The Reel Rejects - BLACK SWAN (2010) MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching!!!!

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

DARREN ARONOFSKY'S DRAMATIC HORROR!! Save Money & Take Control Of Your Finances: https://rocketmoney.com/rejects Black Swan Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en Black Swan Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, Spoiler Review, & Ending Explained! Tara Erickson & Aaron Alexander are back at it for a dramatic tuesday as they dive into the ballet spine-tingling thriller starring the Oscar Winning Natalie Portman (Star Wars & Leon The Professional), Mila Kunis (That 70's Show & Family Guy), & Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice & Stranger Things) from director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream, The Wrestler, & Mother!). They watch and react to scenes / movie clips such as "She's Trying To Replace Me," "Nightmarish Dance Scene," "Dance Of The White Swan," "The Black Swan Dance," "The Way She Moves," "Hot For Teacher," & "What Did You Do To Get This Role?"  Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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this week's videos are brought to you by Rocket Money a personal finance app that I've been using since way before we partnered with them more on them soon Aaron is like he's blown out of the water out sexy this sounds we love you guys

we know it we love you All right, shall we watch it? Yeah, by it. Let's do it. Let's watch Black Swan. Oh, my God. Darren Aronovsky, bro. That was crazy.

Wow. That was amazing and insane. That was an incredible movie. Like. Oh my God, 10 stars. 10 out of 10. 10 out of freaking 10. The fact that like she found perfection at the end and that's why she has a smile on her

faces, she's about to freaking probably die. Like, she had to kill herself to get rid of the old self who was controlled by, I thought she, and she found freedom at the end. but it wasn't in the way that I expected. She found freedom because she was like, I felt perfection finally. Yeah. Not freedom from that controlling perfection.

There was like a freedom in like. Freedom in the loss of control. Freedom in relinquishing and in that killing of itself. Yeah, man. It's just her. She found freedom in her psychosis. Yeah. which is insane yeah this movie was wild and it's funny because I think this movie came out in 2010

and I think me in 2010 wouldn't be able to appreciate this movie and the same what I can now because this movie is yeah it's just so so layered and just like as it's great with visual storytelling and not only it's visuals but it's audio and not yep and Natalie Portman the sound effects. Natalie Portman is incredible in this movie from start to finish. I understand. I understand why she was nominated, if not won the Oscar. Totally. She must have. I mean, give me a break. Yeah. And the fact that this movie is so good and so well-paced and it's under two hours long is insane. Right. And it doesn't even feel it's just every moment I was so there and with it. And it was like, it took its time, but it didn't feel like it.

It took its time in the moments of dance and building up the suspense and looking at like Milakunis, who is a new girl and like, is it in her head or is it freaking not? And then we find it goes back and forth between like, yes, she probably really did go out with Milakunis, but then they didn't go home together. And like, I mean, and that brings you into what is real and what is not. like even with her mom and the scratches and you're you are put into the turmoil that she is going through in her head by being an audience member right and that's hard that's hard for that to hit home that intensely to really make the audience feel that way without us being like oh i see what they're trying to do it was just like no that's how i felt yeah yeah my favorite type of movies are character driven movies that don't feel the need to hold your hand and I can show you rather than telling you. Exactly.

This movie was the epitome of that. No exposition. None. No. We don't need it. You don't need it. The movie told us everything we needed to know through its subtext and through its visuals. And the fact that this movie never needed to outwardly say her mom is controlling or her dance teacher is controlling and manipulative.

But you just see through her interactions, how she reacts to them and this desire to be perfect, but also feeling helpness. helpless within that desire to be perfect was just so palpable and just so present and prevalent. You just got to just like, it makes you really lock in. And Natalie Portman just carries you through the story. And it's like this thing about her finding this sense of freedom through setting boundaries, but also like going through like a mental breakdown in that process. And her whole relationship with Milakuna is was built primarily on jealousy and paranoia. Yeah. And, you know, you see without them outwardly going out of their way to explain it how her involvement with Milakuna's influenced her into developing into the Black Swan finally.

