Black Swan: An Uncomfortable Portrait of Obsession

"Obsession is the most wasteful human activity because, with an obsession, you keep coming back and back and back to the same question and never get an answer."

Succinctly said. I think this quote by Norman Mailer really sums up what Black Swan, a 2010 psychological thriller written by Mark Heyman, is trying to get at. This film has something of a reputation amongst primarily the IMDb community and holds an impressive 8.0/10 user score on the site. For context, that score makes it the 245th highest-rated film on the site out of every single movie ever made. Now, does it deserve that kind of esteem? I don't know if I would take things that far, but what I can say is that this movie certainly left an impression on me. In a lot of ways, it seems to function similarly to one of my favorite movies ever: Damien Chazelle's wonderful and much-loved Whiplash. Both movies feature an obsessed artist, a similar setting, a less-than-ideal teacher-student pairing, and a negative character arc for our poor, fixated protagonist. Now, Black Swan is no Whiplash, but it's a wildly effective piece nonetheless if not necessarily a movie I'd be dying to watch again anytime soon - elaborations coming soon.

Black Swan follows Nina, a ballerina with the New York City Ballet who competes with Lily, a newcomer to the dance company, in a twisted and sinister battle for the role of prima ballerina in their manipulative teacher's upcoming performance of Swan Lake.

The storytelling in Black Swan is impressive, especially when it comes to how characters present themselves. Oftentimes, it's at its best when no dialogue is used. For instance, Nina's controlling yet charismatic teacher, Thomas, can ice a room just by stepping into it, and his presence is a powerful and exceedingly uncomfortable one brought to life by an excellent performance by Vincent Cassel. On a technical level, the commendable camerawork by Matthew Libatique, the same guy who worked on Requiem for a Dream, is dizzying, and really adds even more to the visual element of the movie. Now, I'm not the first reviewer who's compared this movie to Whiplash, and the comparisons are perfectly understandable. Both movies contain an obsessed artist. Both feature a teacher with a show-stopping presence. Both are set in a city. And both contain an empathetic parent. But the two movies aren't carbon copies of each other, and Black Swan is definitely its own, competent beast. Speaking of which, the goals of Nina are simple, effective, and concrete: she wants the lead role in Swan Lake. It's an uncomplicated aspiration, one that's never too difficult to keep track of, and yet so effective and easy to get behind.

The performances in this movie are wonderful, and effectively convey the emotions and developments of each character. I already mentioned Vincent Cassel's performance as Thomas, but Natalie Portman gives a very strong portrayal of Nina as well. I felt like I was going a little bit crazy alongside her as the movie progressed, and believe me, that is high praise indeed. The sheer ruthlessness of a lot of the cast of characters keeps the movie flowing at a brisk pace and also keeps you guessing, I knew something was going to happen the whole time, but I was never able to guess what. This doubt seems to be a throughline of Black Swan, and rightfully so. The film asks a lot of questions and offers no easy answers, which is as it should be. I found myself doubting the intentions of almost every single character in the cast, and this cloak-and-dagger aspect really gave the movie a potent and unpredictable bite. Furthermore, the intentions of these characters only become murkier and murkier as the film progresses. Black Swan takes a turn for the psychological as its story unfolds, and some of the audio-visual techniques used are just astounding. A lot of the was it really there imagery is largely effective, and maybe a little too effective for its own good, teetering on overly forceful at times.

Furthermore, I liked how this movie was able to sustain its momentum throughout, even if its writing could have used a wee bit of tightening. That said, the ways in which this movie changes Nina are striking, and by the end of the film, the question is not what's going to happen to her, but rather what will she do next? The character development in this film is just wonderful, and left me with far more questions and doubts than it did answers - in a good way. The ending of this film is ambiguous and leaves a lot of the interpretation up to us as the audience to decide whether or not what Nina put herself through in her quest to attain greatness was worth it in the end. It's an effective end to an effective movie and one that's going to stick with me for a while.

This movie asks a lot of questions and doesn't bother to answer them, leaving a lot of interpretation up to the viewers. It lays out the story and then asks us what do you make of this? Is Vincent a predator or a genius? is Nina succeeding remarkably or failing miserably? Is anything we're seeing even real? Different people are going to watch this movie and come away with completely different interpretations of it, and that's what effective cinema is supposed to do to us. I made the comparison earlier, but I'm going to make it once more. Black Swan and Whiplash are two surprisingly similar movies, and they share a lot of strengths. Granted, I would say that the absurdly tight writing and gargantuan performances from Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons place Whiplash at a higher level than Black Swan, but by no means should Black Swan be discounted. It's an effective, dizzying, deeply uncomfortable mental dive into an obsessive mind - and it's a movie I'm probably never going to watch again. It features a lesbian sexual encounter that doesn't sit well with me, and the entire film has a deeply sexual undertone to it that occasionally bleeds into overtones in the form of brief nudity, a bit of groping, and a sequence where Nina oh-so graciously pleasures herself for our enjoyment and entertainment. I'm not going to entirely condemn the movie to the pit because I think there's a lot that it has to say - and, more importantly, a lot of questions to ask - but I will leave you with a warning: proceed at your own risk.

Black Swan - 9/10

1 John 2:15-17