Somebody please buy this girl a pair of NAIL CLIPPERS!

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2013)

I guarantee, at least twice during the movie you will find yourself screaming the line in the title of this review. Oddly enough, it perfectly sums up the effect the movie had on me.
The movie is powerful, without a doubt. It is very effective in unsettling ways. At times it will make you cringe & squirm, and at times it will challenge you like a good murder mystery. Like all Aranofsky films I've seen, it will warp your perspective and take you to an unreal, shadowy world where nothing seems quite right. And, if you don't already have em, it will make you buy a pair of nail clippers.
Taken on the surface as a straightforward story, the film is good. But if you read between the lines and consider unspoken issues of mental illness, personality disorder, anorexia, bulimia, incest, child abuse, etc, then the film is great. If you haven't guessed, it takes you to some dark places.
"Black Swan" is a shadowy, perverse thriller that reminds me of the works of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet) except that director Aranofsky has a more lucid approach than Lynch has, in my opinion. Aranofsky's films seem more deliberate and mathematical, whereas Lynch is more arbitrary and sometimes just plain weird.
My only real criticism of "Black Swan" is that certain things occur that are so far-fetched it may be hard to swallow. But if you accept this as a mindbending dark fantasy, I guess anything goes. To properly enjoy this film you can't be too critical of small details. Instead you should just go along for the ride, always thinking of the significance and symbolism of events, rather than cause. I guess not everyone has a pair of nail clippers... Ugh watch the movie and you'll know what I mean.