The Wrestler
Dir: Darren Aronofsky
2008
*****
Darren Aronofsky is a brilliant director. Considering they had something like 26 locations in 26 days, you got to hand it to him. He's already proved himself great from one end of directing (Pi) to the other (The Fountain) so I'm not surprised I was taken with The Wrestler. That would be an understatement though, I regard The Wrestler as a modern masterpiece, it's up there with Raging Bull in my opinion. Life, the universe and everything, played out and explained through the life and death of a wrestler. I can't help but think of Barton Fink's 'Wrestling picture' when watching this. I love everything about it. I totally understand peoples questioning of Aronofsky's direction in this, sure it's a bit rough around the edges but I really think that helps set the scene in many ways. Mickey Rourke was brilliantly cast as was the very lovely Marisa Tomei. I disagree that the film was slowly paced, I thought it flowed quite gracefully, riddled with such beautifully subtle moments of human behaviour, it was never ever boring. Clint Mansell is also another particular hero of mine, I absolutely love his score (I'm a big PWEI fan too).