the grandstand to his balancing of the dramatic and the romantic. A romancing of passion set within the staged world of professional wrestling, the heartbreaking and cathartic tale of Randy "The Ram" Robinson serves as the career defining vehicle for Mickey Rourke and an ode to all of the fallen greats who once graced crowds of any sort. A new age Sunset Blvd. and Limelight set within a ring where men in tights suplex each other.