First things first: by the time the next issue of the Advocate hits the streets, Christmas will be just a few days away. If you celebrate the holiday, maybe you’re heading to a family homestead, or to the in-laws’ house for a long weekend. Maybe you’re doing both. Or maybe you’re staying put, holing up for the holiday with a loved one, blankets and a bottle of good wine.
Whatever you end up doing, there’s one thing that’s almost sure to figure into your plans: a holiday movie. And now is the time to start planning.
Essentially, this boils down to not seeing the Ron Howard-helmed live action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas—the near-sacrilegious Jim Carrey vehicle that topped Moviefone’s 2009 list of worst holiday movies. Once that’s out of the way, you’ve got options: some families opt for the wry nostalgia of A Christmas Story; others for the updated, raunchier nostalgia of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Single men? The boozy, cuss-crazy Bad Santa. (I’m partial to the Rankin/Bass output of animated holiday specials, myself.)
But if you want a true classic—or maybe just a matinee you can bring your grandmother to—then White Christmas is your flick. The Bing Crosby-Danny Kaye chestnut features all the light comedy, romance and songs (by Irving Berlin, no less) that the era made famous. Crosby and Kaye play a pair of war veterans turned song-and-dance men who follow a sister act (Vera-Ellen and a smoldering Rosemary Clooney) to a holiday gig at a Vermont lodge. Once there, they discover that the down-on-his-luck owner is their old Army commander, and the pair make it their mission to save the inn and win the sisters.
And, while it’s sure to be on any number of TV screens this month, it comes to the big screen this Monday at Hartford’s Real Art Ways. RAW is a little bit out of the way, but always worth the trip, often screening some of the smaller indie works overlooked by theaters in the Valley.
For something a little darker than White Christmas, try Black Swan, opening at Amherst Cinema this Friday. The latest from Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream; The Wrestler) is, like his other works, a story of obsession. Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a young ballerina in New York presented with the opportunity of a lifetime when the director of her company decides to replace his prima ballerina (Winona Ryder, passing a symbolic torch of sorts).
The catch is that the season’s opening production will be Swan Lake, and Thomas Leroy demands a dancer who can embody not only the innocence of the White Swan but also the sensuality and recklessness of the Black Swan. Nina may have the first part down, but a life subjugated to her art has left her under-prepared to play the Black Swan—a part new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) seems to come to naturally.
As a rivalry sparks between the two young women, so does a dangerous kind of friendship—one that opens Nina’s eyes to her darker tendencies, but that may prove more than the sheltered ballerina is able to sustain.
Aronofsky has always been interested in the interplay of the mental and physical, in how far one can push the other: from the right angle, the heroin addicts of Requiem For A Dream aren’t so different from Mickey Rourke’s aging wrestler. Each is chasing some elusive high, locked in a vicious circle that quickly comes to look like blood circling a drain. For Aronofsky, it turns out that the stage is as treacherous as the ring, and maybe more so.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
