I gauge the quality of a movie, of how it tells the story effectively, by the amount of time I spend thinking about it after watching. About 90% of the movies I watch usually don’t require much afterthought. Most are forgotten almost immediately. But few movies leave a lasting impression. Darren Aronofsky‘s Black Swan is still fresh in my mind 4 hours on, mentally jumping from scene to scene and I am enjoying every bit of it.

If you don’t know who Darren Aronofsky is then you probably should. He is the director who made Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain and Pi – all highly rated art-house type productions that he is famous for.

Black Swan is beautiful for two reasons. One, being very simple and having cast just a handful of main characters, the movie is executed flawlessly from beginning to end.

Two, it is about a ballet dancer’s (Natalie Portman) sexual awakening and subsequent decent into paranoid madness while getting ready for a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Therefore, in some of the scenes, especially at the end, we get to hear those powerful and iconic orchestral compositions the ballet is famous for. It is then that you realize how the story has cleverly used the plot of Swan Lake as a vehicle to tell you about Black Swan.

Natalie Portman delivers an absolutely stellar performance. Raw, violent, sensuous and sublime and compelling at that.

Some may classify this in the supernatural / horror genre. Delving into the mind of any human can be a terrifying thing. In that sense, this movie has its scary moments. One thing is clear though; the audience is taken on an Aronofskian trip well and good this time too.

As for me I will definitely take that trip again and I highly recommend you join me.