With Darren Aronofksy’s new film, Mother!, hitting Australian cinemas later this week, what better time to cast our minds back to one of Aronofsky’s best pieces of work. That’s Black Swan we’re talking about, folks. It’s the film that made Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Swan Lake, a lot more intense than it actually is. It’s also the film that send you mad with worry about pulling skin out of the side of your fingernails. It’s also the film that won Natalie Portman an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

While we’re at it, why don’t we cast our minds back to another film that wasn’t made by Darren Aronsfky; Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash. You like that film, don’t you? You’ve thought about the similarities between it and Black Swan before, haven’t you? No? The folks at YouTube channel Lessons From A Screenplay have. They’ve come at it from a screenplay-ish angle, which is something that you might have been able to guess from the name of their channel. They’ve even put their thoughts down in one of the better video essays that we’ve come across in a while.

Because what’s it all about if it isn’t about video essays? You get our drift? You’re catching on pretty quick. If you love film then video essays are certainly something that you should at least look into. These are the sort of videos that offer insight into the medium of film that might never have occurred to us.