Yeah, that was the first time she ever stood up to her mom is when Mila was there because she was just so threatened by her from day one and seeing her. when he's like behind her going like see how she moves like look at her and you're just like oh god i have to become her in some way get some of that juice and then when she has the moment she's kind of pushed her limit with her mom but also because she has so much of that in her head of like i kind of have to become this girl and that girl really does push her out of her comfort zone and makes her become the black swan yeah and the entire time she's she's going between seeking her mother's approval and seizing her teacher's approval.

Yeah. And, you know, finally she stands up not only to them, but to herself. Yeah. To that part of herself that feels like she needs to be perfect. And through relinquishing that and killing that side of herself,

she is able to achieve that thing when she was searching for the entire time. Ah, yeah. But the movie doesn't need to tell you that. No, it shows you that. No, it shows you that what she was seeking the entire time. in her being like, I'm perfect, and we both thought in the beginning, we're like, but it's not about

perfection. If you look at Milakunis, he pointed out, see how free she is. She has freedom, right? She's not as in control. And I thought that maybe her being with Mila's character, Lily, that she would find a way to like lose that control. And she did, especially kind of in her visions of like when she's sleeping with Milakuna, when she's sleeping with Lily, that was her way of like, she really, like, she really, lost control. That was the first time that she actually like climax. Like we see her like trying to touch herself, trying to like, and then Mila's character took her there. But I'm like, oh, it's just so wild at the end when she's like, it's my turn. And we think she's killing her. But she has to kill that old self that would have never allowed her to go out with Lily, to drink with Lily, to do drugs

with Lily to sleep with Lily to be emotionally like vulnerable with this girl and how wild was it that that at the end she goes and kisses the director I forget his name but like she's like in it now and it felt there's so much behind it it was like she came into this like seductive sexual person but also the the kiss meant like thank you for giving me this opportunity like you pushed me in a really uncomfortable way in ways that we like we don't really we don't approve of but it's like for her it's like the whole picture came together when she kissed him because it was like she was thanking him for giving her this opportunity and putting her in this position but also pushing her in very uncomfortable ways it's interesting because yeah when you said that i i see that perspective now but in

in the moment when I was watching it, I took that is, that's her finally taking control. That's her finally seducing him and owning and stepping into her power. Totally. That too. Absolutely. Yeah, because she, she kisses him and then she fucks right off back to the stage to like get her, get her applause.

He's like, what are you doing? Get back on stage. And she just takes that moment. Yeah. And for herself, finally. Not him taking it from her. Yeah. She takes that control back for herself. she takes that control from her mom

and yeah just watching this girl go from being essentially this perfectionist people pleaser into this person who is powerful but at the cost of her sanity was like beautiful and tragic at the same time because she also she got rid of the control from Lily's character by killing her in her head yeah like and that's very intense that she's you know ends up killing herself like and I it's just you know it takes you back when people are like when she's there at the bar with the guys are like that's dark and she's like I actually find it very beautiful like very poetic she liked the story yeah and she actually lives it at the end and it's this like demure timid girl who is controlled in all aspects of her life and being a ballet dancer is

already a controlling thing like you already have to be kind of perfect but she went past that and just the pain that we saw her go through it it almost felt like beautiful like we don't want her to die but it almost felt like what a release yeah and that's how i think they want like and that's how she felt like you kind of saw it like what a release but she i just the brilliant line at the end i felt it it was perfect, it was perfect. I thought it was going to be like, I felt it like she felt the black swan, she felt the freedom,

she felt the loss of control. And what, and maybe it did mean that. All those underlying things of what I just said is like perfection. Yeah. And I also notice that upon like retrospectus we're talking about it here is like,

it's almost meta in a way, not like meta in the sense that's like it's saying something to the audience, but like the whole thing that they're doing in the play is the story of of Swan Lake, right? It's like this this girl who turned to a swan who has the

black swan steal her man and then she ends up killing herself. But in this scenario, the guy is the coach or is the teacher and she perceives Milakuna as to be taking that man from her and then she takes that power back to becoming

her own black swan and then ends up, you know, dying. Just like the story. Exactly. Living the fate of Swan Lake of the story. Absolutely. Like wild. And I just, I loved how much they, I don't know how they shot this with all the mirrors. There were mirrors in every shot.

