Mubi Monday: The Wrestler (2008)

I'm pretty sure I have said this when reviewing every other Darren Aronofsky movie, but it's pretty safe to assume that nobody has ever taught him the meaning of the word subtle. You can get a lot from his movies, but subtlety is nowhere to be seen.

The Wrestler is the story of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a wrestler who is battling age and his aches and pains to keep making a living that might afford him a very basic life. He is quite smitten with Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), a stripper who is pretty much in the same situation. As he tries to take a step away from the wrestling ring, perhaps also rebuilding some bridges with his daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), Randy struggles to live a life without that rush he gets when playing to the crowd.

Written by Robert Siegel, who has built up an impressive selection of projects inspired by real events and characters, The Wrestler is an impressive character study that is as hard to watch as it should be. Randy seems to be someone that truly believes he is best in the ring, but also may believe that the injuries and the bloodshed are all very much due to him. There's sometimes a huge difference between the man inside the ring and the man outside of it, but trouble happens when Randy blurs elements of his two different personalities.

Aronofsky makes the most of a very committed leading performance from Rourke, and he keeps the camera close and intimate for many of the interactions between his lead and the other people in his life. He also gets up close in the ring, especially when showing a couple of the tricks used to sell the hits and the wounds, but remembers to move around enough to show the crowd and the bright lights. 

Enough has been said already about what an amazing turn this is from Rourke, so I'll just say that I agree with all of the praise he received for this. The fact that both Tomei and Wood acquit themselves so well alongside him, particularly without feeling that they have to overact or shout to hold your attention, says everything you should need to know about their performances. Both have done consistently great work over the years, but both find just the right way to be believable and impressive in roles that could have easily been overshadowed by the large shadow cast by Rourke.

While it's very much about the life of a wrestler, and the toll that can take on the human body, this is also a film about anyone who has given their all to something, even as the rewards seem to dwindle while the losses grow. That might be a hobby, a trade, a sport, a relationship, or even a standard career. We don't always get back what we put in to things, but sometimes the crumbs that can be scavenged are as temporarily satisfying as the most sumptuous feast. Even as the dinner table starts to look more and more like it's being prepared for a last supper.

9/10

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Mubi Monday: Requiem For A Dream (2000)

It might seem glaringly obvious now, but writer-director Darren Aronofsky has never been one to do subtlety. Whatever his movie is about, he damn sure wants to beat you over the head with it. That often works, however, because he picks movies that are filled to the brim with visual tricks and flourishes that help to sugar-coat the bitter pill we are being made to swallow.

Requiem For A Dream may actually be the least subtle film from Aronofsky, which is really saying something, but it is also up there with his very best. A tale of various addictions, and the rise and fall of the central characters, it is a grim endurance test that just, and I do mean just, manages to keep viewers watching through to the end credits.

Jared Leto plays Harry Goldfarb, a young junkie who has dreams of making a better life for himself and his girlfriend (Marion, played by Jennifer Connelly). Harry and his friend, Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), just need to stay focused and straight as they transition from users to dealers. But that isn’t easy, especially when all three individuals start to feel the need for drugs at different times. Meanwhile, Harry’s mother, Sara (Ellen Burstyn), is addicted to her TV, and one game show in particular. When she receives an invitation to participate on the show, she starts to fret about her appearance, eventually seeking a doctor to prescribe her diet pills that will help her fit into the red dress she plans to wear on TV.

Based on work by Hubert Selby Jr., who then worked with Aronofsky on the screenplay, this is not only a requiem onscreen, but an almost unbearable, hellish, crescendo for most of the second half, culminating in a finale that I don’t think I would have been able to get through on the big screen (although I kind of wish I had been able to see this when it was first released). The structure and dialogue work well enough, but you then have the dizzying visual style AND a propulsive and bone-shaking score from Clint Mansell (assisted by the Kronos Quartet on strings, as well as numerous other musicians helping him to create the audio tapestry).

