Black Swan
Mac Anthony

Review by Mac Anthony

Black Swan 2010

★★★★½

Watched 23 Oct 2022

The only films I'd seen Natalie Portman in were the Star Wars Prequels and knowing, before seeing this, that she had won an Oscar, confused me slightly... but holy shit, I know why now.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about this film since seeing it. I thought it would be this ballet movie that I felt the need to see just so I could cross it off my list, but it was so much more than that. It's not a ballet movie, it's a movie about the dangers of obsession/perfectionism and how far artists are willing to push themselves to achieve self-fulfilled greatness.
This is one that I put on late, after watching The Platform, expecting to watch half at night and half the next day, but at the halfway point I knew I couldn't watch the rest later. Yes, I was tired as hell, but a movie with this much tension, this much captivation and this calibre of acting and writing was not one I could easily go "yeah, I'll finish it later"
It's with these kinds of movies I think it's pointless to point out all the reasons why it's great. I could just sit here and go "Acting perfect, writing perfect, direction perfect, story perfect, music perfect" and dive into all of it, but I'll just save you the time and say that it's a *FILM* that succeeds on pretty much all levels.

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