Featured Audience Ratings

• Emil K

  
  Darren Aronofsky has made terrific film with Black Swan. I myself have always been fascinated by the darker side of the human mind, and that is the place where Aronofsky goes with this film. Black Swan goes scarily deep in the human psyche. It is a physical and psychological study of… More
  Darren Aronofsky has made terrific film with Black Swan. I myself have always been fascinated by the darker side of the human mind, and that is the place where Aronofsky goes with this film. Black Swan goes scarily deep in the human psyche. It is a physical and psychological study of a one girl's dedication of her art. Natalie Portman's fantastic portrayal of a ballet dancer Nina is every bit as impressive as Charlotte Gainsbourg's perfromance in Lars Von Trier's Antichrist, or Laura Dern's in David Lynch's Inland Empire. Actually Black Swan is very close to those two masterpieces, while it does not quite achieve their greatness, in it's structure and themes. These films are all about people pushed to their very limits. They are stories about humans that go to the deep end and beyond. And we all know that when we are pushed to our very limits, and when we fall into that dark void, we might never know what horrors are waiting for us in there. In Black Swan Nina's world is all about achieving perfection. She has dedicated her life to dancing, and when it comes to dancing, it is all about heart, technics, soul and capturing the moment as perfect as you can. Nina herself is a dancer with tremendous skill, but does she have what it takes to be a Black Swan in a New York City ballet's next project which is a Swan Lake. When she finally get the lead role, that is also the moment when she starts to lose her touch in reality completely. Now she has to find her inner Black Swan, but that task might just turn out be more than she can handle. It is obvious from the start that Nina is psychologically very fragile and ill girl. She has hallucinations and gets more and more paranoid, until in the final third she goes completely out of control. Natalie Portman is captivating as a Nina whose transformation from the shy and unsure girl into black swan is one of the most ravishing screen performances i've seen in my whole life. Aronosky has pulled out something very unique from Portman who has always been one of the most talented actresses of her generation. Black Swan is so many things as a film. It has fantastic moments of pure horror and hysteria. There are disturbing dream sequences, with twisted touches of melodrama and there are truly horrifying moments that makes this one of the most effective horror-films ever made. It does go a bit over the top at times but it never loses it's impact as a film. Most of all, it is a film like no other film before. Black Swan is once again proof of Darren Aronofsky's talent as a director. He truly is one of the gifted directors of our times.

• 5 o´clock coffee .

  
  Swan Lake. The prologue, when Rothbart casts his spell. Cut. A smiley and sweet Natalie Portman wakes up in a pink childish room. Although, her head lays down on a white pillowcase with black curlicues enveloping it. The first of too much other obvious signs we'll see… More
  Swan Lake. The prologue, when Rothbart casts his spell. Cut. A smiley and sweet Natalie Portman wakes up in a pink childish room. Although, her head lays down on a white pillowcase with black curlicues enveloping it. The first of too much other obvious signs we'll see representing duality or multiplicity. The prologue is this same opening scene, the dream. It's not possible to be sure if the "dream" truly became reality, but we tend to believe it, though not literally. Black Swan has been compared to Red Shoes and Repulsion among others. Indeed, but once we feel Vicky' s passion for dancing (Red Shoes), we can't feel it in Nina. The ballet seems to be only another neurose, maybe the closest symbol of the perfection she seeks. Once Carole (Repulsion) is really scary and intriguing, Nina is only a scared "little girl" we can only feel for. She's not complex or interesting at all, neither any of the other characters are. Lily, nothing but the tiring free-spirited femme fatale, could only be the alter ego of Nina's lack of depth, personality. All Nina needs to shine is to bring out her bad side that is, of course, mostly represented by sex and "drugs". Being real or not, Lily and Erica, the mother, are both sides of Nina. Even if they really exist, we only know them by Nina's perspective: the way she sees them represent her own battle against herself. When the mother is pretty much the first against whom we rebel when claiming for liberty, it couldn't have a better choice than the mother figure in opposition to the liberal self, to settle down Nina's bad side. I had the impression that Erica's presence was allegoric in the masturbation scene; Nina would have felt her presence in the room. Instead, she only sees mommy when having pleasure = guilt. Also, Erica changes a bit as Nina's black side tries to come out: from a overprotective and stifling, but yet kind mother (all she does, even if in a wrong way, is to worry and try to protect Nina), a possible incest relationship is suggested what possible only happens in Nina's mind as all other sexual situations (the old guy on the subway, Lily, Thomas, etc). Nina is afraid of her own self and needs to find spoilers everywhere. She returns Beth's things thinking that they could have corrupted her. She battles against her mom (control) and she battles against Lily (chaos) to finally understand what Thomas said: "the only person standing in your way is you". But don't take me wrong: it's another overrated movie that could have been very good, but that lacks of subtlety and a more consistent persona. Not to mention that all the "scaring" sounds and noises, red eyes and other things alike supposed to fright are boring and even made me laugh sometimes. And what about all the buzz around Natalie Portman has shocked Venice Film Festival with the lesbian scene? Do people really still get shocked and with such a scene? Intentionally or not, just another promotional material... Some tv shows have already showed much better scenes. I really wanted to like it, but I haven't seen any spectacularity neither in the movie nor in Natalie Portman's performance. I'm sorry, but it's nothing than Natalie Portman being "nice" (in a certain point of Black Swan, the young Portman of Everyone Says I love You, crying because the boy she likes chose her sister, was there) and "bad", what she already did in Closer. Explain something to me: Mila Kunis getting the Marcello Mastroianni Prize for young performance was supposed to be a joke?

