Black Swan (2010)

Few other film directors can make a trip to hell as mesmerizing, soul-shattering and yet beautiful as Darren Aronofsky. He creates the most visceral portraits of one’s darkest addictions –- drugs, sport, love -– and then burns it all down on screen. You leave his films shocked and awed. “Black Swan” pulverizes. It follows NYC ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) who yearns to the perfect ballerina, and gets her chance with the lead in “Swan Lake.” Will she win against all odds: The elaborate dance moves, a mysterious rival (Mila Kunis), a sMother (Barbara Hershey) and a fast-crumbling psyche? No. This is “Requiem for a Dream” territory. “Swan” jumps its tracks along with Nina, but the crash and burn is "There Will be Blood" brilliant. Also brilliant: Portman, on screen nearly every minute, acting with every ounce of her frail, tortured body, and eyes that dig into your skull. Winona Ryder blazes crazy circles as an older dancer, Vincent Cassel is wonderfully low-key as the seedy pig director, and Clint Mansell’s music score (riffs on "Swan Lake") is a throbbing wicked character all its own. A searing erotic psychological horror movie about art that is itself art. This movie damns the rules, beautifully. I love Aronofsky. A