Black Bear:

Last night Matt and I watched Black Bear featuring Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon by director and screenwriter Lawrence Michael Levine.

It was an absolute banger. But utterly confusing - we watched YouTube explanation videos for a while after finishing the movie.

Aubrey Plaza’s character, Allison, is a film director and actress who goes to a remote cabin to try and get over her writers block. The movie is split into part one (the bear in the road) and part two (the bear in the pool house). We are not sure which of, or if either, of these parts we watch play out are real or in Allison’s head.

The first part goes as follows: Allison joins a couple who live at the cabin. The wife is pregnant and it is clear that the couple’s relationship is unraveling. They fight constantly and in front of Allison in that way couples do when fighting becomes so second nature they don’t even realise they are doing it/that is might be uncomfortable for others. They have debates/fights/discussions about feminism, Allison’s films, traditional gender roles, having a family etc. it ends up coming to a head and the wife goes to bed in a flurry of anger, leaving allison and Gabe to go swim and ultimately have sex. Brie catches them having sex in the pool house and goes nuts. Gabe, while trying to calm her down, pushes her too hard and she begins bleeding (something is wrong with the baby). He freaks out, screams at allison to get the car keys. They get in the car, start driving to the hospital and Allison, who is driving hits a bear in the road = car crash = cut to black.

Part two - flips on head.

What I found interesting was the concept of writers block and trying to over come that. My take from the movie is that both part one and two happen in Allison’s mind, she is alone at the cabin, going through potential scenarios for a new film. In both part one and part two, once Gabe is caught cheating on his respective wife, the consequence to this action hugely outweighs the joy he must get in the moment doing it. In part one, we see his reaction to something going wrong with his wife’s pregnancy and in that moment she is all that matters to him. He screams at Allison to get the keys, not to touch his wife - alienating her and showing pretty firmly that she is not the priotity here, never was and being with her for that brief moment was not worth it.

We don’t see Gabe’s reaction in part two, but Allison walks towards the bear, after catching him cheating, and presumably dies in a very gruesome way. Once again, the consequence of his infidelity will never equate to the brief pleasure he might have felt in the moment.

For me this film was about consequences and making sure that whatever decision you make which may hurt someone else, you are willing to be okay with something awful happening as a result. Perhaps this happened in Allison’s own marriage - either she did something wrong where the consequences were dire or visa versa.

I loved the movie. 4/5 stars.