Review-- Center Stage

Alrighty! Another ballet movie for me to review! This one is Center Stage. It was released in 2000 with mostly unknown actors, but some make recognize the ballet director and ballet teacher. Let's get cracking!

Story:

Story's about students who have been accepted into a ballet company's workshop. Though they passed, it is more like an extended audition since three boys and three girls will be chosen to dance for the company. With so many good dancers, competition is going very tough.

This movie is the ultimate 90s cliché. Granted, this movie was just coming out of the 90s when it was released. It still has those tacky moments where they have an entire scene dedicated to a pillow fight, but still try to be all serious by having someone be bulimic. You know what I mean? Still, it doesn't mean I hated it. It kept me interested--it just not going to win awards for an original screenplay.

Characters:

The characters are also cliché. And almost all the characters look the same--minus the brunette and the tall, black girl (thank god for them! Or else I wouldn't be able to tell anyone apart). A lot of the students tend to blend blandly into the background. Only a few stand out. One is the tall, black girl (a bit of a rebel). The second is the uptight snobbish girl (the brunette). And then there's the underdog character (one of the blondes). I would give names but their names hardly matter in this type of movie.

The purpose of these characters is not really to amuse us, but to create archetypes that many dancers could at least somewhat identify with. This makes the movie more personal, and thus, a more entertaining movie. Here is where they did really well. Since most of the archetypes get featured at some point, there's plenty of opportunities for those who identify with the character to feel their story.

If she looks familiar, it's because she played Doc Oct's wife in Spiderman 2

The actors and actresses are all great dancers, and I really mean that. They are phenomenal. Their acting's not bad either. It did get a bit awkward at times (I was very aware of a script and it made the fourth wall break a bit), but I much rather have a talented dancer in a dance movie than a bunch of stunt doubles and lame cuts to hide the actors' inability to dance.

Also, get used to the main girl making the same face the entire movie. Maybe this is where Natalie Portman got her inspiration for Black Swan? Hahaha

<---- Seriously, she does it a lot XD




There's also other characters. Like the boy dancers. These guys play a crucial part since they play either the gay best friend clichés or the romantic interests. Also, the ballet director, choreographer, a med-school student, and an overbearing mother. They all did pretty good work so I can't complain. The boy dancers were really, really good.

Sets/Costumes:

The sets are mainly in studios, dormrooms, cafeterias, and on-the-town locations. They were actually pretty nice, but studios can get pretty bland. Still, it wasn't too bad at all.

The costumes were your average clothing. For performances, they were fine, but the last ballet performance I thought looked a bit weird. Something just didn't add up with the hair, shoes, and mini-skirt.

Music:

The music was mostly pop music. Some of the ballet music was classical, especially for performances of Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. The rest of the movie's background were teen favorites of the era, and the final ballet sequence had pop and even some disco thrown in. Personally, I didn't like the disco music at all. I thought they could find something better, but hey, that's just me.

Camera:

Again, not much to say about camera. They did a really nice job with the edits and offering a variety of shots for the long dance sequences. I thought it did a nice job of capturing the essence of ballet. So kudos to them!

Ballet Presence:

Ballet! Ballet everywhere! This movie is about ballet straight to the very core. Not only do you see them dancing during class and rehearsal, you also get some full-length dance sequences. 

 They did a great job of capturing the struggles during practice and emotional breakdowns during rehearsals. Whoever wrote the script also knew a bit about ballet because the main girl's main problem is her turn-out, which puts her behind the other girls in the workshop.

The final ballet sequences that feature the students are interesting. One is a traditional ballet. The other has been modernized, most likely to be a bit different and to appeal to a wider audience. It's not bad, but I loved the dancers so it made it really amazing.

Earlier in the movie, you can also see some Swan Lake and some other traditional ballets. There was actually so much dance being featured in this movie, that I had to stop taking screencaps since I had so many. This is definitely a dance movie with great dancers. Proving that if you want to make a movie about ballet, you can easily find someone who can actually dance to play the part.

