"The Wrestler"

Oct. 10, 2008 | Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” is a blunt, effective picture, which isn’t quite the same as saying it’s a good one. Aronofsky leapt onto the scene, an indie wunderkind, with the 1998 film “Pi.” His 2000 follow-up, “Requiem for a Dream,” about drug addicts poised to slip off the edge, may have been essentially a high-toned exploitation movie, but at least Aronofsky’s dazzling, if somewhat gimmicky, effects came wrapped around a core of real emotion. In 2006, Aronofsky seemed to have lost it all with his New Age fever dream “The Fountain,” a glum fantasy in which the Tree of Life plays a central role. (It’s at least got more life than the movie’s misused star, Hugh Jackman.) So “The Wrestler” — which closes the New York Film Festival on Sunday — is a comeback of sorts for Aronofsky. That’s fitting because,... [read full story]