Black Swan

Today was my fourth last day at Travelers because I've thought I was leaving Travs for good three times prior to this and somehow always find myself coming back.  I really think this is the last time, though... unless I can't get a job when I graduate.  I'm not ruling anything out at this point.

I went out to Japanese hibachi with my fam for dinner, emptied my entire closet onto my bed, and then left to meet Amy and see Black Swan in Manchester.  What a phenomenal movie.  Granted, it was highly disturbing, but everything about it was put together very well... although I did have to look away when Natalie Portman started peeling her skin off.  But that's only because I'm squeamish and a baby.

Speaking of Natalie Portman, I was so impressed with her performance.  The movie was highly dependent on the character of Nina, so Portman's dedication and believability was crucial to the success of the film.  On top of her acting, her dancing was very impressive as well.  Amy had fits of longing for her ballet days and even gave Portman her stamp of approval on not faking the dancing.

Mila Kunis = girl crush.  After Keira Knightly.  I'm so glad that you're not just Jackie from That 70's Show.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Amy and I sat at the movie theater bar (oxymoron?) afterward partially because we wanted to chat about the movie, partly because we didn't want to drive home alone in the dark after that freaky of a movie right away, and partly because we're highly co-dependent.  Amy the psychologist in training immediately diagnosed Portman's character as being a paranoid schizophrenic, which sounded good to me because I've only taken one high school psych class. 

Although Amy sides more with the train of thought that Lily is completely made up, I think that Lily was, in fact, a real person but Nina used her as the manifestation of her other self/delusions.  Why?  Perhaps Lily represented some quality that the "black swan" embodied for Nina; it's not really answered.  Therefore, I do believe that when other characters acknowledged Lily, she was the actual character Lily - but when Nina is alone with "Lily," it is likely the delusion.  The club scene?  It seems as if it transitions from the character to the delusion somewhere along the way to me, but I haven't quite figured out where that is.

The whole situation reminded me of another movie in which the main character has delusions that incorporate another minor character, but I can't remember the movie.  Like, the main character meets minor character at the beginning of the movie, and the plot-line continues so that main/minor character seemingly get close and know each other well, but in actuality, the relationship never progresses past that initial meeting - it is all in the main character's head.  I know that this happens in Vanilla Sky, but I feel like I'm thinking of a different movie too.  Man, Vanilla Sky is just a mindfuck.

I feel like there's a lot more I want to say about the movie, but I can't quite articulate each piece of it right now.  Overall, I just felt like the storyline was written very well; I appreciated that there were no extraneous plot twists or character incorporation/developments.  The filming was excellent, and of course, the acting and dancing was superb.  It was a great movie... I'm just not sure how soon I could see it again.  It was pretty fucked up.  But in an excellent, excellent way.

Tomorrow we are going down to Foxwoods for a late birthday celebration... I'm sure I will be real time status updating/Tweeting and I will have lots of pictures to post here soon!  Man, where has my winter break gone??

Love,
Courtney