• Joshua W

  
  87% of critics like this film. 100% of men enjoy this film for 2.5 minutes of this film... I am part of that 100%

• Matthew Samuel M

  
  Beautiful, haunting, and thrilling. This is one of the best films in years. Portman steals the show with a raw and brilliant performance. This is more than a film. This is a work of art.

• Directors C

  
  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Since her spectacularly passionate performance in V for Vendetta I knew that Natalie Portman could take on the role of Nina and turn it into a remarkably dazzling spectacle. However she doesn't… More
  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Since her spectacularly passionate performance in V for Vendetta I knew that Natalie Portman could take on the role of Nina and turn it into a remarkably dazzling spectacle. However she doesn't "act" as the tortured soul in Black Swan, she moulds it into what it ultimately appears. The direction is cleverly executed and grips onto some incredible but very creepy set pieces that really did disturb me and crafted a dark atmosphere despite some moments that were too loud and out of control. The hugely melodramatic soundtrack and some gut churning moments intensified it and made me feel the lead character's pain and I was wincing often because it's a highly intense but strangely graceful movie. It's not a film for everyone but if your confident in thinking it's for you, it completely blows you away.

• Scott G

  
  Acting is used with precision, Natalie and Vincent are the perfect choices for the roles that they play, this film will win awards after awards.

• Albert K

  
  A riveting, shocking, and great movie. In the past, Natalie Portman grabbed some attention from her previous movies (V for Vendetta, Brothers) but her performance in Black Swan beyond anything she's ever done before. She is outstanding. The direction, cinematography, and editing… More
  A riveting, shocking, and great movie. In the past, Natalie Portman grabbed some attention from her previous movies (V for Vendetta, Brothers) but her performance in Black Swan beyond anything she's ever done before. She is outstanding. The direction, cinematography, and editing seems to be in the same style as Darren Arronofsky's previous movie, The Wrestler, but it definitely fits with the theme and the message of the movie. This movie is gritty and artful movie. Black Swan is one of the best of 2010 but a bit of a warning: It is definitely not for everyone and the movie is extremely graphic.

• Megan S

  
  I saw this a few weeks ago and I'm still not really sure whether I liked it or not...

• Jennifer D

  
  Natalie was fantastic (duh). Very beautifully done. Very.

