Movie Reviews: Black Swan


Several critics have given Darren Aranofsky’s Black Swan the same sort of ecstatic praise that they bestowed on his The Wrestler two years ago.

The film opened the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday (to a standing ovation), where The Wrestler won the coveted Golden Lion award when it premiered there in 2008.





“Every film festival benefits hugely from a strong opening film, and they don’t come much stronger than Black Swan,” critic David Gritten wrote in the London Daily Telegraph.





But Roderick Conway Morris commented in the New York Times"

“The movie is billed as a psychological thriller but the psychology is as monochrome as the settings and characterization. … And the climax of the film is as inevitable as it is implausible.”






Todd McCarthy, the former Variety critic, gave the film a mixed review on Indiewire.com, remarking:

“As a sensory experience for the eyes and ears, Black Swan provides bountiful stimulation. … But when the script by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz, based on the latter’s story, struggles to carve out a real-world parallel to the life-and-death struggle depicted in the dance story, it goes over the top in something approaching grand guignol fashion.”





Nevertheless, the performances of Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder, have received virtually unanimous praise, with several already predicting Oscar nods for each.

-IMDB News

Movie Reviews: Black Swan


Opening in limited release, Darren Aronofsky’s ballet-themed Black Swan, is receiving a standing ovation from critics.




Indeed Lou Lumenick of the New York Post applauds three times — that’s how many times he has seen it, he writes.

It’s “my favorite film of the year,” he adds.





“To induce a state of dread and mesmerize with beauty is a rare, paradoxical achievement,” writes Claudia Puig in USA Today.




Manohla Dargis in the New York Times inflates the oxymoron, calling the movie “visceral and real even while it’s one delirious, phantasmagoric freakout.”






Singled out for special attention is the performance of Natalie Portman, which Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal calls “resplendently real” (although he finds fault with the “psychological banalities of the script.”)




Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times calls it a “revelation,” adding, “Somehow she goes over the top and yet stays in character: Even at the extremes, you don’t catch her acting.”



And Peter Howell in the Toronto Star writes: “This is Portman’s bid for Best Actress at the next Oscars, and it thrills to watch her go for it.”

-IMDB News