When it comes to mother!, I honestly don't even know where to start.
This is a good thing.
Darren Aronofsky has made a film that simply defies description. If I tried to accurately break down the film's entire plot, you would probably call me crazy. The characters don't have names, the title features a lowercase letter and an exclamation point, and the whole thing is almost entirely set in one location.
And it's an extended metaphor for religion.
Or is it about fan culture?
Wait, is Aronofsky making an elaborate commentary on the evils of modern society?
Well, maybe the answer is all of the above.
mother! is the kind of movie that will be discussed and debated for years. It is so rich with symbolism, so intricately woven with a variety of potential meanings, and so formally audacious that I feel entirely comfortable in saying that I haven't even scratched the surface of its infinite complexities. It's also a messy, unruly kind of horror film- Aronofsky said that the script was written rather quickly, and that shows in some ways.
But when you're talking about a film as truly, genuinely unique as mother!, a little messiness isn't such a bad thing. This is a madman working at the top of his game, pushing all of the buttons in the lab, creating something that feels like a slice of utter madness. To say that mother! is the most insane film I have ever seen sounds like gross hyperbole, but it isn't an exaggeration- this movie is positively nuts. After two acts of impressive, compelling slow burn drama, Aronofsky decides to detonate a cinematic bomb that will send your jaw to the floor.
The result is something that cannot be compared to other films, nor does it show any sign of clear directorial influences- this is pure Aronofsky from start to finish. While I haven't seen some of the filmmaker's major achievements (Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan being the most prominent), his work hasn't always clicked for me before. Noah and The Fountain stimulated my mind in some ways, while also leaving me confused and maybe even a little disappointed. mother! is the first time that everything came together in perfect harmony- the daring filmmaking, the emphasis on religion, the truly wild visuals. This is arthouse horror at its finest, and frankly, it's a gift that will just keep giving- mother! is going to be hanging around in my brain for a very long time.
This is a tricky review to write, simply because I'm attempting to toe the line between review and analysis. That being said, it is impossible to discuss mother! without going into spoilers. So yeah, this review is going to dive right into my theories on just what the hell this thing is about. mother! opens with the evocative image of a woman on fire, followed by Javier Bardem placing a stone on a mantle. Suddenly, a house that was once dead comes to life, and a woman played by Jennifer Lawrence wakes up in bed. Over the next few scenes, we learn a little bit about the two of them. She's a sort of angelic beauty, painting the house, redecorating and making it feel fresh again. Also the house is alive, by the way. It has a heart and everything. On the other hand, he's an acclaimed poet, an artistic creator who is beloved around the world and also stuck in a bit of a creative rut.
Their peaceful life is interrupted by the arrival of Ed Harris, a stranger looking for a place to stay. Lawrence is skeptical, but Bardem's poet is welcoming, embracing this new man as a source of creative inspiration. Soon after the man's arrival, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives, further increasing Lawrence's concerns. Things get worse when they accidentally break the precious stone that Bardem holds dear, after being strictly told many times not to touch it (ahem). And then, everything gets truly messed up when the couple's two sons (Brian and Domhnall Gleeson) show up at the house, fighting and beating on each other until one of them dies. As chaos begins to reign in the beautiful mansion, the woman who has tried to make everything peaceful and perfect begins to slowly lose her mind, resulting in a finale that is nothing shy of apocalyptic.
Alright, so let's begin to peel back the layers of this outrageous masterwork. mother! is first and foremost a film about God, and its story acts as a parallel to the story of creation. Bardem is God, Lawrence is either Mary or Mother Nature, Harris and Pfeiffer are Adam and Eve, the Gleesons are Cain and Abel, the stone is the Apple, the house is either the Garden of Eden or Earth, and so on. This is all rather rudimentary symbolism, rendered more complex only by the overlapping metaphors that Aronofsky creates. From what I can tell, mother! chronicles the history of Earth, but only one cycle of its existence, as God is forced repeat its creation over and over because humanity is doomed to fail. Humanity will turn to cults and violence, it will rip the heart out of Mother Nature and turn the purity into blackness, and because of his arrogance, God will keep repeating this process until the end of time.
This is heady stuff for what has been advertised as a weird, unsettling psychological thriller. But trust me, the material supports these arguments. In one of the scenes towards the climax of the film, Bardem's character describes how happy it makes him that everyone is able to take something different from his poem. That's one of the few moments in the film where it feels like Aronofsky is talking directly to the audience, encouraging them to look beyond the surface and create their own meaning. And in doing so, he has made a film that is deliberately open for interpretation. I'm pretty sure that the religion stuff is in the basic text of the cinematic language, but where you go from there is entirely up to you. As critic Angie J. Han said on Twitter yesterday, everyone seems to think they know what it's about, but everyone thinks something completely different.