• paul s

  
  I have to say I am not much of a fan of dance, though I do appreciate the high degree of commitment and concentration involved. That being said, Black Swan, which uses the ballet world and whose story in many ways mirrors the sentiments of Swan Lake (to the point that the closing… More
  I have to say I am not much of a fan of dance, though I do appreciate the high degree of commitment and concentration involved. That being said, Black Swan, which uses the ballet world and whose story in many ways mirrors the sentiments of Swan Lake (to the point that the closing credits give each character a name from the film and a name or character from the ballet) is an inspiring bit of filmmaking art. That Aronofsky takes these intertwining stories and balances a bid of madness is the true genius of the film. The story, taken at face value, is not revolutionary, but once you filter in the madness factor, where what you are seeing may or may not be filtered through that perspective, the film gains an entirely different, higher level, which makes the film's ending a truly powerful statement. As the lead character Nina purrs, "it was perfect", you get the idea that perfection, especially in art, is but a fleeting moment, and yet that overriding sense of unity with one's self and one's art, even if only for a second, is the grail worth devoting a life of sacrifice for. Natalie Portman's performance as Nina is certainly worth the Oscar she won, as she conveys an almost split personality to perfection. As she slowly comes to embrace the "dark queen" of her psyche, her entire demeanor changes - facial expressions harden, her voice goes from timid squeak to confident fullness, even her eyes seem more sparkly and alive as her two halves become, if not one, then something where there is strength. I also was very impressed with Vincent Cassel's work as Leroy, the head of the theatre company who cajoles Nina into searching for that other side of herself, which is exemplified by Mila Kunis, the embodiment of the Black Swan who, by friendship or other motives, drives the White Swan, Nina, into venturing to the dark side. There's certainly a lot to chew on here, as you've probably gathered by what I've already penned. One can argue about the characters' motives, and essentially who they really are, for days since all is filtered through Nina's warped lens. Does her mother really resent her, or is that just some kind of warped perspective on Nina's part (and taken further, is dear old mom just as susceptible to psychotic break as her daughter? The odd art that mom paints makes you guess). I was a bit taken aback by the first half of the film, finding it over simplified and somewhat cliché, while a reasonable look inside a ballet company; until I realized that the quirkiness was all because it came from the perspective of one really quirky character. Once that became clear, it gave the film a certain creative license to be oddly stilted - which made the premier performance of Swan Lake all the more powerful and breathtaking. Truly, this film will probably rise in stature given time, if for nothing more than Portman's performance and this truism: "perfection isn't just about control, it's about letting go" - if you are an artist in any way, shape or form, this seemingly contradictory statement is the absolute truth, and the true transcendence of art.

• Jason O

  
  Just average to me...wanted to see it cause Natalie Portman's really hot, and because of all the awards it received, but...I just didn't see what all the fuss was about, personally.

• Martin S

  
  And the Oscar goes to: ...The King's Speach. ...I'm real happy for you....I'mma let you finnish. But Aronofsky had one of the best movies of all time....Of all time... And that's exactly what it is. I've never feelt like this in the theather before. Absolutely… More
  And the Oscar goes to: ...The King's Speach. ...I'm real happy for you....I'mma let you finnish. But Aronofsky had one of the best movies of all time....Of all time... And that's exactly what it is. I've never feelt like this in the theather before. Absolutely crazy. Portman does the role of her life. And everybody else...magnificant. It grabs a hold of you....and you don't want it to let go. You welcome the horror. And you can just feel the passion thoughout the whole movie. I would really like it to be one hour longer. Cause when you feel the last scene it the air...you feel sad that it's almost over. But then they nail that aswell. And you gotta feel good. And the music...let's not even get into that... It's almost like I never wanna see it again cause I wanna keep the memory of that day. But I have to...because it was so good. If you havn't seen this movie. Don't wait. As I said...One of the best movies of all time

• Thomas J

  
  Dark, strange and edgy enough to keep it interesting, but still something was missing for me. I felt the acting was incredible!

• Letitia L

  
  I was not expecting that. ***SPOILER Alert*** I was expecting it to be set in the real world, and it took my unsuspecting mind and raped it. The movie was actually beautiful and Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are ridiculously hot in it, I would watch it again except it (and Winona… More
  I was not expecting that. ***SPOILER Alert*** I was expecting it to be set in the real world, and it took my unsuspecting mind and raped it. The movie was actually beautiful and Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are ridiculously hot in it, I would watch it again except it (and Winona Ryder, and my friends simulating Winona Ryder after the movie at 1am before I had to drive home alone) scared the crap out of me.

