Black Swan (2010)

This very dark, slightly psychotic rendition of the inside world of professional ballet is part art, part thriller.
Natalie Portman plays Nina, a ballerina with an unnamed New York City ballet company striving to become a soloist. She is fragile beyond belief and entirely believable in the role. Nina is handicapped in her efforts to grow up on so many levels. She lives with her mother (played pitch perfect by Barbara Hershey)--who is not just a stage mother, but also a former ballerina herself. She colludes with Nina in the whole anorexia nervosa, occasional self-induced vomiting, calorie obsession issues common to all of dance, but she also infantalizes and encourages Nina to remain child-like. She winds up her music box ballerina to play 'Swan Lake' each night.
The artistic director of a fictional New York ballet company, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), is another piece of work. There are moments where it appears you have to sleep with him to get the starring role, and others where he just seems like a cross between sexual harrassment and scary stalker material. His intensity winds up Nina's already problematic anxiety, and doesn't wind down her perfectionism.
As Nina strives to get in tough with her bad girl side in order to play the darker side of the 'Swan Lake' twin roles, she loses more of a grasp on herself, spiraling into self-mutilation and psychosis. Yes, she nails the black swan role, but no one feels good about it in the end.
I have seen 8 of the 10 films that were nominated for Best Picture in 2010, and this is definitely in the bottom half. Portman is amazing, but that is where it begins and ends.