Black Swan -v- Toy Story 3

With only a handful of films to see until the end of the year, it is highly unlikely that anything will come close to matching my two favourite films of the year: Toy Story 3 and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.

Without prejudicing the outcome of the Golden Stans, it is clear that those two films are head and shoulders above the rest – I gave both 10 out of 10. So, how on earth am I going to decide which is the best film of the year?

A colleague suggested the following scenario to isolate the winner:
• If you had to watch one of the two every day for the rest of your life, which would it be? In effect, which one would stand up to be repeated viewing?
He also suggested the following scenario to isolate the loser:
• Which one could you live with never seeing again?

Black Swan’s body horror elements would count against it for repeated viewing (I really don’t need to see Natalie Portman removing a toe nail in gory detail ever again), but the sheer depth of intelligence and craft infused in all aspects of the film’s creation and execution mean repeated viewing would always provide fresh insight.

Although, thinking about it, Black Swan takes you so deep into a fractured mind that repeated viewing would mean the viewer’s own psyche would begin to ape that of Natalie Portman’s ballerina… And that’s not healthy!

Toy Story 3 would, I believe, repay repeated viewing, what with the Pixar boys and girls embedding so many gags and character insights deep within the virtual sets. Certainly, there’s more humour in TS3 than Black Swan, which would make watching it every day for the rest of my life less of an endurance test than watching Black Swan. But where the ballet chiller has body horror and shocks that can be hard to stomach, TS3 actually ties my entire body, stomach included, in knots: the emotional weight pulls you under; could I really watch the toys going to the incinerator again, even though I know the outcome?
And, frankly, if compelled to watch TS3 every day, I’d need a companion to hug me afterwards and dry my tears, each and every time.

So that still leaves the two films at honours even…

Both are equally brave. TS3 could so easily killed off the franchise: it has the courage of its convictions, reminding us early on how hideously cruel life can be and how that cruelty can come from unexpected quarters, whether intentionally or not. It looks like a kids film, but really it’s a film for adults, especially those no longer in the first flush of youth; it’s a countdown to retirement, it places the heroes and the audience in death’s waiting room.

Aronofsky, The Wrestler having just reignited his career after the perceived epic failure of The Fountain, flirted with career suicide again by opting for Black Swan as his next project. A chiller about a neurotic ballerina, with strong lesbian overtones, body horror scenes, and quite possibly the most disturbed mother since Norman Bates’s does not, on the face of it, sound like a critics’ darling – and yet that is precisely what it has become. The film could so easily have collapsed under its own weight, yet the thoroughness of Aronofsky’s approach elevates the film beyond its source material’s potential for shlock treatment.

Although, if you want disturbed, what about the monkey in TS3? Now that is shocking!

Ultimately, both TS3 and Black Swan follow the line that great art should challenge the audience rather than comfort them.

If Black Swan has a problem, it’s that it is a trifle one-sided: as interesting as the other characters are (and as good as the actors are who play them), its focus is entirely on Natalie Portman’s uptight, fucked up ballerina. In contrast, TS3 benefits from a fully fleshed-out cast of a dozen or more…

Where does this leave me? I just don’t know, I still can’t decide. The Golden Stans will be announced on 31 December, so I’d better get my skates on…