“I just want to be perfect.”
Join Ian & Megs for our 308th episode as we step into the mirror-lined, razor-edged, emotionally fraught world of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). Lace up your shoes, crack your knuckles, and prepare to descend into obsession, duality, and tutu-level trauma.
This week we discuss:
- Natalie Portman’s extraordinary, Oscar-winning transformation — fragile ingénue, ruthless perfectionist, and fractured psyche in one.
- Mila Kunis as the effortless chaos to Nina’s claustrophobic control — real threat or manifested paranoia?
- Aronofsky’s visual language: reflections, doubles, textures, and body horror. How does he trap the audience inside Nina’s deteriorating mind?
- The film’s depiction of artistic pressure and perfectionism — when does ambition turn pathological?
- What other film could we not stop referencing whilst watching this film
- Megs questions the ballet accuracy (and the wildly inaccurate bits) — including the culture, the training, and the psychological toll
- Ian asks if the film does a good enough job educating the audience about ballet to make the film accessible
- We talk about how Black Swan functions as a companion piece to The Wrestler — obsession as both craft and self-destruction.
- The boundaries between reality and hallucination — when does the film stop being literal? Or was it metaphor all along?
- We examine the film’s treatment of sexuality, identity, and agency through the lens of duality: White Swan vs. Black Swan, innocence vs. corruption, submission vs. liberation.
- The final performance — triumphant, tragic, transcendent? We unpack the film’s unforgettable ending.
- And finally, whether Black Swan is the Best Film Ever — or simply one of the most hypnotic psychological thrillers of the 21st century.
Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at https://www.patreon.com/BFE.
We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support:
- Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM
- Hermes Auslander
- James DeGuzman
- Synthia
- Shai Bergerfroind
- Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most
- Andy Dickson
- Chris Pedersen
- Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)
- Randal Silva
- Nate The Great
- Rev Bruce
- Cheezy (with a fish on a bike)
- Richard
- Ryan Kuketz
- Dirk Diggler
- Stew from the Stew World Order podcast
- NorfolkDomus
- John Humphrey's Right Foot
- Timmy Tim Tim
- Aashrey
- Paul Komoroski
Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.
Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor
Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/
