Over the last 10-15 years, Aubrey Plaza is known as one of the most naturally funny actors, especially on talk shows. Her talent is in her eyes and her ability to make a mundane story funny just by the way she talks, describes something or makes a face . Few people can use their eyes to be funny. Johnny Carson, John Candy, Will Ferrell, Chelsea Handler, are some of the people who have had this very rare talent.
In the new movie “Black Bear” Aubrey Plaza plays a struggling movie director, Allison who visits a married couple who have a long cabin. Within a few minutes it is obvious that the young couple Gabe, played by Christopher Abbott and Blair – who is pregnant played by Sarah Gadon are bickering and obviously are having massive marital problems. This very strange film has two parts – the first part nothing but conversation with these 3 people and the second part, is a group of people making a movie in the same log cabin. None of the two parts are connected or make any sense and I have always hated movies like this. The only good part of this movie is in the second part, where Aubrey Plaza conclusively shows that she is a very good dramatic actor as well a very good comedic actor. Unfortunately, the audience has to sit through 2 hours of a disconnected mess of a story to get to the only good part within a screenplay, that never should have been made into a movie.
The critics are viewing this movie rather highly, and I have no idea why. This is a pretty bad 2 hours, that should be missed.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 