And the way they utilized those mirror shots were phenomenal. And it was like, it's us looking in. There's a metaphor there of like her looking at herself, but also us looking at her reflection and the way she sees herself. and then how she comes out of it. And I'm just still like, I don't know how they shot that and how they got those reverse images

and you have to hide a cameraman. We know when it's at an angle, but when you see a 360 and that camera guy's not there, you have to somehow input that. And that's just, they did a brilliant job. With that, I thought it was really, really phenomenal in just the way they told the story and just even the black swan stuffed animal in a room

and just, wow you guys this movie is like phenomenal yeah and even like the and breathtaking yeah all of it and again it goes to an example of showing not telling was that

the majority of the movie she didn't she had her shrug on because she was scared of people seeing her nails scared of people seeing her scars or imperfections and by the end she not only doesn't have it on she's embracing it she's embracing it she's embracing just her natural, her shoulders, her natural hands, her arms.

And she just becomes the swan with, as you see, she literally transforms into a swan with her arms. And yeah, just, it was, it was haunting. It was a little disturbing, but it was also, like, beautiful in, like a messed up way. In a messed up way, because she has to kill herself to get rid of the old self. And that's the only way that she could find, like, perfection. that moment was actually like she had to just be like it's my turn and that was the and that's also her being in control of that yeah yeah wild I think the sign of a good movie is you can take a

subject matter that you aren't particularly either interested in or know nothing about and get you deeply engrossed in that because of the human element of that story agreed like I'm trying to go see black swan now right like i'm i'm gonna swan lake or whatever the hell it's i'm trying to go see a ballet now because i don't know shit about ballet but now i'm like yeah i'm interested this this shit's intense right and there's like there there's it's its own form of like poetry in a way like it's a physical embodiment of of a story you know it and yeah it's it's its own art in that way where they're stroking not with a brush or a pen but with their movements yeah and And each one of their movements brings out a different aspect of the personality.

Like she's playing both the white swan and the black swan. And they literally have different personality traits. But you see those different personality traits within that same person just based on the displays of how they move. The white swan is very controlled, very, very calculated where the black swan is very free and loose and maybe a little messy doesn't concern itself with how it's presenting. It just is just pure. organic, untamed, just, just a passion. Right. Reject Nation, I just want to take a quick second to thank today's sponsor because, as a business owner, I am surprisingly not the greatest at handling and tracking finances.

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Heck, it would even just help us out if you wanted to just click the link and poke around. Generous thing that you could do for us and for you. It's a win, win. Yeah. And the, like, the sultriness that she found and, like, especially towards the end, but also, like, she was, without us, like, fully recognizing it in the moment, she was isolated from the top without it being shoved in your face. Right. She's always sitting alone. She's always alone.

Like, she doesn't have, all the girls are clinging together in the hallways. They're talking. She doesn't have friends. And then Mila tries to, you know, befriended. her and does but it's all it's not because it's genuine it's because she does want to take her place yeah and that's tough and then her mom is so controlling that obviously her mom doesn't want her to have any friends and i also like we didn't get any of this juice luckily but like her mom putting on the music box and tucking her in and saying good night get it and her mom wants to live vicariously through her

because she gave up her ballet life for to have her daughter. So she's got some bitterness and resentment there. But the phrase that really bugged me was when Natalie was in bed and her mom goes, are you ready for me? And she just sort of,

Natalie just sort of like turns around and I'm like, are you ready for her to like tuck you in? Or is she going to do something weird? And that whole sweet girl thing and when she was in the thing with Milakunis having sex, and then it becomes, Milakunis uses the sweet girl phrase.

And then I started to think, ah, this is getting deeper. Yeah. Like, this is getting weird in a way that I'm glad they didn't show that to us. Yeah. But your imagination can go there because that one line, are you ready for me? I don't know what that means, Mom, and no, I'm not. I, like, I am absolutely not. And I'm glad all we saw was Natalie kind of roll over.

And maybe it just meant, I'm going to, turn on the music box for you and tuck you in. But the whole thing with the sweet girl language, it really, and then hearing Mila turn into her and then her mom and they're having sex and her saying sweet girl and those, the posters when she goes in that room, they're all like, sweet girl, sweet girl, sweet girl. It's like an obsession that's like taking over like her mom and her life.

