Black Swan makes a pretty good first film to review, it turns out. It's a really well made movie, objectively, yet I didn't particularly enjoy the experience of watching it. Movies like this contain some interesting lessons in the subjectivity inherent to enjoyment of films, something that film criticism often ignores entirely. Black Swan is a psychological horror movie, and probably the most painfully tense movie I've seen since No Country For Old Men. Don't watch the trailer (more on that later.) All you need to know, plot-wise, is that this is a heavily tone and character based movie about a ballerina losing herself to the music, the moment. (This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo.) It will be enjoyed by those who enjoy horror, and it deserves to earn Oscar noms for Aranofsky and Natalie Portman. It's an impressive and interesting movie, certainly. But if you, like me, have never learned to savor horror-tinged tension, cringe-worthy scenes of fingernail clipping, body mutilation and creaking, bloody feet, all enacted by off-putting, obsessive characters, there's very little else here to enjoy. (And, Jesus spinning Christ, I never want to see anyone's foot ever again.)
On a technical level, the movie is nearly impeccable. Aranofsky's direction embodies both the technical perfection and unhinged madness discussed throughout the movie, even if he tries maybe a bit too hard, getting a little overblown toward the end and tossing out too much over-thought cinematography, such as Vincent Cassel's absurdly black-and-white apartment full of swan imagery. Portman is perhaps the best thing about the movie, and shapes her character effortlessly.
I mentioned not to watch the trailer. Don't. If you know anything about the movie at all, there are few surprises here. Really, that was my greatest disappointment: everything happened exactly as I expected it to. The story does hold a few surprises in the end, but only in the specifics — I assumed it would have a certain 'type' of ending, and it did. Aside from cringing at the many uncomfortable scenes, I felt like I was watching a movie I had seen a few years ago and forgotten about. It's not that the trailer gives anything away; it's more that there isn't much to give away, once you get a handle on the characters and style of the film. Of course, the storytelling in Black Swan is far from lazy; it's just based on the assumption that you enjoy tension. Granted, I've enjoyed many other tension-filled movies, but most of them have some form of payoff. No Country For Old Men was almost unbearable to watch, but I'd say I enjoyed the film because of its unique characters and mixture of Western and Noir tones, the message that tension was sculpting. And that is, of course, boiling things down to my personal taste. Black Swan is a very dry movie. If you like the tone here, then you'll like the movie. If you don't — well, there's little else going on except the impressive direction and acting. There isn't a single moment of comedy, nor are there really any character or societal insights. It's fine for a movie to be so singularly focused. It's why film criticism so often misses the point. Black Swan isn't trying to appeal to everyone. (It might be trying a little too hard to appeal to the Oscar crowd, but I digress.) As a very well-made, artistically accomplished film, it has nothing else to prove; it does what it does quite well.
Grade: B
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