‘Black Swan’ Teaches Us How to Be Perfect and Crazy

“Black Swan” is kind of like ”Burlesque” – except there’s no burlesque club…and there’s no fun musical numbers…and there’s no iconic, ageless celebrity ringer.

OK. Maybe it isn’t like “Burlesque,” but there are tons of dancing and a girl-on-girl scene. The latter is something that could have taken “Burlesque” to a whole level of awesomeness and pornographic brilliance.

In “Black Swan,” director Darren Aronofsky presents us with his latest WTF opus that focuses on Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a go-getting ballerina with tons of unhealthy ambition and a crazy-ass pageant mom (flawlessly played by Barbara Hershey) that may or may not be the long lost sister of Joan Crawford.

Nina eventually rises to the occasion and, with a bit of uncertainty, takes the lead in “Swan Lake” where ballet director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) uses his unorthodox method of fondling and groping to guide Nina to play the White and Black Swan in the production. Nina already has the elegance of the White Swan, but she cannot, for the life of her, capture the essence of the Black Swan’s feral sensuality – something she sees (and quietly envies) in Lily (Mila Kunis), a new addition to the company. She’s free-spirited, relaxed and is essentially the yang to Nina’s uptight yin.

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Aronosfky paints a beautiful disaster of picture with “Black Swan” – in a good way. He applies his trademark style of damaged, demented and intoxicating charm to the ballet world. From the competitiveness to the body image issues to the torture to the corn-chipped feet it’s all there. But Nina serves as the totem of self-obsessive, unhealthy perfection – a role that Portman fills in quite well.

Portman dedicates herself to this role right down to the plie squats and anorexic figure. As an object of desperation to a full-fledged ballerina diva of delusion, she is convincing – especially when interacting with her precious nail-cutting Momma.

Speaking of nail-cutting, the brutal scenes of bloody nails, cringe-worthy skin peeling and bizarre (and a bit comedic) swan transformations are difficult to watch – and are a tad bit gratuitous. Nonetheless, it seems that Aronofsky knows exactly what can make an audience’s skin crawl so that he has your attention. He especially grabs your attention with the Kunis/Portman girl-on-girl scene, which may reel in the Frat boy demographic, but, male hormones may get flaccid as the scene turns out to be totally creepy — unless you’re into that freaky stuff.

The movie is billed as a thriller; some are even calling it a horror. Perhaps it goes in line with Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swan Theory” where he explores “the psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs.” One thing is for certain: the movie is not about ballet, but it does serve as the conflicting elegant backdrop for a psychotic story about a girl with issues that are beyond repair as soon as she slips on those binding pointe shoes.

The movie, like all Oscar bait movies that we are supposed to rave about, leaves it up to your interpretation. My interpretation? Psycho character-driven movies about self-consumed, perfectly flawed ballerinas on the verge of literally (or is it figuratively?) becoming a swan equals cinematic gold for everyone involved.