‘Swan’ dive

The Wrestler’s bold and critically acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky turned his gritty, 16mm lens on that profession’s high brow, though equally as combative counterpart, ballet, in his Oscar-nominated psychological thriller Black Swan, new in stores this Friday. Natalie Portman stars as a perfectionist ballerina obsessed with becoming earning the lead role in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. But after earning the title of the Swan Queen and the affections of her taskmaster director, played by a stringent Vincent Cassel, a younger, more free-spirited dancer played by Mila Kunis joins the troupe and challenges Portman for the part. As the relationship between Portman and Kunis takes a dark turn, cracks form in Portman’s psyche and she looses her grip on reality as the most important performance of her life approaches. Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder co-star. Rated R.