And she doesn't let her go anywhere. And the lock is off the door. She used to put a pole. I'm like, there's something. Weird. Yeah, it's interesting because it's, you see this weird,

like parallels between her and her mom as well because her mom gave up her career and now it's putting that pressure on her daughter and her daughter is obsessed with dance and her mom is obsessed with her. And yeah, to the point where she doesn't want her to have any friends. She's drawing and painting pictures of her.

I still don't understand the, the sobbing aspect of her. a mourning thing like I'm mourning myself being able to live so I'm I'm putting all of this energy into my daughter so I'm I'm sad that I've lost my own sense of self so I'm putting all of my sense of self and energy into my daughter and she has to be perfect so that I can feel worthy but then also she didn't want her to dance right so I'm like okay it could be jealousy too because that was after she got the role after the case thing right so it could be now this this resentment this bitterness her and also she kind of

she was still timid at that time but maybe she was seeing a change like she was already losing her because she got the big role meaning when your daughter is getting a big role and getting a lead she's going to start to take over her life more rather than being in this spot where you can always control her and saying it's okay honey you can try for the lead next year you're perfect you know you're great she like has to talk her up and when she's getting in that lead role mom is going to start to lose control it's like it's like when you have any creative couple and one creative couple starts doing better than the one and you start to go I don't know if this is going to work you're you're away you're working on set you're a famous person now and I'm kind of not yet or

I'm not working as much and there's like a divide and I feel like that can bring a lot of grief and that's when that divide, I feel like, started to happen between mom and daughter. When she got that, they're celebrating the cake. She doesn't want to have it. And then it's all of that coming into that weird emotion of her painting her and just sobbing about it. Yeah. And it's, yeah. And again, going to the showing not telling, you see through the little we get to see of it,

the the fullness of their relationship through just the interactions that are solely about Nina and her her dance career. Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing a deeper exploration of her, her mom and her, and a deeper exploration of her in the world of dance, you know, because we don't know how long she's been doing this, how long she's been dancing, but you can tell. Probably her whole life, yeah. Yeah, but you can tell just based off.

of what her environment is like and then she's clearly been with that dance company for a while because there's certain things that they say that give that implication that she's known her coach for a while. A long time. Yeah, there's just layers there

and I think the sign of a good story is that you can tell that there was a world that existed here prior to us entering the story and I got a sense of that. Not only a world of this prior to enter the story but like So, like, there are events mentally that led up to her being at this point.

And you can tell that she wasn't a person that had a flip just one day. This is something that's been building, something that's been building prior to us entering the story. Right, probably from the second she was born because mom was like, if I have to birth you and give up my career, you're going to live the career that I always wanted, which is what is a true story. With a lot of moms have kids too young, they think, like, all have kids or maybe. Maybe it's an accidental whatever, and they shove all of their dreams onto the kid and it's so much pressure they don't even allow them to live their own life, which is obviously exactly what happened with her. There's no lock on the door and you don't have friends and it's only your mom there to

comfort you and talk you up. That's what a controlling relationship is. Yeah. And wow, oh, wow, did they display that in such a creative way without needing words? And the fact that, yeah, she was do stuff that, what does she say? Like, I'm not 12 anymore or something. But all the interactions still felt like she was a kid. Like she got her a whole cake and it's just the two of them.

And she started to get upset and flip it. And like that was just a small entry point into their relationship. Though I don't think that direct emotional switch came up again, like something that was that flippid. But we knew that she dealt with that probably forever. Oh, yeah. No, yeah. Because you feel that, that shame. and that that timid is coming from her

and her relationship with her mom. I feel like that's how she moves through life, but you can tell that's turned up around her mom and around her teacher. Yeah. Yeah, man. This movie is wild. And there's another point I wanted to make.

