BLACK BEAR | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Lawrence Michael Levine (15, 106 mins)
An intriguing, often baffling drama that defies any easy description, Black Bear is a very meta experience with a superb central performance from Aubrey Plaza. She plays Allison, a writer/director and apparent former actress who arrives at Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and his pregnant wife Blair’s (Sarah Gadon) beautiful lakeside retreat to jumpstart her creativity. They expect her to arrive with her husband, but there is none in tow. There she becomes an awkward gooseberry in a relationship going toxic, finding herself strongly attracted to the unhappy but complicated Abbott. Gadon and Plaza lock horns in some heated, caustically well-observed arguments about creativity and definitions of what it means to be an artist; the dialogue is playful and uncomfortable before events take a turn for the worse.
Up until this point, the film plays like a psychological horror – claustrophobic, offbeat and tense – and halfway through, it shifts to something else entirely. The relationship drama morphs considerably but is full of echoes, making for fascinating viewing. Plaza, so sardonically excellent in everything she does, gives her best performance here, playing a damaged individual caught up in a maelstrom of creative and personal angst.
The relationship between those who work intensely in the arts – directors, actors and writers – get nods in writer/director Levine’s seemingly very personal vision, as do their fractious, exploitative and often toxic personal relationships. Levine himself had been burnt out by the Hollywood machine and wanted to get back to doing something personal, Black Bear the result of that. Camera movement shifts from horror movie stillness to handheld chaos as the film weaves within its tricksy narratives. There’s a lot to unpick: the film is a mass of ideas with two narratives, possibly more, and a black bear plays a part in both. Playful, funny, tense and gruelling by turns, this drama is unlike anything you’ve yet seen this year. It won’t be for everyone.
Released on Fri 23 Apr
words KEIRON SELF