Tuesday, August 12, 2008

I Can't Smell What Darren Aronofsky Is Cooking

JA from MNPP here. Via the Venice Film Festival comes a bunch of new stills from several high-profile future films, including Nat's Best Actress premonition-riddled Rachel Getting Married; Charlize (oh my Charlize) Theron's film directed by Babel-scribe Guillermo Arriaga, The Burning Plain; the Iraq-doc The Hurt Locker; Miyazaki's next classic-to-be Ponyo on the Cliff...

But most importantly to me are these first images from Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which... well I just can't get a handle of what this movie is going to be. Here's a pair o' pics from the gallery:


And all they're doing is further confounding me. Not that anything involving Mickey Rourke these days manages anything other than confounding me. But still. What is this movie? We've got Nat's pal Marisa Tomei shaking her moneymaker, Rourke slathered in gore... don't get me wrong, I'm pleased to bits that we're getting an Aronofsky movie so close on the heels of his last - I was worried he'd slip into Paul Thomas "two movies a decade" Anderson territory - but still, I can't work out what this one is gonna be.

Which I suppose is a good thing. If even Griffin Mill might have a hard time compressing your movie into the easy blank-meets-blank template, then you're probably doing something right.
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think rourke could be a best actor candidate and i am growing more and more confident of hathaway and theron's chances.

nat i didn't know you liked charlize so much.

The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

Remember the plot of that screenplay Barton Fink had to write, the Wallace Beery boxing pic? Yeah, that's pretty much the easiest way to go into The Wrestler if you don't know anything about the pro wrestling business.

Anonymous said...

Being a professional wrestling fan and a respectful admirer of Darren Aronofsky, I don't know why I hadn't even heard of this film.

I've never seen a Hollywood film about wrestling before that actually looks like anyone had a clue about pro wrestling, but this actually looks pretty "realistic". Mickey Rourke's outfit and hair legitimately look like a wrestlers. This has really interested me now.

blakecgriffin said...

I loved 'Requiem for a Dream,' but 'Southland Tales' made me lose almost all confidence in Aronofsky. Too bad.

Agustin said...

Souththland Tales is from Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly!

Slayton said...

Have you read the script? I have, and it is terrible. It basically banks on every single sports and/or redemption movie cliche ever made. Tomei has the biggest shot at creating an interesting character, but that is stretching it.

NATHANIEL R said...

screenplays can be misleading though. Especially when it comes to highly visual filmmakers like Aronofsky.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of anything else:

Marisa Tomei = Winner.

I.
Love.
Her.

Slayton said...

I was thinking about Aronofsky's visual expertise and hoping that it would somehow save this, but the thing that strikes me as odd is that Aronofsky would choose such a Lifetime Movie-as-filtered-through-FHM screenplay to film in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Well, The Fountain was a critical and commertial bomb (although it does have its fans) so he may be trying to prove that he can direct a movie that makes money, like Orson Welles with The Stranger. Perhaps Aronofsky will also be able to pull off a good film from second-rate materials.

Marshall said...

In some future time, THE FOUNTAIN will be looked upon as one of the better films of this era.