Twisting drama bears its teeth...
A TRIPPY PLOT, FEARLESS PERFORMANCES AND A SHARP SCRIPT IS SURE TO PUT AUDIENCES IN A SPIN
ART imitates, deconstructs, confounds and distorts life in writerdirector Lawrence Michael Levine’s trippy tour of the filmmaking industry.
Bookmarked by the striking image of a lone woman in a bloodred swimsuit, sitting on a pontoon and staring forlornly at the surface of a lake, Black Bear gleefully plants seeds of doubt about the veracity of what we are watching. Aubrey Plaza delivers two contrasting performances on opposite sides of a camera – one figurative, the other literal – as a quick-witted and erudite mistress of her own destiny and a tortured artist at the mercy of a manipulative spouse.
Both iterations of her character, Allison, slalom at breakneck speed through conflicting emotions, culminating in the introduction of the titular mammal in very different ways, accompanied by broken glass or an irreparably fractured heart.
Allison (Plaza) is an actressturned-film director, who travels to a remote lake house belonging to professional musician Gabe (Christopher Abbott). She is seeking inspiration for a new project. Gabe maintains the house for his mother, while he and girlfriend Blair (Sarah Gadon) prepare for the arrival of their first child. Tensions between the couple are immediately evident. Wine flows freely, pot is smoked and a conversation about feminism and traditional gender roles spirals into full-blown verbal warfare. As Gabe convinces Blair that he isn’t attracted to their guest, pulses race and a hirsute, fourlegged denizen of the surrounding wilderness prepares to send everyone’s lives into a sickening spin.
Black Bear sustains an air of unease, powered by bruising arguments between characters teetering on the precipice of a nervous breakdown.
Simple, uncluttered camerawork, trapping the actors in uncomfortable proximity with toxic emotions, allows the fearless performances and a lean, sharptoothed script to shine.
Levine see-saws between the horribly inevitable and the shockingly unexpected and makes no apologies for spinning heads.
The truth is a stranger to fiction.