7. Black Swan (2010)
It's Incredibly Similar To...Perfect Blue (2000) Darren Aronofsky's
Black Swan was the second movie in his "sports trilogy," one that started with The Wrestler and will end with nothing, because I've just made up that concept right now. Basically the movie was written as an excuse to have Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis kiss and have sex with one another. Despite the fact that this movie appears to be wholly original, though (those actresses had never kissed on screen before), it resembles a Japanese anime called
Perfect Blue in lots of bizarre way. Man, Americans loving ripping off the Japanese. If you've seen
Black Swan, you'll know that it's a movie about ballet.
Perfect Blue isn't about ballet, but it is incredibly similar in its tone, premise and execution - it just happens to be able a pop star instead. The beats of the story are bizarrely coincidental, and by coincidental, I mean that Aronofsky has obviously copied them: a girl gets pressured a lot, starts seeing doubles or herself, maybe she dies in the end. It doesn't end there.
Perfect Blue even has scenes that are framed in exactly the same way. So why haven't we got a lawsuit on our hands here, people? Well, in an strange turn of events that will likely blow your mind eight ways from Sunday, Darren Aronofsky owns the rights to
Perfect Blue. Almost as if he planned on ripping it off this movie on purpose and secured the rights with all his millions of dollars as a way of ensuring he got away with it? So, will, like, Aronofsky be forced to sue
himself, only to find that he's wrestling with his own double in a dark, broody drama about the nature of obsession? just got crazy.