{"id":11166,"date":"2010-12-22T09:41:34","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=11166"},"modified":"2010-12-22T21:07:17","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T05:07:17","slug":"black-swan-darren-aronofsky-2010-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=11166","title":{"rendered":"Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at the Riviera, Santa Barbara, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\" When Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman)\u00a0is chosen for the leading\u00a0role\u00a0in a major production of Swan Lake, she spirals out of control in a fit of psychosis and becomes haunted by her dual character the\u00a0 Black Swan<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In achieving this position, Nina replaces former prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder), who is forced into retirement by the production director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel).<\/p>\n

Leroy has a darker vision of Swan Lake and chooses Nina for the perfect White Swan, due to her stoic and repressed persona, but questions her ability to portray the seductive Black Swan.<\/p>\n

Nina tries in vain to please Leroy, even to the point of displeasing her controlling mother Erica (Barbara Hershey).\u00a0 She\u00a0has moments of confusion that progress to near schizophrenia as opening night draws near.\u00a0 Inflicting pain on herself,\u00a0indulging in horrifying images, and succumbing to\u00a0a split personality\u00a0are all part of her psychosis.<\/p>\n

Her rival is Lily (Mila Kunis), a highly accomplished dancer in the company\u00a0who causes insecurity and jealousy within Nina, until Lily invites her out for a night of partying.\u00a0 In opposition to her rigorous training, Nina indulges in alcoholic beverages laced with drugs and finds herself making out with a stranger, and before the night is over she’s seduced by Lily.\u00a0 The next day Nina discovers Lily has been appointed her understudy and their tryst was nothing more than a hallucination.<\/p>\n

The closest way to describe the plot is The Red Shoes<\/em> meets Basic Instinct – <\/em>not quite the caliber of The Red Shoes<\/em> and more psychotic than Basic Instinct<\/em>.\u00a0 There are hints at what causes Nina’s psychosis but nothing completely valid.\u00a0 We see a touch of Leroy’s brutishness, a dash of Erica’s dominance, and a sprinkle of Lily’s cruelty but nothing solid enough to push Nina over the edge, and because of this we\u00a0need a little more of her background which is nil – we are dropped into the middle of a story without any validation, and for this reason it misses the mark.\u00a0 Without divulging the ending it gets pretty drastic, and in order to balance this, something more than the nagging of an over-protective mother is required.<\/p>\n

The cinematography is edgy –\u00a0as the camera pirouettes through Nina’s POV,\u00a0we get a\u00a0glimpse of her perspective as her life spins out of control.\u00a0 There are also nifty little tricks like a tattoo and a group of\u00a0images that come to life.\u00a0 The\u00a0set design\u00a0is visually stunning, with the staging\u00a0and costumes in black while\u00a0Nina\u00a0\u00a0is in white,\u00a0imitating the White Swan, which then reverses\u00a0once she relinquishes her psyche to the Black Swan.<\/p>\n

Good acting all around and Nina is Portman’s strongest role to date.\u00a0 Her vocal range however,\u00a0is often flat and sometimes monotone which is too reminiscent of Queen Amidala.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Winona Ryder once again portrays Winona Ryder, and\u00a0is completely miscast.\u00a0 She plays pouty face, pouty lips, pouty gestures, with a pouty one-dimensional, flat acting and monotone vocal range.<\/p>\n

What surprises me most is the MPAA rating.\u00a0 Blue Valentine<\/em><\/a> was issued an NC-17 rating which showed the demise of a marriage mentally, emotionally, and sexually.\u00a0 Black Swan<\/em> depicts illicit sexual contact with a stranger, illicit use of drugs, and physical self-destruction, yet was issued an R rating – call me square, but I’m also confused (?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at the Riviera, Santa Barbara, CA. When Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman)\u00a0is chosen for the leading\u00a0role\u00a0in a major production of Swan Lake, she spirals out of control in a fit of psychosis and becomes haunted by her dual character the\u00a0 Black Swan. In achieving this position, Nina replaces former prima ballerina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}