• Lanning :

  
  Walter, HELP! I'm 49 minutes into this . . . no kidding . . . MUCH respected work of art, and I'm -- I kid you not -- thinking about adding it to our list. What is wrong with me? Please help me before I commit it to THE LIST. If I do that, I know that no one will ever… More
  Walter, HELP! I'm 49 minutes into this . . . no kidding . . . MUCH respected work of art, and I'm -- I kid you not -- thinking about adding it to our list. What is wrong with me? Please help me before I commit it to THE LIST. If I do that, I know that no one will ever want to read my comments again. I fear. A lot. Maybe. But I know the word FEAR is overused. And I know it's like 3:30 in the morning where you are. But if you're up watching a GOOD movie, please shoot me some advice in the next 30 minutes or so. You know, like, "Hang in there. Natalie Portman won an Oscar," or, you know, blah blah blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Mahalo, Walter, for any kind help with this trauma. If I can avoid PTSD -- or PTSS as they are calling it now days -- over a movie, mahalo. Original comment for my "want to see it" ranking: The huge positive press for this one is making me nervous, but I'm going to chance it anyway.

• Candy R

  
  Don't know what all the hype was about. The Black Swan focuses mainly on the White Swan. Nina wants to be in Swan Lake. She is not the best ballerina but she is casted as the Queen Swan. She is insecure and paranoid about girls stealing her role. Good cast with Natalie Portman,… More
  Don't know what all the hype was about. The Black Swan focuses mainly on the White Swan. Nina wants to be in Swan Lake. She is not the best ballerina but she is casted as the Queen Swan. She is insecure and paranoid about girls stealing her role. Good cast with Natalie Portman, Mia Kunis and Vincent Cassel. Winona Ryder plays a small role as the former lead ballerina forced into retirement as she is replaced by Nina, the new protege. Sexual content was unnecessary.

• Jason C

  
  Darren Aronofsky has released another masterpiece. Like "The Wrestler", "Black Swan" chronicles another character destroying their being, both mentally and physically, to fulfill demanding passions. I'm convinced that no one is better suited to capture a… More
  Darren Aronofsky has released another masterpiece. Like "The Wrestler", "Black Swan" chronicles another character destroying their being, both mentally and physically, to fulfill demanding passions. I'm convinced that no one is better suited to capture a character's collapse, than Aronofsky. Natalie Portman is more than deserving of all the praise she received in this role, balancing fragile innocence with mad intensity. This film is quite the experience, I was entirely impressed. Highest possible recommendation.

• Jim C

  
  Black Swan may be Darren Aronofskys masterpiece a psychologically mind torturing film that is very hard to forget. Nina (Natalie Portman) is a hard working ballerina, and Lily (Mila Kunis) is a new girl who threatens her career. When she gets the chance of a lifetime to be the Swan… More
  Black Swan may be Darren Aronofskys masterpiece a psychologically mind torturing film that is very hard to forget. Nina (Natalie Portman) is a hard working ballerina, and Lily (Mila Kunis) is a new girl who threatens her career. When she gets the chance of a lifetime to be the Swan Queen, she starts going insane trying to perfection. The plot is so incredibly mind twisting, Darren Aronofsky is possibly the king of creating these films that are genius, torture you, and have a really great theme to it, and I can honestly say the film is a work of art. Natalie Portman in her best role ever, she is truly showing off how great she is and how she slowly goes insane, such a great role. Mila Kunis deserved Oscar recognition for her evil role, she was really great and it shows her career is really soaring high. The score is incredible as well, it really gave it that pshychological feel to it. Black Swan and Requiem For a Dream are Darren Aronofskys best films yet and it truly shows him as a genius director and Black Swan is by far one of the best films of 2010.

• Eric A

  
  Being a psychology major I love psychological films, and Black Swan is easily one of the best i've seen in that category. There was hype around this movie was for a reason!

