Goose (bumps)

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2011)

For 2011, the movie I'm most looking forward to is "Pirates 4" (and "Your Highness"). For 2010 it was "Inception" and "Wall Street 2". And while Inception did match my expectation, Wall Street wasn't quite as good as I hoped for (though it's not a bad movie either). And while I do know of quite a lot of movies that will come out in 2011, there is a chance, that there will be a movie there, that will catch me by surprise ... like Black Swan did in 2010.
I am a fan of Aranofsky and I liked his other movies too. But I would never have guessed that Black Swan would have me caught up like it did. It is not a horror movie in a pure sense, but it does have quite a lot of moments of tension. And there is a sequence towards the end of the movie, that had me at the edge of my seat. Plus the goosebumps I am mentioning in the summary line (and the theater was heated!).
While "true" horror movies can make you "jump out of your seat", by a music cue, this really did have a strong vibe in the entire sequence. Of course boiling it down to just that (great) sequence would do injustice to the rest of the movie. And the great acting at hand. While the story is not new, the sound design, the editing, the framing, the acting and everything that got put into this movie, works excellent in favor of it.
If you had asked me in early December, I would have said Inception is my movie of the year 2010. But then I got the chance to watch Black Swan and I am truly amazed by this. Just talking about it, excites me and that has not happened in a long time. The Golden Globe Natalie Portman received is more than well deserved and only Fincher could have beaten Aranofsky (very clever script and a well earned Globe for Sorkin too). Seems like he (Aranofsky) has Midas touch then ...