Sign In / Sign Up

Black Bear

Black Bear
Release date: 2020-12-04
Rating: 6.4
Votes: 280
Genres: Drama, Thriller
At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously intertwined their lives will soon become.

Reviews

tmdb15435519

tmdb15435519

a movie within a movie within a movie. epic... except it's not I do want to see Aubrey Plaza in more lead roles though

r96sk

r96sk

Aubrey Plaza is terrific in this! <em>'Black Bear'</em> is intriguing from beginning to end. I did find the first half to be the stronger and most interesting part, though the conclusion is still fairly captivating all the same. As noted, Plaza is excellent throughout - she carries the film, no doubt. Christopher Abbott has a few moments, while it's neat to see <em>'<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)" rel="nofollow">The Walking Dead</a>'</em> newcomer Paola Lázaro involved.

tmdb28039023

tmdb28039023

I’d really like to like Black Bear. I actually was really liking it a lot, even enjoying it, right up to the halfway point, where the whole thing comes crashing down faster than Kevin Spacey’s career. Black Bear is divided into two parts; The Bear on the Road, and The Bear by the House (let’s call them BB1 and BB2); both parts end with the appearance of the titular Ursus americanus, but could very well have ended with a sign saying ‘Dead End’. In a remote lake house in the Adirondacks, Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and Blair (Sarah Gadon), welcome Allison (Aubrey Plaza), an up-and-coming film director. Like the stereotypical artists, these three are creative and intelligent, but also childish and belligerent. Allison is a bald-faced pathological liar, Gabe is immature and manipulative, and Blair doesn’t let her pregnancy get in the way of a burgeoning alcoholism (the casting, by the way, is spot-on). Their interactions are fraught with patronizing passive-aggressiveness.This is plain good ol’ rubbernecking fun. The dialogue is both obscene and highbrow(I especially enjoyed the use of the word “solipsistic”), but sadly the biggest insult, to the audience’s intelligence, takes the form of a cliffhanger —for lack of a better term — that segues into BB2.The second half is a meta-textual quagmire wherein there’s a movie-within-the-movie, but that inner movie isn’t really the movie we were watching thus far, so presumably there’s a hypothetical third movie buried somewhere in this conceptual nightmare. If BB1 was a about a train wreck from which we could not take our eyes off, BB2 is just a train wreck, period. The only quality that crosses over from the first half is the acting, which is probably even better — but that just makes me feel sorry for the cast. All things considered, what we have here are two drafts of the same admittedly good idea, which doesn’t equal a single finished product. Instead of going back to the drawing board, the writer/director has simply opted to present the same underdeveloped premise twice in a row, both times neglecting to come up with a proper conclusion.

