Overview
A darkly comedic exploration of ambition and desire unfolds in a remote setting.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Labyrinthine
- Violence
- Mild
- provocative
- sardonic
- unsettling
- late night cinephile viewing
- indie film night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film as a provocative, mind-bending examination of creative manipulation, led by Aubrey Plaza's commanding performance.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Allison's pursuit of a work of art progressively blurs autobiography, role-playing, and staged filmmaking.
The lake-house group turns desire, jealousy, and personal behavior into material for filmmaking.
The remote Adirondack lake house concentrates the couple and their guest in a pressured social environment.
The film's divided structure and changing relationship dynamics make earlier scenes newly uncertain.
Films like Black Bear, and why
Adaptation.
metafictional filmmaking, shifting realities, and psychologically destabilizing creative ambition
Persona
provocative relationship manipulation, artistic self-fashioning, and ambiguous psychological drama
The One I Love
claustrophobic domestic power games, unreliable emotional boundaries, and darkly comic tension
A Woman Under the Influence
self-conscious performance, sexual jealousy, and a filmmaker's reality-bending experiment
Movie Details
- Director
- Lawrence Michael Levine
- Release Date
- 2020-12-04
- Runtime
- 106 min
- Rating
- 6.3 / 10 (307)
Cast
- Aubrey Plaza
- Christopher Abbott
- Sarah Gadon
- Paola Lázaro
- Grantham Coleman
- Lindsay Burdge
- Lou Gonzalez
- Shannon O'Neill
- Alexander Koch
- Jennifer Kim
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Lionsgate+ Amazon Channel
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Black Bear about?
- A filmmaker's retreat to a remote lake house becomes a volatile experiment in desire, jealousy, and the unstable boundary between lived experience and cinematic invention.
- What is Black Bear like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Black Bear as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as labyrinthine.
- Is Black Bear violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Black Bear as mild.
- What did critics think of Black Bear?
- Critics broadly praised the film as a provocative, mind-bending examination of creative manipulation, led by Aubrey Plaza's commanding performance.
- Which films are like Black Bear?
- Films with a similar feel include Adaptation., Persona, The One I Love, and A Woman Under the Influence.
- How long is Black Bear?
- Black Bear runs 106 minutes.
- Where can I watch Black Bear?
- In United States, Black Bear streams on Lionsgate+ Amazon Channel.
