"Fancy Footwork: 'Black Swan' and 'Love and Other Drugs'" by David Denby

Denby begins his review by looking at the movie Black Swan.  He emphasizes heartily that he believes most of the movie is overdone and is too obsessed with tension and horror movie-esque mutilation that has been all too present in Arronofsky's other movies, "The Wrestler" and "Requiem for a Dream."  Arronofsky is stuck on artists' destruction of themselves and their bodies in order to achieve art.  Though Denby sees a lot of the movie as "ridiculous," he acknowledges that the scenes of dancing are often quite graceful and beautiful. 

       

In his look at Love and Other Drugs, Denby seems to see Hathaway as the standout of the movie in that her acting takes a cliche role to a realistic level.  He thinks that the sex scenes in the movie are honest and intimate, and that Hathaway and Gyllenhaal really work as a couple--delivering something that he hasn't seen in many movies.