Our critics' selections

Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky's over-the-top ballet-world psycho-thriller stars Natalie Portman as a freshly anointed prima ballerina struggling with her role and the anxieties that come with it. It's crazy, it's scary, it's intense. The most audacious movie of the year, barre none.

R

Waste Land World-renowned artist Vik Muniz heads to the world's largest landfill - a mountainscape of trash outside Rio de Janeiro - to "paint" portraits of the garbage pickers, and to collaborate with them. An inspiring, insightful documentary about human resilience and the power of art. Recently short-listed for Oscar consideration. No MPAA rating

White Material Isabelle Huppert plays the owner of a coffee plantation in Africa trying to hold her business and her family together as the country implodes in civil war. A sad, haunting meditation on post-colonial Africa from the brilliant Claire Denis, whose debut feature, 1988's Chocolat, was based on her experience growing up in a French colony. No MPAA rating