Black Swan

What a ride! I went to see the film hoping to like it and not find I had wasted my time. I loved this film. Wendy Ord (dir./wrt.) did a great job of leading you in so many directions and fooling you with most of them. The film has a dark heart warming sense about it that make you wonder how a film this different was not made by a big studio. I'm impressed by singer Melanie Doane's acting as she seemed to be born out of the rugged yet beautiful setting of the film.

Surprisingly excellent... you don't need to have $m to make a decent movie. Excellent acting and a good script provide for quite an enjoyable time. For those tired of hollywood this low budget movie is a great choice. But if you're one of those hollywood action "freaks", then this one is a pass.

This movie tries its darndest to capture that classic bad canadian movie feel:

"quirky" and obnoxious characters (a few); "quirky" town with "quirky" folk; a "quirky" coffee shop or restaurant (coffee shop here); lots of shots of canadian stuff for postcards (ocean stuff here); lots of mention of "gotta get out of this town"; downright booooring.

And it succeeds on all counts.

Something to note, though. I couldn't figure out whether this movie was just trying to be post-Northern Exposure "quirky" comedy or something surreal like a drug-induced or psychotic hallucination. The editing of this movie jumped around nonsensically from one unrelated thing to another with zero pacing or motivation. Not to mention the fact that half the time we didn't even know where we were jumping. Take for instance, the very opening shots, of yelling teens in a car. Who are they and what the h--- did they have to do with anything? And this sub - uh - plot (use that word plot loosely) concering kids that seem to span generations. I don't think they actually do, but the editing makes it look like they materialize from flashback, all of a sudden, to current time. Huh? What did I miss?

Avoid. Unless for laughs. Or you want to try and trip out on the inept editing.

I thought this was a very good film, reminding you that one of my friends is Pam Lutz (Aunt May). The plot, and writing is well, different but different is still good. The writer's tried, a comedy, mystery etc., and sort of in a way ruined the film. They should have just picked one theme and went with it! It was good but still very different! Pam told me about how she enjoyed working on the project that they did try to put to much into the story. She also said she was never aloud to really talk to the other leading actors. Her reasons were that because they are so busy and are always reviewing lines, they were not to be disturbed. She only also got her part of the script, she wasn't allowed to look at other actor's lines for reasons I am not allowed to say. she was also driven to the location and her and the driver had quite interesting conversataions. HMMMMMMM. Different but is still good.

Ohhhh MAN this movie is awful!!

This kind of tripe is what gives Canadian Cinema a bad name, or no name. Well, to be fair, I guess most Canadian movies give Canadian Cinema a bad name.

Next to the characters (there's a couple that are the most grating in movie history), the most annoying thing is the editing and pace of the movie. It's like a drunken snail making its way to die.

Thank goodness Melanie Doane is nice to look at. She's the only thing that kept me watching. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie kept interrupting.

Good for a laugh, though, if you're having a bad Canadian Movie night, though.

Did I mention Melanie Doane? The only good point (too bad they didn't have the sense to keep the camera on her for more than a blink at a time).

Another addition in the Canadian Hall of Stinking Movies.