Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue has long haunted those lists with titles like “the most lynchian films not directed by David Lynch.” And knowing it also served as a key inspiration for Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), a film I hold sacred; I wasn’t the least bit surprised by the sheer brilliance radiating from every frame What did surprise me though, was how close I came to walking out. Not from boredom; far from it. I was on the edge of a panic attack. I’ve endured plenty of mind-warping films before, but on that week that I went to watch this, my mental stability had reached an all-time low. Things had crescendoed just days earlier when I called an ambulance on myself while enduring a 12-hour stretch of back-to-back panic attacks. Thus, I spent the first forty-ish minutes repeating an internal mantra to myself: "this is just a movie, this is just a movie" Fortunately, my nerves eventually settled, and I was able to finish the rest of the film rather breezily, despite its intense psychological nature. I’m grateful to have had the rare chance to catch this legendary film in a theatrical setting, even with the added mental challenge of the dark room and loud audio system, which most definitely helped speed up my heartbeat