20 non-traditional Christmas movies to watch this year

18. Black Swan

Watch if: You wish The Nutcracker had more of an edge.

What it’s about: Nina (Natalie Portman), a fragile but talented ballerina, is cast as the lead in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The harder she practices and the more she inhabits the character of the evil Black Swan, the closer she gets to a mental breakdown.

Connection to Christmas: Slight, but it’s there. Christmas isn’t mentioned but string lights, decorations, and pine trees are present in the background. And, thanks to the aforementioned Nutcracker, ballet always has a bit of an association with the holidays.

Why it makes for good holiday entertainment: The treacly feel-goodery of Christmas movies and TV can become cloying after a while. Black Swan is many things but feel-good isn’t one of them — which can be quite refreshing this time of year.

The pressure Nina feels keeps building and building as the film progresses. Her diminutive body takes a beating and she loses weight. Nina’s mother (Barbara Hershey) is manipulative and smothering. Her director (Vincent Cassel) is a bully willing to do anything, including sexual harassment, to coax a good performance from his dancers. And new company member Lily (Mila Kunis) seems to be the more natural fit for the Black Swan role, which infuriates and arouses Nina in equal measure. Worst of all, because she is cracking up, Nina can’t be sure of what is real and what is not.

Suffice to say, Black Swan is rife with tension and anxiety — as many of us are this time of year. Right now a lot of us are worrying about how, exactly, all the presents will get wrapped or all the food prepared. So, witnessing Nina’s descent into madness can feel a whole lot more cathartic than watching Tiny Tim squeak, “God bless us, everyone,” for the umpteenth time.