31. Black Swan (2010)

Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 masterpiece Black Swan is nothing if not memorable. I’ll genuinely never forget my theater experience seeing this when it was released. A group of my friends decided to head out for a fun Friday night at the movies after hearing the early buzz around the film. My theater was about 3/4 full, but by the end of the movie maybe only half of us were left. You could frequently hear people audibly reacting to some of the more shocking elements of the film, and pretty much no one had any idea what the fuck we just saw. It’s confusing, open to a ton of interpretation, and just downright uncomfortable to watch. The performance from Natalie Portman in particular is one of the best of the decade, and easily the best of her career. Her haunting last refrain of “I was perfect” is something that just doesn’t leave you, even years after you’ve seen it. This was my first experience with surrealist filmmaking and a decade later it still holds up as one of the more captivating films in recent memory.