Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman whip things into a baroque frenzy in this crazed hybrid of drama and horror set amid a ballet corps.

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R • 1 hour 43 min • 2010

In a new thriller, a stressed, repressed ballerina tries to tap into her sensuality to triumph in Swan Lake's starring role. Her descent into psychosis is imaginatively captured, but chilling images and impressive acting don't add up to a substantive whole.

“Black Swan” and “Love and Other Drugs.”

Movie review: 'Black Swan'

One thing you can say about Darren Aronofsky: You never know what he's going to do next. A through-line connecting his movies to one another would...

Darren Aronofsky, who used the cheesiness of professional wrestling as the backdrop for a powerful, tragic character study, has moved behind the scenes of another kind of performance. One doesn't often think of ballet, with its graceful moves and ...

After a more-than-slightly-skewed trailer and over a year of Internet buzz, Darren Aronofsky's latest film, Black Swan, garnered what critics called "a certain lesbian allure" due to what may or may not be a girl-on-girl love scene between co-stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. And although this drove us to the theaters like moths to a flame (a lesbian, lesbian flame), moviegoers who actually witnessed Black Swan found that Aronofsky's film is about much more. Exploring issues such as body image, pressure, and (yes) sexuality, Black Swan brings to light the societal pressures that create insanity and eventually causes audiences to wonder: is it insanity at all?

A modern-day fairy tale that's freaky, sexy, and downright divine.