Rewatching Black Swan this week, I was surprised all over again that somehow it managed to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Not surprised in the sense I couldn’t believe anybody would think it the Best Picture of the year – after all, when recapping 2010, I thought it the Best Film of 2010. Rather, I was surprised because the film is such a daring and outré choice for such a historically conservative body to even think about giving Best Picture to.
After all, Black Swan is a film so unrelentingly dark, and the drama so built on fragile psychology and overt sexuality – hetero, homo and incestual – that it seems like the kind of film the Academy would normally run away from like their hair was on fire. Don’t forget, this is the same body of milquetoasts that routinely gives Stephen Daldry nominations for films that are generally regarded as being lousy and chose the insipid Crash over the game-changing Brokeback Mountain. Continue reading
Directed by Sydney Pollack
