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Black Bear Movie Review

Black Bear is a 2020 thriller drama film directed by Lawrence Michael Levine and starring Aubrey Plaza, Sarah Gadon and Christopher Abbott. It’s an overly ambiguous movie.

A filmmaker plays a calculated game of desire and jealousy in pursuit of a work of art that blurs the boundaries between autobiography and invention. This is one of those movies that quickly changed gears from straightforward to ambiguous, and it is one of those movies that only got worse as it went along. I loved the first act, so the rest really disappointed me.

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The first act was terrific. That entire discussion about the pros and cons of modernity was excellent and very interesting while the psychosexual dynamic between the three characters was very well established. I liked where all of this was going, but when the movie suddenly became something entirely different, I lost interest.

The problem with this movie is that it is too chaotic and overly indulgent in its psychological thriller ambiguities that it becomes too meta and not sophisticated enough. Not only did I now understand fully what was going on in the second half, but even worse, I genuinely did not care, which is the worst thing that can happen to a movie.

It is all pseudo-intellectual without being smart at all. Yes, the reconstruction of the movie set and how the dynamic of filming a movie works is very well done, but simply in terms of the themes, the movie gave me nothing of substance.

Black Bear does feature very strong acting with even Christopher Abbott being better than he usually is, but once again I find this actor very unlikable, so Hollywood’s insistence that he should be in movies all the time is puzzling to me. Sarah Gadon isn’t a big name, but she did a really good job with her role. And of course Aubrey Plaza killed it in the main role with a powerhouse, emotionally exhilarating and believable turn. She always picks interesting projects, but this one went off the rails unfortunately, though it was well filmed and edited.

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Black Bear features a stellar performance from Aubrey Plaza who chose another interesting role to play in this movie. The first act is also excellent and very intense. However, the movie crashed down afterward with an introduction of an ambiguous meta filmmaking narrative that not only wasn’t sophisticated, but it was plain annoying too.

My Rating – 3