So what's my interpretation? Well, I think many of the varying opinions are compatible- there's validity to most of the theories out there. There's a strange, but incredibly fascinating equivalence that Aronofsky makes between creators and God himself. In his mind, men create art in an attempt to play God. Whether that art is poetry, film, music, or so on, it's all done in an attempt to replicate the powers of the ultimate creator. But mother! is not just about crazy fans or power-hungry artists. There's something deeper going on here, something that exists within the depths of its hallucinatory craziness that goes beyond an anti-fan metaphor. I refuse to see that as the only argument that Aronofsky is making here- the religious subtext is too entrenched in the film's approach for it to be ignored as just a basic framework.
However, the most challenging part of analyzing mother! is reconciling the fact that there's a very loose connection between the first two acts and the bonkers finale. Harris and Pfeiffer are gone by the time the true insanity rolls around, and it feels to me like Aronofksy couldn't quite make these conflicting narratives mesh in a way that worked from a storytelling perspective. But if you look at it from a symbolic perspective, I think there's one way to really make it work- the first two acts of the film are the Old Testament, the finale is the New Testament. I say this mainly because the third act concerns the birth of Lawrence's child, and later, the child's murder by a group of adoring supporters. This is very clearly a metaphor for the Son of God, and it almost feels like Aronofsky has told the story of an angry, vengeful Mary, tired of the humanity that has wrecked the perfection she created.
So the symbolism is there. But what does it all mean? What is Aronofsky trying to say? Why tell this Biblical story now?
We think of people being awful as a modern phenomenon. We discuss things in terms of "Oh, what has this world come to?" But if you look at the history of man, going all the way back to the origins in Genesis, humanity has been terrible since Adam and Eve took that first bite of the apple. Original sin doomed us all, and no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to escape the inherent evil of the human race. mother! is a story as old as time itself, but it feels particularly potent in a society that many feel has lost its sense of decency. There's a lot of anger, and if you watch the news for too long, you'll probably lose your mind. By framing this story through the lens of an allegorical horror film, Aronofsky is able to comment on a variety of topics- global warming (the Mother Nature cues are there for a reason), the demands of fans, the unruly nature of creation, the mistreatment of women in society- while also scaring the hell out of you.
But ultimately, this insane little horror flick is about the futility of humanity itself, and the arrogance of God to love his adoring creations despite their most destructive tendencies. There are two sides to this thematic coin, but I think the story is much more interesting if you view Mother Nature as the victim in the relationship with God. Essentially, humans will never be good. Their curiosity and their abundance of reverence to their God has no bounds. But eventually, it will always devolve into fighting, into factions, into wars and conflicts that destroy Mother Nature and the peaceful world that we call home. And God will go along with it. Because he doesn't want his fans to go. He wants the worship, the adoration, the loving cries and the imperfection of his creations. Just like humanity, he will take from Mother Nature until there is nothing left, and he will start over again in the hopes that something will change the next time around. The humanity of today is no different than the humanity of yesterday or the humanity of tomorrow. Its evil, its greed, its selfishness dates back to the beginning and will never change no matter how many times God may try.
I could be wrong. But the fact that I was able to get all of this out of the film is an indication that this is an uncompromising, astonishing masterpiece. And not only is it a film of rich thematic qualities- mother! is an outstanding work of cinematic force and composition. Aronofksy and Lawrence are currently in a relationship, and that's very clear from the way that the director shoots this film. He is completely obsessed with his star's beauty, and his camera captures almost the entire film in close-ups that focus on Lawrence's perspective. Lawrence is front and center for every scene, and the camera moves rhythmically along with her. If things are calm, Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique keep the handheld camerawork steady (this was shot on 16 mm film). But when things get crazy, the camera swirls and swoops, spinning around Lawrence and intentionally disorienting the viewer. Aronofsky gets truly wild at times, and it's so much fun to see a filmmaker liberated from any constraints that would normally limit their vision.
If Aronofsky's sheer force of will is the reason for the film's triumphant success, then Lawrence's blunt physicality has to run a close second. The Oscar-winning actress has been better in other films, but never has she thrown herself into a role quite like this. Lawrence doesn't hesitate for a second, jumping right into the disturbing world that Aronofsky has created. She perfectly encompasses her character's paranoia and horror, throwing in an appropriate amount of empathy to make her descent into the madness that much scarier. Lawrence is the star here, and while Bardem's egotistical craziness and Harris' almost childlike earnestness are impressive in their own right, Michelle Pfeiffer's delectably acidic character is the only one who comes close to matching the lead performance. She's perhaps the film's best chance at Oscar glory, even if I'm pretty certain that the Academy is going to collectively give mother! a big middle finger.
Beyond the acting and the vision, mother! is a film of limitless feeling. And not the good kind. No, I'm talking sheer terror and fright. It is deeply claustrophobic, set in one very memorable location that distinctly sets the stage for all of the action. mother! certainly isn't limited by its single setting- in fact, Aronofsky has no problem using it to his advantage when the film requires as much. The film is a thrilling kind of surrealist nightmare, operating in a psycho-religious realm that few directors would even think about touching. I'm not even going to attempt to put the insanity of the third act in words, because I believe that it just can't be done. But it's one of the few times that I've ever looked at a movie screen in disbelief, shocked by the power of the images I was seeing. mother! doesn't resemble anything you've ever seen before. It strikes a deeply unsettling chord and stays there, trapping you and holding you in its grasp until the title cards roll. That is something that few films are able to do, and even fewer with the mastery that Aronofksy consistently displays.
