Once a year, at least, I get suckered in by the hype and  reviews of a 'prestige' movie and it happened with "The Black Swan."
Take a little of "The Red Shoes" throw in some "All About Eve" , use Tchaikovsky's score for the Swan Lake ballet, have a mother living her failed dreams through her daughter and don't forget the cliche dialogue you hear in all backstage pictures and you almost have "The Black Swan."
Let's add a lesbian scene, a masturbation scene, some self cutting and/or scratching, bloody fingers and bloody toes, a killing and top it all off with is it really happening or all in her mind?
Natalie Portman is givng a performance that Oscar voters love as the psychotic ballerina and she does get credit for learning the dance moves and looking like a dancer. As her rival? Lover? Friend? Mila Kunis gives a self assured performance while Barbara Hershey is really scary as Natalie's mother. Winona Ryder has what amounts to a walk on role. The male lead, Vincent Cassel, is the ballet Master who is a walking cliche.
The director, Darren Aronosky, doesn't clarify the screenplay by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin and only confuses thing using a hand held camera.
On a personal  note I cannot watch "Swan Lake" without hearing Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl" doing her version of the ballet and asking, in her Fanny Brice accent, "How can you shoot the swans? Those lovelies."