Black Swan is a roaring success as utterly intense and immersive thriller with deeper layers to it

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2018)

Black Swan feels like a combination of an obsession-based movie, like Whiplash, with a psychological thriller with a complex but unreliable narrator, like Fight Club and so many others. What allows it to so wholly succeed in both areas is the all time great performance by Natalie Portman. She shows the intensely driven to succeed but still very controlling and careful Nina early, and does a great job making her descent into madness and devotion to the part realistic and even relatable. The peripheral characters and setting were excellent, particularly Nina's controlling mother and the atmosphere Aronofsky deeply immerses us in at the elite ballet academy. While it is fundamentally a study of Nina's metamorphosis from the innocent, meticulously committed white swan to the aggressive, fearless black swan, the plot itself is entertaining and holds plenty of uncertainty. The many underlying themes that stay in your mind elevate Black Swan further. The recurrence and use of mirrors throughout the movie, punctuated in the dressing room scene with Lily, was fascinating, and Aronofsky's light and dark imagery, particularly with what Nina and Lily wear throughout the movie and his lighting, were intelligent choices symbolizing the two swans. The ending was just perfect, mirroring the actions of the play and showing that the transformation to black swan was complete, with the white swan dead. My only real complaint was with Cassel's performance - I didn't think he sold the lustful, enigmatic role he was meant to, and the relationship between him and Nina was not particularly engaging or well developed, only being saved by Portman's telling reactions and evolution relative to him throughout. Black Swan is such a special movie because it's great on several levels - I love it as an obsession/what you're willing to do to succeed movie, as a psychological thriller, and as an intelligent, symbolic movie, and it's immersive as hell from start to finish. This is truly a cinematic masterpiece.