High hopes. Not quite crushed, but…
1. Highly predictable. Maybe this was because I sat through the movie with an inveterate “ok here’s what happens next” movie partner, but I knew from the start that everything was just a big stress n’ sexual deprivation induced hallucination. I would’ve liked the movie better if there had been more ambiguity here: maybe the other characters start seeing things, aside from Nina?
2. Maybe it’s just the Red Shoes speaking, but the ballet-dancer-gone-bananas trope seems to be, well, a trope. A very tired, grumpy trope that just wants to lean against the barre and smoke its cigarette and twirl its hair.
3. Not enough ballet. Obviously.
Still, I hope the success of this movie will mean more dance movies to come, and hopefully ones with greater depth and thematic flexibility. I love a good campy dance movie, but it seems to me that the possibilities are so much…greater! than camp dance movie or crazy ballerina movie.
wandering apricot 