ARONOFSKY'S TWIN TRAGEDIES

Natalie Portman in Black Swan (2010)

by Andy Nowicki

Darren Aronofsky's remarkable 2010 movie Black Swan functions as an aesthetic companion piece to his equally striking 2008 offering, The Wrestler. The two films take place in settings that could not possibly be more different, yet each tells essentially the same story, a story that is undeniably relevant to our age and culture.

ANTEDILUVIAN FANCIES: DARREN ARONOFSKY'S "NOAH"

"It's gonna rain..." Noah (Russell Crowe) guards the Ark against raiders.

by Andy Nowicki

As audacious, ambitious, heterodoxically-conceived Biblical epics go, Darren Aronofsky’s new movie Noah somewhat recalls The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese’s 1988 adaptation of the controversial Nikos Kazantzakis novel.

Both films were subjected to a pre-release drubbing by conservative Christian groups, who in each case complained of disrespect for Scripture and overall theological untenability (though the deluge of condemnation rained down upon Temptation—which featured a doubt-plagued and carnally-tormented Jesus—easily drowns out the contemporary Noah imbroglio, a fact which I daresay ought to demonstrate to right-wing pagan critics that Christianity, far from being a radically “egalitarian” monstrosity, is hardly without its hierarchy of heroes).