Black Swan gets under your skin, creeps into your veins, pumps through your heart and sets fire to your imagination.

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2011)

In Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky creates a nightmarish world that the audience is viscerally thrown into, with continuous twists and surprises at every step of the way, never knowing what will happen next. We only hope there is some salvation at the end. Black Swan is created by one of the most passionate bright young filmmakers alive. The camera style is more regimented and thoughtfully composted compared to the cinema verite, looser, documentary style of The Wrestler. Every shot is perfectly thought out, and the use of mirrors in this film is simply magnificent. The monochromatic colour tone is stunning and at all times the colour palette of everything in shot is tempered to enhance the story. Especially in the wardrobe coloring. The Wrestler was based in the real world, the world we all live in, where a man is grappling with the failures in life, has a daughter, works part-time as a butcher, falls for a stripper and tries to resurrect his fledgling career. It deals with his ego and his determination. Its almost documentary in style. Black Swan is a film sprung from Darren Aronofsky's imagination, aided by a team of talented writers. It is a dark tale of ones inner struggle with perfection. In essence the film centers on the central character of Nina Sayers as she grapples with life as a star ballerina. She does all she can to find perfection within her self and with others. We go into the depths of her mind, and at times the film is as frightening as a Polanski film, at its best. Natalie Portman went on a rigorous training regime for this film and it shows, her performance is mature, dark and stunning. I can continue to write numerous pages on pledging my love for this film but I wont waste my time, or yours, as if you need further information on this, the web is abound with it. When Darren Aronofsky was recently talking about his next film, The Wolverine he made a very interesting point "I'm just trying to have fun, and for the first time in my life Every single film I've done so far, I've been the only person in the room who wants to make the movie, And I kind of am excited about doing a film (The Wolverine) where actually everyone wants to make it — just to see what the experience is like and see if I can do what I do in that world. It's not like I'm going to change my process. I'm going to be working with the same team and makingreally trying to do something very, very different. In more extensive interviews with Aronofsky he speaks about the struggle for funding Black Swan, as he mentioned in that interview "Every single film I've done so far, I've been the only person in the room who wants to make the movie", and it takes brave filmmakers like that to make those great films, that no one wants to make, which are not normal or average. He took a risk, no one wanted to make this crazy film, but the audience has won, we have this film. Once again, this film is not average, it is not formulaic, it is not a normal film. It is unique, stunning and suspenseful in every cinematic sense. It proves that cinema in the hands of giants becomes a canvas for creating beauty, art and entertainment. Black Swan gets under your skin, creeps into your veins, pumps through your heart and sets fire to your imagination.