The Black Swan and Her Smother Mother

Someone please give Natalie Portman an Oscar now. She was amazing in Black Swan, just as the movie itself was fantastic. So maybe the script bordered on implausible and it portrays the cliche of another loopy ballerina. Nevermind, because director Darren Aronofsky just made magic out of the whole thing. I have never felt a movie like this in a long time. It was so visceral. The cinematographer is Filipino by the way. Matthew Labatique is genius and shot some dance scenes using a DSLR for heaven's sake. He also worked with Aronofsky in Requiem for a Dream, which I Ioved, but now I love Black Swan more.

A very interesting part of the movie was the relationship between Nina the ballerina (Natalie Portman's character) and her mother who is played really well by Barbara Hershey. Talk about Smother Mother. The movie still over there belies the extent of her creepiness. She is a reminder that control freak moms who expect their children to be perfect all the time can really contribute to messed up psyches. No matter how "loving" mom is, smothering is not good mothering.

And so.

Black Swan is not only brilliantly directed and beautifully shot, it has a killer score that combines techno with Tchaichovsky, scenes that make you jump as if you were watching a Japanese horror flick, and because I am such a girl… the most beautiful ballet costumes by Rodarte. If you hear someone say Black Swan is good, believe the hype.