Oscar Countdown, Day 7: Black Swan

Counting down the hours until Hollywood's most golden of awards galas? So are we! Semi-obsessively. Join us at noon for the next ten too-long days as we mentally prep our Oscar pool ballots and give each of this year's Best Picture nominees a once over and half.

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

BLACK SWAN

THE RUNDOWN: Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is an insane ballerina. Really. She's an obsessive perfectionist who's determined to win the role of the Swan Queen in her company's upcoming production of Swan Lake. She'll stop at no means to get it, even if it means losing her dignity to a pervy, slimy instructor (Vincent Cassel) or knocking out the top competition and tease (Mila Kunis).

WHY IT'S GOLDEN: To be honest, I'm sort of with Michelle on this one. I found Black Swan to be a letdown, a build up of psychosexual tension without any real release. But, you do have to appreciate it on some base levels. First off, the story really is intriguing (although, not quite unique), taking the true horrors of being a ballerina to a whole other, nightmare-inducing (or so I've heard—I slept soundly after watching it) level. Whether you enjoy the performances or the direction, you'll desperately want to see how it all ends, especially if you're a gore whore or fanboy. This really is just a semi-high-brow horror film. Second, the editing, both in terms of audio and visuals, is tight and intense, making even the most menial activities seem menacing. I mean, who would have thought hearing someone clip their toe nails could be so haunting!? And last and most importantly, the actors (particularly Portman) commit themselves fully to the script, even in the more Showgirls-y scenes. You've got to watch this even if it's just for the camptastic Winona Ryder cameo. - Emily

WHY IT'S NOT: The shortcomings of this film for me seems to be those that are conversely gaining most of the praise: Natalie Portman and the film as a truly disturbing, palpable psychological thriller.

To address the first, while some are dubbing this the highest point thus far in Portman's career (to which I say, rent Closer), she was actually biggest stumble of the film. Portman is Nina. She doesn't bring the black swan to screen. A brilliant performance isn't just about checking off the marks (ie. anguished expressions and frantic movements) but also about making the audience feel something, in this case, unsettling and even revolting. Wasn't that Nina's ultimate hurdle herself? And when it doesn't come across with Portman, it doesn't with Nina.

To the second shortcoming, you'll need to see Requiem for a Dream (which sadly only garnered one nom in it's time, though for a well-deserved performance by Ellen Burstyn). That is how truly rattling psychological torment is done, which evidently Aronofsky knew how to direct, but perhaps the film fell back without the pen in his hand this time. - Michelle

THE FINAL VERDICT: This is the Academy Awards, not the Scream Awards. Aside from the still-deserving Silence of the Lambs, there haven't been many forcefully frightening films that have gotten Oscar love. The only gold Black Swan will be taking home will be for Portman.

Check out Emily's original review here! Tomorrow, we weigh in on Winter's Bone!

Black Swan

Photo: allmoviephoto.com
(Everything isn't beautiful...at the ballet.)

Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. 108 minutes. 14A

Her signs are vital. Her looks? Cold. But she's on her way, looking for the answer. Is she human - or is she dancer?

Don't be surprised if you find yourself humming that, ahem, killer, pop hit after watching Darren Aronofsky's extravagant dance thriller (yes, dance thriller), Black Swan. No, the synthesized existential saga isn't found on the soundtrack. But those ever-timeless questions are definitely posed.

While Aronofsky's most recent hit, The Wrestler explored what happens after someone falls out of fame, Black Swan recounts the maddening decent into it, which apparently involves Animorphing. The intentionally epic drama follows a twenty-something ballet dancer, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), who would just kill to star in Swan Lake. At the beginning of the film, Nina seems like a 12-year-old - her body underdeveloped, her bedroom overdecorated (Hello, Prissy Girl Pink!) and her apartment overtaken by her obsessively protective mom (Barbra Hershey), a one-time prima. But when Nina learns that she's going to play both the virginal white swan and the sensually sinister black swan in a new, modernized production of well, you know, she starts to transform into a whole other creature entirely.

Nina is pushed outside her comfort zone by the show's horndog of a director, played by a creeptastic Vincent Cassel, who says that she's too sweet to take on the more sexual alter ego - and then puts his hand up her tutu - and hella sexy frenemy/fellow dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis). All of a sudden, Little Miss Prudish starts wearing lipstick (stolen from her idol and former company star, Beth, who's played by a brilliantly bitchtastic Winona Ryder!), eating cheeseburgers, taking hallucinogenics, masturbating like a mad woman and occasionally, stabbing competitors in the face. Or does she...?

Think of Black Swan as American Ballet Theatre Psycho. It's purposefully exploitative, filled with pitch-black humour, incredibly straight-faced sexuality and brutal violence. The melodramatic story can definitely be a mindfuck for the more traditional dance cinema fan, but it will keep high-brow horror fans on their toes, mainly because it's pieced together in such an artfully over-the-top way.

From the maddeningly metronomic editing and sound layering (look out for those nail clippers!) to the meticulously colour-coordinated backgrounds, everything about Black Swan feels painfully planned, mirroring Nina's (and nearly every other prima ballerina's) underlying battle to be perfectly on point. Or rather, en pointe. The problem is, not all of it works. The script can be very predictable (you'll see the ending coming from the rafters) and well, Showgirls-y. And the sudden bursts of special effects come off a bit too unreal. But most of the time these missteps are masked by Portman's Oscar-worthy performance.

Natalie Portman's Nina is very much akin to Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman. Not only are their characters incredibly maladjusted (and possibly schizophrenic), their portrayals of them are wholly consuming. Portman achieves Nina's ultimate goal by simply staring the audience unflinchingly in the eye. On the red carpet she may seem human but for these two and a half hours, this girl is 100% deeply disturbed dancer. B+