Black Swan is an amazing movie. Tragic, well-acted, beautifully shot. Director Darren Aronofsky is always successful in making cinema that haunts me. I was a 12th grader when I first saw Requiem for a Dream. When the movie ended, I went to bed. There was nothing I could do afterward; it shook me to my core.  The rawness of drug addiction, broken childhoods and loneliness was too much for my immature 17-year-old spirit.

Then, 2 years ago, I dragged myself to my local indie theater and saw The Wrestler. Afterward, I drove home and went to bed. At 25, I wasn’t ready for the grittiness of Randy the Ram’s world. The idea that your dreams may not come true and that you could indeed grow old still waiting to make a mark was captured in a way that felt real. Too real.

I think that’s what I love the best about Aronofsky. He manages to showcase multi-dimensional characters trapped in situations that seem much too real. The young friends who fall victim to drug abuse, poverty and horrid childhoods. The perfectionist ballerina who unravels because of her own self-doubt. The old weary wrestler willing to sacrifice his life for one last shot. The possibility of these people and their situations coexisting in my world, in reality, makes every character study Aronofsky brings to life more haunting and effective than any film released by his peers.