Neds

Neds - directed by Peter Mullan in 2010

For all those who are not from Scotland and have never seen Chewin' the Fat or Still Game, a Ned is an acronym of a Non-Educated Delinquent. What would they be called in English culture? Maybe....Chavs,Choras, Scallies, Twockers. Whatever you call the type, they’re generally the underclasses who have turned to anti-social behaviour, violent crime and other forms of social deviance. 

Neds is a part-biographical adaptation of the director, Peter Mullan’s, childhood. It stars Conor McCarron as the young boy ‘John McGill’, a boy who has just left primary school as one of its star pupils. John has been protected though out his upbringing by his family as they fear he will grow up to be just like his older brother, Benjamin McGill (who was expelled after he assaulted two teachers.)  John is excited about the prospects of Secondary school and has high ambitions, wanting to go to university and, above all, making his mother and his auntie proud of him. However, from the start of the film we see that John has his work cut out for him as the harsh reality hits him, and us, in the face when he is confronted by a Ned. Literally 3 minutes into the film we hear the soon to be immortal line ‘you’re gonna get your cunt kicked in’ (Kind of ‘raises the bar’, doesn't it?). 

This film could easily be tagged as a ‘coming of age’ film. In fact, it is really.  It shows John in the first year in Secondary school, being placed into the ‘stupid’ group as opposed to the ‘smart’ class that he craved to be in. John gets his wish after the winter holidays and is on his way to the similar glory that he attained whilst at Primary school. He is warned at the end of the year to be careful what he gets up to in the summer holidays by a ‘considerate’ teacher (incidentally, the teachers in this film are the pure cliche type that you would expect in any retrospective British film, however, they are hysterical!). This warning is not taken on however, and John becomes wrapped up in a new lifestyle that he has been avoiding for years. This leads John into a similar tale that has been heard before... Rises to his desired level of social fame, gets carried away, and hurts those around him. Does he get out of this downward spiral? I’ll let you lot come to that conclusion. 

Neds is what we have come to expect from a man such as Peter Mullins’ background. It is another one of the ‘Brit-Grit’ films of the post-new wave era. Mullins tries to tell it like it is, or was, and from that he does a good job. He keeps it as realistic as possible (although this could be argued in some of the later scenes of violence). He does this by using home-grown talent as opposed to actors and keeps the dialect as local as possible (I sometimes struggled with what was being said and I like to think I’m okay with taking in Glaswegian accents). However, there is the unfortunate sense that, this type of film has been done before. It is dramatic and at times it is shocking, you wonder if the situation has changed for the city’s youth, if things are better. You dread to think that there have been children who have witnessed such scenes of graphic violence.  However, there is still a feeling that it has been done before. However, maybe there are ulterior motives? Films of this nature often try to change what is happening or to get across the social dilemmas that people face. Perhaps this film is different, the level of humour within it shows to me that this film is just an example of the ordinary? Not a warning or a statement; simply showing that this is life for some.

If you wish to read more click below. However I do warn you – there are some spoilers so perhaps you should watch the film first.

Feedback

Hello all.

Thank you very much to all those who have given me feedback about what I have written so far. From the sounds of it, I'm doing alright - so I'm going to keep going. However, I thought I would let you know that I will be slightly changing my structure. Instead of a huge mesh of whats good about the film & what happens - I will now start off with a short review of the particular film. In which I will let you know if it's worth a watch or if it's rubbish. After this, I shall then give an in-depth analysis of what I found interesting about the film.  This way, if you want to read more about what I think about the film and if you agree/disagree - you can do.

Thanks very much

GPK

Black Swan Review/Analysis

Hello all,

This is my second review/analysis. For those of you that havent seen the film, a slight warning, I will be writing about instances that occur throughout thefilm so you may therefore only want to read this after you have seen it. If you want my final thought of the film I advise you skim to the last paragraph. However, if you’re not fussed – then neither am I.

Black Swan 2011 directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Having watched two of Aronofsky’s films before (Requiem for a Dream and Pi) I was feeling a ray of optimism that this film would feature some of the techniques that I had previously witnessed. For example, closed in camera angles, flashing lights mixed with bone-wrenchingly harrow music and a story line that adds a new, or forgotten, societal value that may have been perhaps been washed over by the demands of our forever changing cultural importance (I’m not saying other films don’t have this – simply that I like how Aronofsky uses this). After seeing the cast line-up (Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey) I was thinking more and more that this could be an alluring broth of cinema.

Would you like a flash-in-the-pan synopsis for Black Swan? Here you go - A ballet dancer, Nina (Natalie Portman) wins the lead in "Swan Lake" as she is deemed perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette. However, she is told to work on her role more of the Black Swan. She slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like the Black Swan, resulting in disastrous consequences.

After discussing with a few colleagues it became apparent that there was a divide between some people thinking that this film is worthy of all the credit that it receives and that this film could be another anti-climax. Black Swan is not particularly an original film idea. It is about an artist/athlete who is pressured (by herself and by her peers) to work, some may argue, further than their own capabilities. It is also an adaptation of the play Swan Lake. Here, certain characters play out different roles of the play within the film. Whereas some people would see this as a fresh and original idea. Others see it as merely repeating Swan Lake with a modern twist, I personally believe that this is where the film deserves some kudos. Swan Lake is a very clever but simple story. The play tells the story of a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The spell can only be broken if someone falls and expresses their love to the princess (there’s more to this but I could go on forever and I write enough as it is!). However, Ballet has been given a rough ride over the years. It is now seen as pretentious, arty-farty drivel that is island to the rest of society and those with an emotional imbalance can only appreciate it; and so with that people outside of this ‘high-brow’ culture can not see the beauty and horror and love that come with it.  So my argument here is that Aronofsky has been able to transmit to the world, to popular culture, a wonderful tale that does not get enough praise from anyone outside of the social elite.

