Black Swan

If you see one movie from 2010 it 100% needs to be Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky who brought us the brilliance that is The Wrestler delves into the mind of the beautiful Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) in this wonderful piece of cinema. The movie was literally a one woman show driven by Portman, sure Mila Kunis was great and a welcome comedy relief at times to break the ice that prevented me from even breathing scene after scene but it is Portman that kept my nerves on end. The music, over-the-shoulder camera angle on Portman and the continuous changes in moods, events and atmospheres made for quite the ride and I was gripping my seat for dear life as it never allows you a chance to breath until the very end where I exhaled happily. Movies like Black swan are the reason I have such passion for watching and reviewing movies and while it may be the standard “Oscar Bait” that gets released late in the year, it is worthy of whatever awards they throw at it.

While many people will watch this to see the lesbian love scene between the two beauties (Kunis and Portman), they may not be ready for what the movie is truly about. There are no top 10 pop musical additions to cater to the teens in the audience and there are no unnecessary scenes thrown in to appeal to people who are foreign to ballet. While this may seem like a bad thing, it actually works in peaking the interest in not only the world of ballet and theater but in the art of the ballerina itself. Damaged feet are in your face throughout the movie, the pressure to become perfect, the cattiness of the girls within the changing rooms and the feeling of immortality when they own a scene and land every step with grace, beauty and their own spicy extras. Natalie Portman’s expressions are all over the place as you see her cry, laugh, look nervous, look brave, get happy, get angry and even quiver in ecstasy from a riveting (well needed) orgasm.

This movie is the stuff of award winning novels, it was shocking (very gory at certain parts), beautiful (the ballet sequences were great) and sexy in it’s own dark, twisted sort of way. Dare I say this is one of Portman’s best acts to date, in a long successful career? I don’t know, but color me blown away.

I hope Darren Aronofsky keeps blessing us with his eye for detail, the rough gritty reality of life and the focus on sticking to his vision over cutting it up into nice edible chunks for the audience. Seeing this movie gives me hope that we have many more gems to come from him, and as many movies as I watch, I love that I can still have these warm fuzzies after leaving the theater. Mila Kunis showed up like Lancelot in the final scene of Le Morte d’Arthur, and while you may have slept on her acting due to the films she has been in from the past – she damn near steals the show from Portman in every scene that they share. Every actor brought their A game to Black Swan and it will not go unnoticed when you see it.

I can keep going but you get the gist of things, Black Swan is as spicy as they come and just when I thought 2010 was a dud, boom there’s magic. In the end Black Swan summed up to me is a look into the world of a perfectionist and the fact that anyone that loses themselves into their art to the point that Nina Sayers did, can and will eventually lose everything. This movie is a masterpiece and I cannot wait to have it within my collection.