Oh, the fact that her mom is so controlling and she wanted to be so heavily involved in her life and know where she's at and what she's doing. And it's only when she starts feeling resistance. Her control starts from her wanting to be the best dancer, her wanting to be involved and influence her dance career. But once she starts resisting,

once she starts embracing those aspects of the Black Swan, it now just becomes about having control in general over her because that's the only ways that she feels safe. Yeah, because she's losing it. And it's like... She's losing her daughter. Absolutely. And her move with the cake is such a control move

because she knows that if somebody goes, fine, then, fine, I'll just, I'll just get rid of it. You know that the person is going to go, no, no, you don't have to do that, you psycho person. Like, chill. And so she, you know, I assume that from childhood to now her mom has always, she's fine. If you don't want me around, then I'll just leave. You can live here alone. Or fine, it's all of that to, because she knows that that's such a controlling response. And that, of course, Natalie's character is going to have.

to fight to get her mom's affection back probably for a while as like a little kid you don't even know how to deal with that because now she's a grown adult and sees her mom is like okay i know how to deal with it no i like the cake mom it's it's fine i'll have some of it and then her mom perks right up if you're five you're not going to know how to go i don't think i want that and you see your mom freak out like that which i guarantee you she did you're not going to know how to handle that which is you start biting your nails you start being better at ballet you're going to be a perfect little daughter so your mom stops freaking out because when you're a kid you're going to think well it's my fault how can i be better and that's where like that perfectionism kicks in from the top

from the second she's born yeah it's interesting and she sees her mom at the very end too what a what a kind of a relief from that control right before remember in the audience She goes and that's that last kind of long lingering look. And then she dives off and it's like, you can't touch me now. Yeah. And I think the thing that's also tragic is the fact that, you know, it leaves an ambiguous. Does she die? Does she continue on?

Exactly. And the fact that he calls her little princess at the end, just like Winona Ryder's character, is that sense of tragedy because she found freedom, but now she was seeking his approval the entire time, but now he has it, she finally has it. And now if she does live, I feel like she's going to be Winona Ryder now. Totally. Absolutely.

Especially with the Little Princess Line. We know it. Yeah, that she's going to be the one out of the hospital because she's worked all these years to be this. Winona Ryder's worked all these years to be this perfect person. And then she just tossed away because she's too old or too irrelevant.

Absolutely. I mean, she's got a tough life. waiting for her if she survives that which i think you you can obviously so i mean i i again i would love to see like this movie number two i know it won't happen i wish it would i would love to see a sequel i would love to see a prequel of mom's life right as a dancer and how she lost it having the baby and like how she raised her daughter alone and like i mean it's all there's so many ways this could go. I would just... I don't just even own a writer too. Me too.

Me too. I mean 10 out of 10 this movie is great, makes you think and it's just, it's brilliant. I mean, for me I'm like Darren, this is one of your best freaking films. I agree. I mean absolutely outstanding

how creative and the shots and the camera moves and the way they make us feel like uneasy when they're dancing and it's like motion. It's like I feel sick you know sometimes with the camera moves and you're supposed to um every part of it in looking at the shots and it having in the lighting and it being like spooky when it's in a lot of black and white aspects like the color theme the theme of it the way that it shot the lighting the shadows

like all of it is just bravo like i i don't i got nothing else to say except this is a top This is just top, top list, man. Yeah, top tier character movie. And, yeah, I think the sign of a good movie is, like, does it have rewatchability fact, which is show it to other people. And I can't say I show it to, I can show it to all my friends, but there's definitely some friends I would love to show this movie. Absolutely.

You're like, have you seen Black Swan yet? Because if you haven't, you need to watch it. Yeah. Like, because it's a, especially for movie people who are, like, if you can, I don't even think it needs to be movie people, but if, if there's a. person that doesn't love movies they might not get all the like metaphors and the the the underlying juice here but overall like wow what a film i'm like i feel like everybody needs to watch this yeah yeah yeah i appreciate you guys for watching this with us and going on this journey with us

thank you guys you guys are awesome we love you like leave a like on this please like leave a comment i know we didn't get to trivia but like you tell us the trivia juice that you know or let us know much you enjoyed it. Also, don't forget, you got to get T-shirts like us, Rejectnation Shop.com. Oh, I forgot to even stay at the top. If you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify, you can rate us highly. Maybe they can pull that into the edit at the beginning. I was shook at the ending of this that I didn't remember. I was like, I'm speechless. It's a phenomenal movie. We appreciate you guys sticking with us. Spread hugs, love, and laughter. We love you so much. And we will see you on the next one.

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