Aronofsky has directed a true horror here. Not the type that involves a shadowy figure who preys on all who pretty much deserve what they get, but a horror that plays with your mind. He is able to play with your own perceptions of film genre and use this to his advantage; creating characters that you fall for instantly, are able to associate with/relate to, and therefore understand their wants and needs - Creating a true ‘enemy within’.  This is helped out with the acting cast themselves; you are sucked in to Portman’s position. Apart from her physical ability, her character begins so frail and introvert that you can perhaps sympathise with her. You see that she has grown into a woman who is constantly under pressure from her mother, constantly pressurized by the environment that she has grown up in. I wondered to myself, while watching this, can be reflected upon by Portman herself? Growing up in a bitchy, confrontational ‘dog eat dog’ world industry, did she ever feel the desire to break away? Well, this is academic, as she didn’t. Her acting is superb, but not astounding. As Nina, practicing the part of the White Swan, she is comforting and pleasing to watch. But I can’t help but feel that she doesn’t seem natural. It is into her trip into deliririum and schizophrenia that she shows more of an appeal. Her fears become your fears; she is fearful of Lilly’s (Mila Kunis) vanity and sexual prowess. She believes that Lilly is a part of the cutthroat clique that she seems to have avoided all these years.  Through this paranoia however, she transgresses into a main role of the film and the play, the enigmatic, fearless, sexually empowered Black Swan. At the same time, she is no longer a frigid, shy little girl – this is the part where she metamorphoses into a vibrant, passionate woman.  It is here, through Portman’s acting ability and Aronofsky’s shocking film work (in particular, the breaking of Portman’s toenail, her moulded feet and Ryder’s psychotic self-mutilation) you are filled with shock, dread and wonder  - which, therefore, sweeps you into the spell of Black Swan.

I think a sign of a good film is where you want to learn more. This is exactly what I did once I had watched Black Swan. I wanted to see if this was really the life of a Ballerina. Not so much Nina’s life, but is that really what they have to go through? That level of concentration, flexibility, and the sacrifices they have to carry out? For me it shed new light, it isn’t for the articulate, it isn’t for the weak...but for a strong. I know a lot of strong fellas, but can the pirouette like their lives depended on it? I doubt it. Are they able to resist the sweet side of life for their work? No chance. Is all this done for the artistic merits that the ballet can bring to them? Or is it more for adoration, fame and fortune?

There are some interesting points to make in Black Swan. For example, Winona Ryder’s character. I find her role a very enchanting one for a few reasons.  To those who may go to the cinema often, you could argue that Ryder is an actress who is ‘fading’ out of the major Hollywood film industry. Although she is still working in film, she has not really (in my opinion) been in a big film for over 10 years.  For me, Portman and Ryder’s on screen encounters could be related to real life – Portman is the new heroine of the screen, Ryder is the one fading out. I hope I am wrong here, as Ryder is truly brilliant and was perfect for this part. It’s such a small role but such an important one. Ryder’s character, Beth Macintyre, could be seen as though she is within a spell that is outside of the play. She is cursed. You could argue that when Nina takes on the main role, the curse has been moved on to her. This could be represented when Nina takes Beth’s make up. When she is caught up in her own paranoia – she attempts to visit Beth in hospital, but is this a visit? Or is this an opportunity for her to attempt to break the curse? By returning back Beth’s stolen goods. For me, this was Nina’s last chance of finding her original state of normality. Unfortunately, Beth does not allow this.

The film addresses a number of ideas that question reality. Within this, there are at times some scenes where you question is what we are seeing actually happening. Some are more apparent than others, such as the death of Lilly when she plays Nina’s alternate. Nina drags her body to a separate toilet area and then jams the bottom of the door with a towel in order to stop the blood. We later discover that Lilly is alive and well. The scene showing that the encounter was with Nina and her subconscious, her battle with herself to become the Black Swan. There are much earlier points in the film that suggest Nina’s insecurities become visible through her mother’s paintings. Are they really as horrid and as antagonising as we see them? Or are these the visions that Nina sees? Is she really thinking that this is how her mother thinks of her? However, this could be looked into almost anything! Does Nina actually visit Beth at the Hospital? Does she even Stab herself? We are believed to think this is the case, but the spell of Black Swan may have hypnotized us too.

The film is also about the idea of ‘perfection’, and what we are willing to do to find this social fabrication. In Nina’s case, we are led to believe that it is a matter far greater than anything she has encountered before, even her own life. That it unleashes a true self, a new identity. Perfection can enable you to turn to those you love and embrace them, as she does with Vincent Cassel’s character, Thomas.  I believe that Black Swan is a message to us all that we are unable to achieve pure perfection, or something relative to that ideal without a great consequence. That the term is constructed by those higher above us, in this case Thomas, who are able to unjustifyingly determine whether or not someone’s actions are ‘perfect’ (While on the subject of Cassel, his part in the film is good and he delivers it greatly, although I feel that there was something missing from his performance.  He was aggressive, passionate and beastly at times, but he lacked something to make him truly convincing. Maybe I need to watch ‘Guest House Paradiso’ and see if he had what he was looking for then??).

If you haven’t yet seen this film, please do. I am not one for jumping on bandwagon but when it comes to this film there are so many things to get out of it. It’s full of fear, love, hate, sex, passion, disgust, want and is very hypnotic and curious. It’s about a psychological journey, and features the metaphorical and physical representations of transgression. You’ll want to see if Portman’s character is able to succeed on her journey for affection and her quest of finding perfection.  My thoughts are only from a certain perspective and I may have missed some things that others may see, if you think I have or want to add something – feel free. It is truly a wonderful film, and I am sure that we will all be talking about it for months to come. I look forward to it already.

GPK