Movie Recommendation

  • Not Carol
    Not Carol
    2019-05-20
    NOT CAROL examines the scourge of postpartum psychosis through the tragic prism of the Carol Coronado murder case. In a judicial system riddled with archaic laws and chronic misunderstanding, Carol's story shines a light on a public health epidemic that is enormous in scale and no one is talking about.
    More...
  • Buckley's Chance
    Buckley's Chance
    2021-06-24
    A fish-out-of-water story of a young boy Ridley who becomes lost in the harsh Australian outback with nothing but his camcorder and new friend, a wayward Dingo.
    More...
  • Demetri Martin. Person.
    Demetri Martin. Person.
    2007-01-14
    A unique talent, Demetri Martin is one of the hottest stand-up comics working today. His new special, Demetri Martin. Person. Inventive and insightful, this top-rated program brings the funny in ways you've never seen.
    More...
  • Age Out
    Age Out
    2018-06-21
    Fresh out of foster care at age 18, a young drifter turns to petty crime to survive, and discovers an impossible love in an unlikely friend.
    More...
  • Top Gear: US Special
    Top Gear: US Special
    2008-03-03
    The Top Gear team go on a US adventure. Its the ultimate road trip and finds the guys driving $1000 wrecks over 700 stifling miles to New Orleans. In a Chevy, a Caddy and a Pick-Up, their challenges include preparing a road kill feast and baiting rednecks of Alabama without getting shot.
    More...
  • South Central
    South Central
    1992-09-18
    During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.
    More...
  • Kevin Hart: Zero F**ks Given
    Kevin Hart: Zero F**ks Given
    2020-11-17
    Kevin Hart serves up laughs and brick oven pizza from the comfort of his home, and dishes on male group chats, sex after 40 and life with COVID-19.
    More...
  • Bones
    Bones
    2001-10-24
    Over 20 years after his death, local legend and benefactor Jimmy Bones returns as a ghost to get revenge on those who killed him and restore his neighborhood.
    More...
  • What's New Pussycat?
    What's New Pussycat?
    1965-06-22
    A playboy who refuses to give up his hedonistic lifestyle to settle down and marry his true love seeks help from a demented psychoanalyst who is having romantic problems of his own.
    More...
  • Small Engine Repair
    Small Engine Repair
    2021-09-10
    The seemingly casual reunion of three old friends at an out-of-the-way repair shop masks a hidden agenda fuelled by the arrival of a privileged young yuppie.
    More...
  • Shoot to Kill
    Shoot to Kill
    1988-02-12
    When a cunning murderer vanishes into the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest, pursuing FBI agent Warren Stantin must exchange familiar city streets for unknown wilderness trails. Completely out of his element, Stantin is forced to enlist the aid of expert tracker Jonathan Knox. It's a turbulent yet vital relationship they must maintain in order to survive... and one that becomes increasingly desperate when Knox's girlfriend Sarah becomes the killer's latest hostage!
    More...
  • Drugstore Cowboy
    Drugstore Cowboy
    1989-10-20
    Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
    More...
  • The Battery
    The Battery
    2012-10-13
    In rural Connecticut, baseball players Ben and Mickey are trying to survive a zombie plague. They are forced to form a battery: a catcher and a pitcher who work together to outwit the batter, the one who hits the ball. And the batter in this case just happens to be a zombie. Tough Ben and gentle Mickey frequently disagree on the best way to go about the situation. Then they suddenly hear a human voice through their walkie-talkies. Is salvation nearby, like Mickey thinks, or is Ben’s suspicion justified?
    More...
  • Gone in the Night
    Gone in the Night
    2022-07-15
    Upon arriving at a remote cabin in the redwoods, Kath and her boyfriend find a mysterious younger couple already there — the rental has apparently been double-booked. They decide to share the cabin with these strangers until the next morning, but her boyfriend disappears with the young woman, which sends Kath in a spiral to find an explanation for their sudden breakup — but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.
    More...
  • Sweet Virginia
    Sweet Virginia
    2017-11-17
    A former rodeo star, now a motel manager, meets a young man who is responsible for the violence that suddenly has seized his small town.
    More...
  • Kundun
    Kundun
    1997-12-25
    The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as 'Kundun', which means 'The Presence'. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since.
    More...
  • Honeymoon with My Mother
    Honeymoon with My Mother
    2022-04-29
    A young man is stood up at the altar. His overprotective mother decides to join him is what would have been his honeymoon, so as not to waste the trip. He ails while his mum enjoys the trip of her life.
    More...
  • Shirley
    Shirley
    2020-09-11
    A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
    More...
  • Pathology
    Pathology
    2008-04-11
    Medical student Ted Grey graduates at the top of his class and quickly joins an elite pathology program, whose top students invite him into their circle. There he uncovers a gruesome secret: They play a game in which one tries to commit the perfect, undetectable murder, then the others compete to determine the victim's cause of death.
    More...
  • Earwig and the Witch
    Earwig and the Witch
    2021-02-03
    A headstrong orphan discovers a world of spells and potions while living with a selfish witch.
    More...

Similar Movies