Nerdy Thoughts on #BlackSwan

If you haven't seen Black Swan and want to ... know that this review will give it two thumbs up ... it is going to contain a series of spoilers ... so stop reading ... like now.

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*Peeks around a corner* whew, are they gone yet? awesome sauce ...

Alrite, did you guys understand Black Swan?

It's directed by the guy that brought you Requiem for a Dream, Pi, and The Fountain ... so you know going in you're down for some seriously trippy shit. That being said, I haven't read a SINGLE review of this film as to not have my opinion of it swayed in any way shape or form. Just raw, real, and really nerdy ... just the way I like it. *yummy*

Disclaimers a go ... let's cue 4sq checkin:

Black Swan takes you on the emotional journey of a prima ballerina. I was a dancer for 15 years (jazz, tap, and ballet) ... this movie at times, touched a bit too close to home. It was insane.insane.insane.

Any time in the past dance has been interpreted on the big screen, it has been through chick flicks like Center Stage, Dirty Dancing, or even the god awful Nutcracker that Macaulay Culkin stared in. Yeah ... I won't ever forget that. #facepalm

That being said ... this was the first dance flick to ever hit the screen that actually conveyed the emotions of the dancer rather than the actual art of dancing. This movie had nothing to do with dancing. The technique that was displayed was more for exposition than anything else. Even look at the way it was shot - it was shot in cinéma vérité ... that was no coincidence.

Dancers eat.sleep.and.breathe. this notion of perfection. Everything has to be perfect. You are taught to dance from the heart, but technique is hammered in your brain from the womb. Dancers aren't just people that picked up shoes and said this is fun ... to dance is to be. Similar with how I am now in social media, you just can't stop thinking about dance and movement; you are it, and it is you. If you've ever put on those shoes you know that world ... and if you don't ... meh, find another passion. Either way ... I've never seen the psychological journey of a dancer captured in such a matter of fact way. I felt so much of what Natalie Portman's character went through.

First off, the enmeshment with her mother? Out of contrrooolllll. I mean the lack of personal boundaries aside, notice how when she got the news of being the Swan Queen she immediately called her mother? The news hadn't even sunk in her brain and she was already relaying it to her mother, who was living vicariously through her. She didn't own her accomplishment, she was rather regurgitating it to her mother in order to receive validation that she did infact do a "job well done."

Knowing that as being her constant ... she developed a dissociative disorder that imagined Mila Kunis' character and eventually herself into this world of being everything she wanted to be. Especially poignant considering the ballet they are basing the movie off of, Swan Lake. (It is a ballet consisting of the virginal ballerina who then is lured over to the darkside and becomes in a very literal sense a different being entirely.)

I found her dance teacher to be an especially intriguing character. Most people would interpret him as being someone who just enjoyed his power and allowed many a young ballerinas to his apartment to view his casting couch ... but I saw it a bit differently ... he wanted to open up their minds. When he kissed her pre-casting announcement, he said she nailed the white swan very well based strictly upon technique ... but she was too frigid. He then kisses her, as if to manipulate his personality enough to capture a glimmer or a spark of something that he was looking for ... and she bites him! EXACTLY what he was looking for! He wanted that spark, that fire, all that is the black swan.

He then announces her at the dinner, and then shows her back to his place ... the first question he asks her is if she has a boyfriend. He then reveals that they need to not have any secrets or boundaries between them if they are really going to create art. Again, normally, this would have come off as creepy creepy creepy ... but the way it was done was almost as if this girl just needed to be woken up. He's the type of character that would have enjoyed pleasure for the simple sake of it being pleasure. He wouldn't care about the ego of it and wanting to bed the prima ballerina. The emotion just wasn't conveyed that way. I don't know how else to describe it.

You guys at this point clearly get that the lesbian scene with Mila was a fantasy right? As was the mom sitting in the chair during the masturbation scene, and the part in the bathtub. She felt too controlled, and sexually stifled.

I also love how when she actually did really FEEL something, especially sexually, you saw her skin going to almost this reptile like texture. She was emerging into her own being, shedding her own skin if you will, and becoming the swan.

She clearly didn't really die in the end in the physical sense, but rather a part of her did die emotionally. She was the swan, and the swan was her. Hence why she was literally picking the black feathers out of her skin near the last scene.

... and yeah, I love what they did with the wardrobe too. Natalie Portman's character was always in white with her hair up. The first time she betrayed her mother, she was in gray. Mila Kunis' character was always in dark clothing, hair down. Not a single detail was missed ... dude, even the fade out in the end going to white instead of black!!! 

Incredible.Incredible.Incredible film.

Two nerdy thumbs WAY WAY WAY up!!

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