(83th Academy Awards) Best Picture Nominee/Winner of Best Actress: Black Swan

"He picked me, mommy! I'm the new swan queen!" says Nina Sayers, a 20-something dancer of a prominent New York ballet company. The 2010 psychological thriller, Black Swan, stars Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy, the director of the ballet company. The film is set in modern day New York and follows Nina Sayers around the city that never sleeps as she struggles to find her sensual side in order to fufill the role as The Black Swan in the Dance Company's production of the play, Swan Lake. Nina already has the White Swan down to a T, her innocence and allure grace the stage during every routine. But Nina has competition, the new dancer Lily, who remarkably portrays the Black Swan, the role Nina simply cannot conform to. Her life and time are completely enveloped in dance. Any chance that Nina gets she is either practicing her A La Seconde turns in the studio at morningtide, or getting her cracked toenails clipped to perfection by her uptight, deviant mother. She tries desperately to make a name for Nina because she herself was forced to give up dance on account of her unexpected preganancy at the age of 28.

Upon its release, Black Swan managed to snag some adoration from movie critics all over, mostly for Natalie Portman's stunning depiction of someone so "out there" and compulsive. Darren Aronofsky, the director, was also praised for his direction of the film. It was proven to live up to its hype when it was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the 83th Academy Awards, Natalie Portman even winning the Academy Award for Best Actress which she rightfully deserved (and might I saw, looked very flattering in her purple maternity dress).

I don't feel that for a single second that the movie was over-exposed, especially because for quite some time the movie had a limited release in the United States and everyone I knew hadn't even known of it. Call me biased because of my love for the film's star, Natalie Portman, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The film wasn't just all about the expectancy or the dancing, but instead focused on how far a person is willing to go in order to achieve perfection. Nina dealt with pressure from her mother, her director, and more importantly, herself, facing an inner conflict much more powerful then anything else. If you haven't already seen it, I highly suggest buying it on DVD, looking for it online, or, if you have Netflix like me, just add it to your DVD queue. The hallucinations might freak you out a bit (Nina pulls back a hangnail in one scene and instead, peels an entire line of skin off of her finger), but nothing to fret over.