scarlettina.My viewing was somewhat influenced by realizing on arrival at the theater that I'd lost my cell phone on my pre-movie errands. I rushed home first before I went searching parking lots in the rain, found the phone there, and arrived back at the theater rather after the posted showtime. As Black Swan was still in previews, I made it into my intending showing with about a minute to spare before the movie ran. A little agitated, rushed, discombobulated.
Which turned out to be the perfect frame of mind for the movie.
scarlettina described the movie better than I could. I shan't try to compete with her effective reviewership. Rather, I want to observe that this is a movie about meeting and crossing the ultimate boundaries of perfection in the creative process. The overwhelming drive to succeed, which I often characterize on this blog as "psychotic persistence", is rendered in Black Swan as, well, a literalization of psychotic persistence. A frightening, glorious, overwhelming, jarring, mind-numbing rendering of psychotic persistence.This wasn't a meditation on the creative process such as I would have essayed. And Black Swan is very much about the performing arts, which writing print fiction is generally not considered one of. But there's still so much to be taken from this film for anyone who thinks seriously about their creative pursuits. Whether that taking would be encouraging or cautionary is best left as an exercise for the viewer. Very much worth your time.