Scary, heart-pumping and beautiful

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2010)

There's no doubt, people who like horror movies will have a great taste for this one. The psychological side of this film is the horror side of things, even though ballet perfection drives the motive of the story.
Nina is a workaholic, constantly rehearsing her ballet moves to be the best. But her perfection tactics go out of control and become more and more damaging to her soul and mind. This is due to several people in her life: Her slightly overbearing and overprotective former ballet dancer mother, who, like her, is also over dramatic. Her ruthless and even more overbearing ballet professor, Thomas who uses sex as a way of getting his dancers to perform at top perfection, therefore creating emotional problems for them. And finally her rival and friend, Lily, whom she believes is out to get her part. Nina is utterly paranoid about Lily, but also remembers from Thomas to use sex as a way of staying in control of her perfect body and mind skills.
You don't often get psychological thrillers (or horrors) that are as good as this one. The interaction between Nina and Lily (played to stunning perfection by Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis) is so believable and powerful, as well as Nina's seemingly out of control behavior, you actually believe some of the things you see are really happening.
Frightening and stressful it may be on the entertainment side, but it's a damn good piece of filmmaking that deserves some Oscars.