It's Not Swan Lake.

Not quite the 'Dario Argento on crack' movie that Mark Kermode described it as - but an intense cinematic tour-de-force all the same. Completely off the rails for a mainstream Oscar nominated picture. It's operatic, fantastical and  perverse but always emotionally compelling. Aronofsky delivers on his early promise. Natalie Portman comes of age and Vincent Cassel is as watchable as always. A film full of strange and dark alchemy.

Babylon Attention Deficit

A disappointment from beginning to end. It's another outing for Vin Diesel, the man who can do no right. Michelle Yeoh adds some martial arts credibility. Melanie Thierry looks weird. Gerard Depardieu and Charlotte Rampling have been blackmailed into cameos.

Something seems to be missing all the way through and there is nothing here that you haven't seen done better elsewhere. It plays like a cut-price version of The Transporter with a bit of The Fifth Element and Serenity thrown in. There's a dull post-apocalyptic backdrop, no memorable set pieces, no jaw dropping action, no eye-popping SFX and nobody to care about.

It's also one of those films that seems to entirely cruise on people saying "come on", "let's go", "look lady", "Cross me. You die." etc. Don't go looking for pithy one-liners or quotable dialogue here.