Overall Enjoyment:

Despite its clichés (eating disorder, underdog, overbearing mother, focus on perfection, trying to discover oneself, etc.), the movie wasn't bad. I mean, let's face it. We're not watching this movie for the story or the characters. We just pick one of the students we identify the most with and watch the ballet. Considering this, the movie does a really nice job knowing its audience. I think it knows its cheese and fully embraces these qualities. This movie won't appeal to most audiences, I'm guessing, since it's geared toward teens and 20-somethings mostly, but it's still not a bad movie to watch if you're outside that target age-range. Do I recommend this movie? Yes. Because the dancing is awesome!

Black Swan: Part 2

 In December 2010, the movie Black Swan was released to theatres. The story is based off the ballet, Swan Lake, and is about a young ballerina named Nina Sayers who gets the part of the Swan Queen. Only problem is that Nina is mentally unstable and the press for perfection pushes her over the edge.

This movie has been getting A LOT of hype. There have been many Oscar buzzes flying about for this movie, Rotten Tomatoes gave it a fresh review, and imdb.com has a very high rating currently for this movie, quite uncommon for a horror movie. The last horror that got this much hype was Paranormal Activity.

Unfortunately, like Paranormal Activity, this movie is just not scary. At all. If anything, it's just another gory, sexy comedy adventure. I was led astray when critics were calling it the next Red Shoes and a psychological horror because I got neither.

Granted, it wasn't a bad movie. I didn't fall asleep during it like Paranormal Activity. This movie is also quite original. I mean, how many ballet horror movies can you name? Yeah, I couldn't think of any either.

I don't know. I just didn't get the hype. Natalie Portman wasn't the best actress in my opinion either. I liked Mila Kunis who played Nina's (Natalie Portman) understudy, but I didn't get a WOW performance from Natalie. Then again, I never agree with what the Oscar picks so maybe it's perfect.

I did like how Tchaikovsky music was dispersed throughout the movie. Even the music in the restaurant was an elevator-ized version of one of the pieces. I was really hoping that the club scene would have Swan Lake techno music, but I was disappointed. I don't know, maybe it was Swan Lake played backward or something.

It's just not a scary movie. It's a nice movie. It's a funny movie. But it's not scary. They sort of forced symbolism on us with all the white/black/mirror image/hair-up/hair-down/yadda yadda that even someone who doesn't know crap about movies like me noticed. But it was a nice movie. I only paid five dollars for it so I can't complain.

I play Silent Hill and am a huge fan of that series. That basically translates to "I love symbolism!" and "I love psychological horror!" But this movie just made me laugh my head off. Because...it's funny. It really is. I would give you examples but I don't want to ruin it for you. My guess is people are going to see this and either see a very funny comedy or a terrifying horror movie. 

Since this is a ballet blog, I probably should comment on the dance portion. Though it was painfully obvious at times that Natalie wasn't doing her own dancing. At least they didn't force her to dance. They threw in a double and it looked fine. The ballet-filled sections were the best portion of film because it made the film take you into a world you may never experience for yourself. I really enjoyed these bits. In fact, I'd say I enjoyed these bits the most. Thankfully a good portion of the movie takes place in the theatre or during practice.

They also knew quite a bit about Swan Lake. Natalie would do the mimes that Odile performs and they would refer to certain portions of the ballet correctly. Though I do have to ask (and this is a spoiler. Highlight to expose) when she saw what's-his-name doing the "Black Swan" or Lily... why did he turn into the owl? Wouldn't that be incest? Was that intentional? IDK my BFF Jill.

Horror has a fine line between terrifying and hysterically funny. This movie was hysterically funny for me. Maybe others will be scared. 

Black Swan Drinking/Brain Freeze Game!

Take a swig when...

-Nina takes off her earrings

-Someone refers to her as a "sweet girl"

-Whenever Nina get's it on! And I mean whenever ;D

-Every time Lily says Nina will be/is wonderful

-Whenever Nina looks wide-eyed and confused. (Extra swig if her mouth is open!)

And that's seriously enough to get you wasted (or if you're underage, a very nice brain freeze from that slushie!)! Have fun! Hopefully you'll enjoy the movie more than me!

Black Swan- 6.5/10