• Veronique K

  
  black swan, often compared as the contemporary interpretation of red shoes, is about the ambivalent symptom of woman's masochistic self-fetishizatin in order to deify herself in the realm of art. both red shoes as well as black swan is backgrounded in the ballet. perhaps red… More
  black swan, often compared as the contemporary interpretation of red shoes, is about the ambivalent symptom of woman's masochistic self-fetishizatin in order to deify herself in the realm of art. both red shoes as well as black swan is backgrounded in the ballet. perhaps red shoes is a much more sophisticated piece with subtler metaphors or way more elaborate choregraphic sequences. once again, red shoes renders such self-conflicting symptom through the female protagonist's interactions with opposite sex, and how her course of womanhood contradicts with her self-idealized image as an artist. inevitably, woman, in this case, is torn, split apart since two men of life (the lover and her mentor) are fetishizing/deitifying her in separate directions. whether it's red shoes or black swan, it manifests the doom of womankind in the realm of art, particularly ballet, which is an art that demands woman's bodily self-mulitation as the female body, in this case, is literally the artist's instrumnent during performances. in other words, she has to exploit herself, use up her body as much as she could to give a good performance. also, she needs to detach herself from her body as if it is not her own. (see the paradox?) BUT it's just that red shoes illustrate such symptoms through poetic fables composed in tender symponies, and black swan is like a dirty joke made by a clever thirteen-year-old over-achiever (who's intelligent but emotionally immature) who happens to see red shoes and mischievously remarks "gee, that chick seriously needs a good lay! see how woman could go wrong without a decent lay?" then giggles sneakily. let's confess, aren't we sometimes behaving ourselves just like a thirteen-year-old who enjoys crude sex jokes and laugh outloud when someone falls off the floor in some awkward conditions? that's the pleasure of watching black swan, you cannot help but exclaim, WTF?! someone just makes a serious movie with all those bonafide performances and artistic dedication on an idea like THAT? (camp) the director, the actresses, and the producers, (everyone!) are taking this SO seriously? what a joke, and it even won oscar. wow. but it IS funny. what's even funnier? it's just everyone praises it like a god-damned masterpiece without awareness just like "the emperor's new clothes." natalie portman here is a highly disciplined ballet-dancer who still lives with her mother at the age of 28 and has stuffed animals beside her during sleep while her mother still addresses her as "sugar". (prolonged infancy) her purpose to live is to become a brilliant ballet dancer. artistic perfection is the word. one day the ballet company opens a new show on the swanlake, which is a cliched story about the white-swan-princess committing suicide after her beloved prince is stolen by the evil black swan. the choregraphic instructor (vincent cassell) believes that portman would deliver the performance excellently becasue she's such a meticulous dancer who never makes a wrong move in each single gesture. but he seriously doubts whether she could be the sexually un-inhibited, ravishing black swan who just abandons it all and makes full use of her sex magnetitude. driven by the pressure to win over the part, portman does everything she could to be the black swan, and that includes following the instructor's advice to "touch herself" at night. (oops!), suffering through delusional episodes of schizophrenia. one of her hallucinary sequences involves one luscious lesbian love scene with the sensual exotic mila kunis, who is the bohemian hellcat in the ballet team, who is literally the opposite of her, some potential opponent who might take away her position. this movie practically illustrate how woman could go wrong by living in an austere lifestyle without too much sex, still severely chaperoned by your mother in adulthood. gee, that sounds like female counter-version of norman bates! black swan is a humorous presentation of female oedipal complex, and woman of such neurotic symptom is highly possible to derive some autoerotic or homoerotic fantasies through her adolescence as well as adulthood to proceed this incomplete oedipal symtom during infancy. but strangely, to break through such oedipal stage, she needs a paternal figure (the cherographic instructor) to transfer her attention. seriously, this movie could be sexistic, let's face it, if your boss tells you to touch yourself at night in order to get better works done on the next day, you should just reply "none of your god-damned business!" (what does my sex life or self-pleasure have anything to do with you or my work?!)..the worst of all, she sincerely considers this advice and actually practices it at home (as if she never did it before)! it's just HILARIOUS. (lamo!)

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