Leto is quite good in his role here, and he is equalled by both Connelly and Wayans at different times, but the younger cast member are all given the typical shivering junkie material to work with, in many ways. The real standout is Burstyn, giving a vulnerable and frail performance that will break your heart as she slides further and further into her own delusion. It is arguably her best ever performance, and her journey is the toughest to watch (which is astounding, considering what all four characters go through). The other person deserving a mention here is Christopher McDonald, doing a great job of portraying a typically polished and smarmy TV show host, whether actually on the TV screen or wandering through the mind of Burstyn’s character.

Not entirely dire and downbeat, although any moments of lightness or humour are few and far between, Requiem For A Dream is a film that deliberately puts you through the wringer. It may be simplistic, in a number of ways, and it may seem a bit ridiculous as it hurtles towards a dark and twisted climax, but it also shows characters moving back and forth between being functioning addicts and spaced-out zombies better than pretty much any other film I can think of, with the notable exception of a certain Danny Boyle/Irvine Welsh collaboration that helped define the 1990s.

A must-watch, as long as you can handle the content, but I can understand anyone who then decides never to give it a repeat viewing. I own it, but I never think of it as a film to stick on while I have many other options that won’t leave me wanting to scrub my brain and eyes with industrial-strength bleach.

9/10

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The Whale (2022)

I tend to like the films of Darren Aronofsky, even if just for the visuals, and The Whale is a film I was happy to see provide a resurgence for Brendan Fraser, an actor that I (as well as many other people) have always had a soft spot for. A lot of people were quick to praise it, quick to praise Fraser, and it seemed like I was going to find plenty to enjoy here, putting aside the ongoing debate about actors wearing “fat suits”.

I didn’t enjoy The Whale. It has a couple of big problems, and the fat suit is the least of them (although I should note here that I view those items as I view any other make up or wardrobe choices made to help turn any actor into a character, personally). 

Written for the screen by Samuel D. Hunter, adapting his own stage play, the biggest problem is the script. This tale, of a morbidly obese man (Charlie, played by Fraser) looking to reconnect with his daughter (Ellie, played by Sadie Sink) as he searches for something honest and real before his heart gives out, just resonates throughout with an inauthenticity that would make the central character belt out a primal scream. It also has a message at the centre of it that feels like it could have been written by any disenchanted teenager. 

Aronofsky feels redundant in his role, failing to bring much to the table to stop this from feeling like the filmed stage play it is. We rarely leave the confines of Charlie’s home, and there are too few flourishes to make it feel worth actually being presented as a film. Just set up one or two cameras and present a raw, “live”, version of the play. That might have been better. It might have even rendered the use of the fat suit unnecessary.

Fraser is good, and I am happy for the praise he has been getting, but his performance is supported by the make up. Ty Simpkins does well in a few scenes, playing a stranger who enters Charlie’s life at quite a strange time, and Samantha Morton delivers her usual greatness with her all-too-brief screentime (playing Charlie’s ex-partner, and the mother of Ellie). But the best performances come from Sink, a mix of resentment, sass, and intelligence, and Hong Chau, playing Liz, a woman who is trying to help Charlie, despite him not really caring about his own quality of life. Sink and Chau are the highlights of the whole film, and I wish their performances were a larger part of the conversation during this award season, but nobody does bad work, despite working with a pretty bad script.

I know that Aronofsky isn’t exactly known for his subtlety. He is a director who works best when delivering a powerful message through a selection of powerful visuals. I can see why The Whale appealed to him, but I think he made the wrong choice. This needed either more fantastical imagery to distract from the irritating simplicity of the writing or it needed a director willing to strip it down to the bare bones of a naked performance piece.

A film that is saved, if not elevated, by the main performances, The Whale misses so many opportunities to say something really worthwhile. The people involved ensures that many will see it, and many will love it. I would be very surprised if it is well-remembered more than a decade from now.

5/10

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