Movie Review: ‘BLACK SWAN’

While genre titles were pretty slim this year at SLIFF (St. Louis International Film Festival), there was one film that caught the eye of many fans – Black Swan.  The film was sold out prior to showtime and Destroy the Brain got a look at this psychological thriller from Darren Aronofsky. Read beyond the break for the review.

Let it be known that I have been a fan of Arnofosky’s work since Pi. I have enjoyed every film of his (Yes, even including The Fountain, since you are asking).   I didn’t read many reviews, but I did glance over the final paragraph to get the opinion of the reviewer.  I didn’t read one single bad review.

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) auditions for the part of Swan Queen for a ballet company in New York City for their production of Swan Lake.  In this version the Swan Queen plays the role of the white swan (good) and the black swan (evil).  Our main subject of the film is Sayers concerning her insecurities and her struggle of perfection.  Her mother, played by Barbara Hershey, is there to try to shield her from working too hard and is generally a bit too overprotective.  Then you have Lily (Mila Kunis), the new girl, who becomes a threat to Nina because, while not technically experienced like Nina, she seems to have more passion and fluidity than Nina.  Ballet director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) uses sexuality and sensuality for his ballets and this new production is no different.  Nina becomes worried that Lily might steal the role from her because of Lily’s seductive movements.  Essentially, Lily becomes the representation of the Black Swan and it comes to light to the audience that Nina wants to become Lily.

To say anymore would be to spoil some of what makes Black Swan one of the best films of the year.  It is complex yet is a very simple psychological story.  Every actor in this film brings their A-Game.  Natalie Portman should get an Oscar nomination for her performance as she hits a range of emotions throughout the film’s 100 minute running time.  By the end of the film, you will feel emotionally drained.

While I will admit, for the first 45 minutes to an hour I was curious on where we were going in this film as it has a slow setup.  You’ll get hints of the normal narrative cracking and showing something a bit more sinister but it is all used as a tease of sorts.  Aronofsky’s decision to shoot this in 16mm definitely gives it that documentary-esque feel that you felt while watching his previous film The Wrestler.  I think this is what makes the film more impactful as well.  The camera movements in this film during the practice scenes seem as well choreographed as the ballerinas in them.  On the technical side, Aronofsky has a lot of camera play with mirrors in the film.  While I’m sure some CGI might have been used in some shots, most of it looks like the mirrors were angled in a way where it hides the camera.

While the comparisions to Polanski’s Repulsion and Cronenberg’s body horror are warranted, I feel that the side story of Nina and her mother’s overprotection reminded me a lot of Carrie.

Here is to hoping that Black Swan is nominated for Best Picture as I believe it deserves it and I would love to see the closest thing to a horror film get the nod.