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AFF: Some notes on “Black Swan”
A full review will follow when it opens wide, but it screened at the Paramount last night (Oct. 27), so here are a few thoughts.
—Of course it’s the distaff version of WRESTLER. Of course. Same sideways relationship to popular, mainstream athletics and culture, same body manipulation issues (he uses steroids, she makes herself throw up), same lingering over the rituals (dressing for the ring, breaking in toe shoes), that sort of thing.
— But it’s also so much more. Claustrophobic, paranoid, feminine, psychedelic, nervy, creepy, FUNNY, sexy balletsploitation.
— Unlike entirely too many movies in general and in sharp contrast to a writer’s festival such as AFF, the dialogue in “Black Swan” is virtually unneeded. The weakest scenes are the talkiest and felt tacked on, exposition-fairy style. No mumblecore yammering here. — the frame is everything. It might as well be a silent movie and this is in no way a bad thing. It is old-school cinema.
— The casting is pitch-perfect. Natalie Portman as the childlike Nina has to carry the movie in her face, which often takes up the whole frame, but she delivers in careful, measured manner. Mila Kunis is excellent as Nina’s rival/opposite number, the id to Portman’s china-doll superego. Winona Ryder as the former company lead about to retire (and bitter about it) is brilliant (and slightly mean) 1990s stunt casting, but she’s totally game. Vincent Cassel kills as the lecherous artistic director and Barbara Hershey has never been more terrifying (even when her lips were scary). Who knew she was auditioning all this time for “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”
— That said, Cassel’s Rorschach-test apartment is a bit much. Is “Swan Lake” the only ballet he cares about?
— Aronofsky is not shy about referencing his antecedents, but you won’t mind. There’s a ton of early Polanski and a fair amount of Cronenberg in here. There’s also a bit of Japanese body horror as imagined by directors such as Takashi Miike and Shinya Tsukamoto. It’s not that surprising that Aronofsky’s been talked about as a helmer for “Wolverine II” and something called “Machine Man.”
— There are strobes. Very serious strobes. You have been warned.
— But Aronofsky has also made peace with his psychedelic urges and has gotten much better about taming his baroque side. This is more the street level oddness of “Pi” than the slicked up drugginess of “Requiem For a Dream.” It’s still a trip down the rabbit hole, but hand-held and gritty rather than MTV glossy (or gaga like “The Fountain”).
— It’s a blast.
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By blair
November 9, 2010 1:36 PM | Link to this
When/where will the movie be released in Austin?