Going down in the third round

Rating: 10/10 (30 May 2011)

WOW that ending is one for the books and that is why Natalie Portman won the Oscar for best actress. Darren Aronofsky consistently makes great films, but shows a real talent for the campy and the melodramatic, so I think Black Swan is one of his best, one that places it in the esteemed company of arty potboilers like Repulsion or Carrie or The Red Shoes. Also of note are performances by Barbara Hershey and Vincent Cassel, and top-notch screen writing, cinematography, editing, sound and music, art, sets, makeup and costumes. If I had to find a complaint about this movie, one of 2010's best, it would be to raise a pinky in protest over the apparent lack of a single gay male character anywhere, for although we are everywhere, including the world of ballet, we are just not in this particular hallucinatory psychodrama.