After months of waiting, I finally had the opportunity to see Black Swan starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. The trailer was just enough of a tease to give you a taste for the film, but not enough to give away the whole movie. The costumes done by Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, the movement and art of ballet dancing, and the direction of the film were mesmerizing. It was downright thrilling in the sense that it was constantly tantalizing the audience and made to push our boundaries and test our comfort zones.

Before actually watching the film, I had read a number of interviews from Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis regarding their controversial sex scene and the grueling ballet training, which had lead to both the actress’s 20-pound weight loss each. I’m still debating if whether or not reading those articles affected my reaction to the film or not. I do have to address that while there were parts of this film that did make me uncomfortable, not including them would have harmed the overall atmosphere of the film.

Does Natalie deserve her nominations for this film? There is no doubt. I was surprised by both the performances given by Natalie and Mila because I simply have never seen them in roles quite like this one especially from Mila. Natalie was bold, daring, graceful, and exquisite. Mila playing the role of Lily was the ever-so-popular indie pixie dream girl, therefore you simply loved her. You weren’t given a choice about that.

When I left the film, I was unable to make the immediate decision of categorizing Black Swan as a good or bad film. It was neither. It is one of those films that cannot be given a label. In my eyes, it was disturbingly artistic and sometimes too much for me to handle. That doesn’t mean that I was borderline considering an early exit, in fact, I was challenged by it. At the very end of the night, I ran my friend Nick who had recently watched the film as well. When discussing it, he had told me that he loved it. Typically after watching films, to decide whether he liked it or not,  he’ll ask himself if he could have thought of a better ending to it. “I couldn’t. It was perfect,” and we left it at that.

This movie is not for everyone, but you’ll know whether or not you want to watch the film after you’ve seen the trailer.