BLACK BEAR MOVIE REVIEW

Not just one, but TWO movies…sort of…starring Aubrey Plaza, Sarah Gadon, and Christopher Abbott in variations on a angry love triangle that take place at a beautiful lake house. In one, Gadon and Abbott are a couple and Plaza is their guest who sees their relationship beginning to implode and decides to insert herself uncomfortably into their dynamic. In the other, Plaza and Abbott are the couple and actress and director respectively of a film being made in the house. Abbott schemes with Gadon, another actress, to make Plaza jealous to try to get a better performance out of her and it blows up. Certainly not a conventional structure by any means and our critics (Chris, Matt Foster, Rae, and Ryan) had varied thoughts as to how successful it was in its experimental way. But one thing we all agreed on: Plaza knocks it out of the park. Check out our review.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Lawrence Michael Levine

STARRING: Aubrey Plaza, Sarah Gadon, Christopher Abbott, Lindsay Burdge, Alexander Koch, Jennifer Kim, Shannon O’Neill, Grantham Coleman, Paola Lázaro, Lou Gonzalez

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, in 1992 Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas, where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this paradise you see before you. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.

 

Lyrae Anderson (Screener Squad)

You can call me Rae. You can also call me a film lover. I’ll watch it all — small screen; big screen, and everything in between. I have attended and worked for Fantastic Fest and South by Southwest for many years. I married a film geek as well. While we don’t agree on everything, we agree on our love of movies.

 

 

 

Matt Foster (Screener Squad)

Matt Foster is a stand up comic, podcaster, and movie critic currently living in the greater Salt Lake City area. His lifelong love of genre film began early, when he realized they freaked out his mom. He performs (epidemics permitting) regularly on Dungeons and Comedy, a DND live play with standup comedians, and is the slightly less mustache-y half of the Nighthawks Podcast, a cinema-centric discussion cohosted by Trevor T. Trujillo.

 

 

Ryan Aleck Hill (Screener Squad, Video and Audio editor)

Ryan is a Washington D.C. based filmmaker & video editor who loves watching and talking about movies more than just about anything. He currently works at a creative agency as a director of photography/video editor, and does freelance video editing for Anthony Fantano/TheNeedleDrop. He also has a YouTube channel (