• Starring: Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder
  • Summary: Black Swan is a psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet. Featured dancer, Nina, finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company. (Fox Searchlight)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 42
  2. Negative: 1 out of 42
  1. Reviewed by: Kristin Hunt
    Jan 6, 2011
    100
    Just like the final performance by its deeply disturbed heroine, Black Swan is perfect.
  2. Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    Dec 6, 2010
    60
    Me, I'm of two minds about a movie that wants to be a nail-ripping thriller and a statement on an artist's unholy communion with her role. It's reminiscent of older, better movies.
  3. Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    Dec 6, 2010
    30
    Not just any kind of trash, it's high-art trash, a kind of "When Tutu Goes Psycho" that so prizes hysteria over sanity that it's worth your life to tell when its characters are hallucinating and when they're not.

See all 42 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 31 out of 216
  1. "Black Swan" is a fearless movie that unveils the psychological horror of perfectionism and observes the deepest, darkest personalities of mankind. All of this is created and formed with Keen, sensitive direction and a frightfully perfect performance from Natalie Portman (as expected, she won a Oscar for her performance). Ultimately, this masterpiece is a beautiful dark twisted movie you must, and will watch. Expand
    • 6 of 6 users said yes
  2. As I was watching "Black Swan," I started counting the times the camera lingered on Natalie Portman staring pointlessly at herself in a mirror and lost count at eight billion. Guess that means I'm not one of the many crying "bravo" for this film. I love Vincent Cassel, but here he's wasted as one more catalyst for the flowering of Natalie Portman's neurosis into capital-A Art. It's interesting to me that Winona Ryder showed up as the has-been dancer because Portman seemed to base her character on the timid mental patient Ryder played in "Girl, Interrupted" (watchable only for Angelina Jolie's much more dynamic sociopath). The difference here is that we experience manifestations of Portman's disintigration and are clearly supposed to wonder whether she is, in fact, being sabotaged. That would be the thriller part. But it's evident from the first 10 minutes of the movie that this chick is way too screwed up for anyone to bother sabotaging; all an intelligent rival would have to do is stand around, smoke a cigarette or two, and wait for her to self-destruct. So "thrills," for me, along with surprises, were in pretty short supply. I was mildly interested in how she'd finally sex up her Black Swan (hint: no sex involved) but rolled my eyes when it finally happened. I'm happy for all the people who swooned with delight at this film, but I was definitely not one of them. Plusses: some nice dancing. Vincent Cassel putting the mack on Portman then walking off in disgust. Barbara Hershey's scary facelifts finally used to advantage. Expand
    • 8 of 9 users said yes
  3. I understand what this film tried to do and what direction it took and why. But i couldn't help but feel so bored throughout all this film. It's a love hate thing. Natalie Portman takes up so much of this film, if you don't like her character you won't like this film. Which i didn't. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes

See all 216 User Reviews

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