NYFF. The Wrestler.

The Wrestler (site) "may best be described as an existentialist tragicomedy about the nature of identity and performance, but the movie itself is as light as low-calorie mayonnaise - which is saying a lot when you consider that, in director Darren Aronofsky's previous film, The Fountain (2006), even a mere snowflake was hunkered down with several tons of symbolic importance," writes Scott Foundas in Cinema Scope. "The result is a movie far closer in look and feel to the New American Cinema of the 70s (which Aronofsky clearly idolizes) than any of its maker's more laboured sacrifices at that hallowed altar."

And profiling Mickey Rourke in a cover story for the Voice, Foundas notes that his is "a characterization of rare intensity and pathos that bristles with the lived-in authority of someone who knows what it means to live with his back against the ropes."

"[T]his performance goes way beyond the brain, or the precision with which Rourke transformed his appearance, or even the naturalism with which he performs the wrestling choreography," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog. "This is a performance that seems to start and end in the cardiovascular system, making everything Rourke actually does seem effortless. As if he's just breathing it."

"Here as in Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain, Aronofsky remains fascinated by humanity's capacity for self-mutilation in the pursuit of a cherished dream," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "His close-proximity immersion into Randy's in-ring violence and backstage recovery sessions - such as when medical treatment of his gruesome injuries instigates cross-cutting flashbacks to the brutal acts that produced them - results in gritty panoramas of corporeality damaged in the service of attaining stardom or, at least, base financial sustenance.... Eventually hampered by a traitorous ticker that relegates him to humble supermarket deli counter duty, Randy ultimately refuses to betray himself, and it's there, in Randy's resigned understanding and acceptance that a life predicated on self-destruction can only end one way, that The Wrestler ultimately locates its measure of graceful nobility."

"The reviews out of Venice and Toronto cited a paring down of Aronofsky's polyglot style, and noted a Dardennes influence, offering the many from-behind travelling shots of Rourke, as evidence," recalls Glenn Kenny. "Yes and no. Unlike the work of the Dardennes, The Wrestler is hardly a film that's bereft of cinematic flourish."

"At the press conference following the film, it seemed clear that Mr Aronofsky is quite the taskmaster on set," notes Sara Vilkomerson in the New York Observer. "'I won't say he's tough, because he doesn't like that,' said Mr Rourke. 'Relentless. Let's say relentless.'"

For Vulture, Will Leitch lists "Ten Things You Need to Know About The Wrestler."

Online viewing tip #1. IFC has video from the press conference.

Online viewing tip #2. Filmcatcher interviews Aronofsky.

Updates, 10/8: "The Wrestler, unlike the Rocky films, acknowledges that bodies get old and break down despite the most rigorous training," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "Instead of glorifying the overmuscled, middle-aged body as a still magnificent fighting machine, The Wrestler pictures it as a monstrous, battle-scarred carcass held together with spit and chewing gum. Especially in its gory fight scenes, the movie achieves the same dreamlike horror of Mr Aronofsky's 2000 screen adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr's nightmare of drug addiction, Requiem for a Dream. In both films there is no escape from the visceral truth."

"It's a fantastic performance from Rourke, even as it's all tangled up with everything we know about his own life and career," writes Alison Willmore. "But it's an even better performance from director Darren Aronofsky, who turns from The Fountain, a film I'd be the first to defend, but that feels like it was created in the isolation of the space bubble in which Future Hugh Jackman spent so much time meditating, to something unexpectedly funny, ready and rough and tumble that runs at a dozen clichés and tosses them over the ropes. Exotic dancer with a secret kid and a heart of gold? Estranged, embittered offspring? Down-on-his-luck athlete/entertainer with one last shot at grander things? Check, check and check, and The Wrestler reinvents these characters from scratch."

Update, 10/9: For IFC, Aaron Hillis talks with Aronofsky "about his tremendously entertaining new film, how Axl Rose helped out, and why he couldn't hit Rourke in the head on-set."

Updates, 10/10: "Whatever Aronofsky did - or didn't - do, Rourke's performance comes off beautifully," writes Stephanie Zacharek in Salon. "The Wrestler may not be the 'best' Aronofsky movie in any technical sense. But the director clearly feels a great deal of tenderness toward his lead character, without ever emasculating him, and Rourke's performance blossoms and thrives within that affectionate framework."

"The Wrestler is portraiture; its hopes, as in Nicholas Ray's best films, lie not in escaping or revamping society, but in finding some alleviation and distraction in personal relationships (rather than the sensual outs of Aronofsky's early films)," writes David Phelps in the Auteurs' Notebook.

Update, 10/13: "Rourke isn't just well cast in The Wrestler," writes Adam Nayman in Reverse Shot: "he's perfectly cast, and the performance is pretty much flawless, too. Randy the Ram exists in three dimensions, even though the narrative is framed as a solemn modern-Christ parable cartoon, a dichotomy that's unintentionally literalized in the scene where Rourke plays a vintage NES wrestling game featuring his own pixelated doppelganger."

Update, 10/23: "It's a story we've seen before, but we're not there for the story so much as the way it's performed," writes Leo Goldsmith at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "And it's Rourke's performance and the intimacy with which it's rendered that make The Wrestler what it is, what it's about."

Posted by dwhudson at October 6, 2008 2:02 PM