Alison (Plaza) sits on the pier in a red swimsuit and stares into the fog. He went to a nearby house, opened a notebook and started writing. In a nutshell: Alison is abandoned by a taxi and greeted by Gabe (Christopher Abbott). Who carries his suitcase as they walk down a long dirt road to the same house. Where he opens his notebook and begins writing. It is a large terraced house, rustic and luxurious; To say it is a “hut” is to call a Bengal tiger a wild cat.
Gabe and his partner Blair (Sarah Gadden) invite him to bed and breakfast for creativity. The friend of friends who seek refuge. Note that I’m not saying this is a “quiet” retreat—at least not for Alison. As she soon finds herself embroiled in the middle of Gabe and Blair’s dysfunctional domestic feud. And will infuriate you that she can’t get away with it.
Maybe he doesn’t want that.
Perhaps he lived off such conflict – or even nurtured it. Blair is pregnant, and Gabe is currently an unemployed musician. Heading towards the harbour, Alison seemed to intently stare at her in the red swimsuit while Blair watched her. And then loop-de-loop: Alison sits on the dock in a red swimsuit and stares into the fog. He went to a nearby house, opened a notebook and started writing. It’s definitely the same scene as before, but it doesn’t feel like one of the usual storytelling tricks. Where the film starts with an exciting, suspenseful moment. Then jumps back and builds on that moment as Alison’s plot waits to turn red. Then go to the nearest house, opening a notebook, and starting writing are not exciting and stressful. Right?
There’s a dinner scene where the three characters eat and drink maybe a little too much. Which becomes a surreal, “stage build” like scene, and even though no one in the film witnessed the making, we got to see the making on stage. Blair desperately drank three or four glasses of wine despite being pregnant. Gabe frustrates everyone by making stupid and backward anti-feminist statements. Alison desperately acts like one of those who might be serious or joking, but it’s impossible to tell which one.
It’s also disappointing not to do what we all would:
Namely, getting out of the room when a partner you barely know has a hot, tense partner. This is when you might get suspicious of this story, especially given the odd tone of the show, which has Alison sitting on the dock in a red swimsuit and staring into the fog, then by walking down to a nearby house and opening a notebook starting to write. Especially the second time. I’ve benefited from seeing Black Bear in its entirety. I can confirm that for reasons I can’t go into, you shouldn’t believe it because, you know, SPOILERS, although on the subject of “unforgettable dialogue”, continues below. I must say that there are more than three characters in this film.
An incredibly suspenseful and suspenseful film, The Black Bear is S.O.B. from a taut film as he stubbornly refuses to show his hand. Not only does it revolve around the sequence where Alison sits on the dock, and you know etc., but it challenges us regularly with a mix of dark comedy and dark, dramatic undertones. With an unreliable narrator. We very rarely do with the character what we would do as a calm and reasonable person in the situation described.
In the same scene, Blair, Gabe and Alison are portraits of nuclear neuroticism – self-defence, fibre. The tendency to characterize the testimonies of other characters in a wholly harmful and destructive light, the kind of thing that screams THERAPY. You can be disgusted by everyone, but you can also struggle to break free, to find out in the first place what is upsetting Levine about what he’s trying to say. He pulls us in with this sequence, a carefully realized sequence in which Alison sits on the dock in a red bathing suit, stares into the fog, then goes to a nearby house, opens a notebook and begins to write. You know the order.
But the film itself is unpredictable.
Levine turns around in the middle of the film and begins to understand more clearly what he is aiming for, while in the forest, a large predatory creature seems to be lurking that is himself. As I mentioned earlier, two other characters discuss mind games being played in certain situations that will remain unclear. As you would have liked them more if we didn’t reveal them some time ago, we might also play mind games. Comedies are getting wider, dramas are getting heavier, films are about other things, like gender dynamics and feminism and storytelling, and yourself, but also about the act of being yourself. Don’t judge him for his confidence, which is fine unless he’s self-indulgent, which he often isn’t.
The Black Bears are rugged but applicable watches, and you don’t have to sit on a dock in a red swimsuit and all that to appreciate their unconventional angle to the art of art-making.