Black Swan

A neurotically repressed ballerina (Natalie Portman) struggles to master the dual role in Swan Lake assigned by her imperious choreographer (Vincent Cassel) while fending off the competition of a new dancer in the company (Mila Kunis). Is all this real? Is the dancer going mad? Or has she been crazy from the word go? Director Darren Aronofsky’s movie (written by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin) invites (and suffers by) comparison with the 1948 classic The Red Shoes, but it has its own distinct, bizarre but undeniable pleasures. The Red Shoes was about dancing, but Black Swan is about madness, so deliriously over the top that it becomes an instant camp classic. Most of the performers (including Barbara Hershey as Portman’s mother and Winona Ryder as a falling star) are Oscar bait for sure.