FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS: a comedy that's cocky and crappy

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is one of those irritating films that wants to have it's cake and eat it too.
It's a rom-com that spends its first half offering a snarky faux-cool 21st century take on the genre, mocking its cliches and tired conventions, and the second half exploiting almost all of them to the max.

Does director Will Gluck ('Easy A') not realise his film is falling into the very trap he professes to despise, or is he trying to make the point that the stereotypes of the traditional Hollywood rom-com actually reflect the reality of young love? Is he skilfully and amusingly telling us that rom coms peddle these cliches for a reason and the reason is 'cos they're true?! Or did he just run out of ideas?
Not being privy to the inner workings of Mr Gluck's mind or the endless development meetings which preceded shooting I can't say with certainty which of these possibilities is the correct one, but I can assert with a high degree of confidence that FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is tedious, derivative and unengaging.
There's nothing to like about self-aware smart-aleks Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie Rellis (Mila Kunis) as they play-out this tired storyline desperately trying to convince themselves and us that they're doing something fresh and new. Maybe they thought they were being ironic but that would require a level of sophistication this film simply doesn't possess. Timberlake and Kunis actually acquit themselves pretty well, but they're working with material that stinks.
I'm similarly at a loss to understand why Hollywood has gone on something of an anti-romantic comedy bender recently, inflicting on us not only FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS but also 'No Strings Attached' and 'What's Your Number,' each worse than the one before, and that's includes starting from a very low baseline.
If you set out to mock one of Hollywood's most cherished genres, one that has withstood world wars, the Great Depression, numerous recessions and enormous social and cultural upheavals, you better make damn sure you've got a story that is so absolutely brilliant in every respect that potential critics are stunned into awed silence. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is not that film.

BLACK SWAN: look beneath the glossy surface

If BLACK SWAN sweeps the board in the upcoming awards season a terrible injustice will have been done.
Because this film is only half as fabulous as its supporters like to make out.
I don't blame them. It's easy to be taken in.
Firstly there's the reputation of the director, Darren Aronofsky. His impressive, if short, resume ("Requiem for a Dream", "The Fountain", "The Wrestler") has endowed him with the reputation of a stylish arthouse director, and he certainly has an engaging way of telling the story of characters who are chasing a dream.
Then there's the subject matter. Aronosky's succeeded in making the rarefied and most definitely artsy world of ballet interesting and accessible to a multiplex audience.. There's not been this much buzz about ballet on the big screen since Powell and Pressburger's 'The Red Shoes' way back in 1948.
And then there's Natalie Portman's performance as Nina Sayers - the ballerina who loses her mind in pursuit of perfection.
It all adds up to a mesmerizingly shiny surface which can blind one to the reality beneath. 
And the reality is that - at best - this is a good film but it's certainly not one of the great movies of 2010.
The idea of an artist striving too hard for perfection and finding themselves taken over by the character they're interpreting on stage is nothing new. Ronald Colman won the Best Actor Oscar in 1947 for doing something very similar in 'A Double Life.' The big difference now is that technology and a lack of censorship allows Aronofsky to create images that Colman could only dream about.
What did impress me about BLACK SWAN was Portman's performance. Her portrayal of the timid, virginal and repressed dancer who has the technique but not the passion to become a great ballerina is sensational. Her descent into darkness is genuinely disturbing, as she pushes herself beyond what she's capable of, constantly harangued by sadistic ballet company director Vincent Cassel, bullied by her domineering mother Barbara Hershey, and tormented  by the imagined rivalry with sexy uninhibited fellow dancer Mila Kunis.
If anyone connected with this project is deserving of awards it's Natalie Portman. BLACK SWAN is good but she is great.