With mother!, a director known for pushing audiences to their limits has created a kind of cinematic Rorschach test. Take from it what you will, but just know that it is going to mess with your head. mother! will hit you like a freight train and leave you speechless, blowing your mind as you stumble out of the theater and try to comprehend what you just saw. It's not a film that you simply watch- it's one that you experience, a full-body nightmare that will shake you to your core. And because of this, I can't help but think that we've seen something truly monumental.
mother! won't be for everyone- after all, we learned earlier today that it just received the prestigious "F" CinemaScore. But for those willing to embark on one of the most stunning trips you'll ever have in a movie theater, run and see this thing while you still can. mother! is shock filmmaking of the most incredible kind, and a masterwork that I will never forget. Even in its slowest moments, mother! is the kind of film that makes you lean forward, hoping to uncover its endless mysteries. For that reason alone, it's incredible. But the fact that it's one of the boldest pieces of directorial wizardry in recent memory makes it a certifiable work of pure genius.
THE FINAL GRADE: A (9.5/10)
Images: IMDB
This is a good thing.
Darren Aronofsky has made a film that simply defies description. If I tried to accurately break down the film's entire plot, you would probably call me crazy. The characters don't have names, the title features a lowercase letter and an exclamation point, and the whole thing is almost entirely set in one location.
And it's an extended metaphor for religion.
Or is it about fan culture?
Wait, is Aronofsky making an elaborate commentary on the evils of modern society?
Well, maybe the answer is all of the above.
mother! is the kind of movie that will be discussed and debated for years. It is so rich with symbolism, so intricately woven with a variety of potential meanings, and so formally audacious that I feel entirely comfortable in saying that I haven't even scratched the surface of its infinite complexities. It's also a messy, unruly kind of horror film- Aronofsky said that the script was written rather quickly, and that shows in some ways.
But when you're talking about a film as truly, genuinely unique as mother!, a little messiness isn't such a bad thing. This is a madman working at the top of his game, pushing all of the buttons in the lab, creating something that feels like a slice of utter madness. To say that mother! is the most insane film I have ever seen sounds like gross hyperbole, but it isn't an exaggeration- this movie is positively nuts. After two acts of impressive, compelling slow burn drama, Aronofsky decides to detonate a cinematic bomb that will send your jaw to the floor.
The result is something that cannot be compared to other films, nor does it show any sign of clear directorial influences- this is pure Aronofsky from start to finish. While I haven't seen some of the filmmaker's major achievements (Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan being the most prominent), his work hasn't always clicked for me before. Noah and The Fountain stimulated my mind in some ways, while also leaving me confused and maybe even a little disappointed. mother! is the first time that everything came together in perfect harmony- the daring filmmaking, the emphasis on religion, the truly wild visuals. This is arthouse horror at its finest, and frankly, it's a gift that will just keep giving- mother! is going to be hanging around in my brain for a very long time.
This is a tricky review to write, simply because I'm attempting to toe the line between review and analysis. That being said, it is impossible to discuss mother! without going into spoilers. So yeah, this review is going to dive right into my theories on just what the hell this thing is about. mother! opens with the evocative image of a woman on fire, followed by Javier Bardem placing a stone on a mantle. Suddenly, a house that was once dead comes to life, and a woman played by Jennifer Lawrence wakes up in bed. Over the next few scenes, we learn a little bit about the two of them. She's a sort of angelic beauty, painting the house, redecorating and making it feel fresh again. Also the house is alive, by the way. It has a heart and everything. On the other hand, he's an acclaimed poet, an artistic creator who is beloved around the world and also stuck in a bit of a creative rut.
Their peaceful life is interrupted by the arrival of Ed Harris, a stranger looking for a place to stay. Lawrence is skeptical, but Bardem's poet is welcoming, embracing this new man as a source of creative inspiration. Soon after the man's arrival, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives, further increasing Lawrence's concerns. Things get worse when they accidentally break the precious stone that Bardem holds dear, after being strictly told many times not to touch it (ahem). And then, everything gets truly messed up when the couple's two sons (Brian and Domhnall Gleeson) show up at the house, fighting and beating on each other until one of them dies. As chaos begins to reign in the beautiful mansion, the woman who has tried to make everything peaceful and perfect begins to slowly lose her mind, resulting in a finale that is nothing shy of apocalyptic.
Alright, so let's begin to peel back the layers of this outrageous masterwork. mother! is first and foremost a film about God, and its story acts as a parallel to the story of creation. Bardem is God, Lawrence is either Mary or Mother Nature, Harris and Pfeiffer are Adam and Eve, the Gleesons are Cain and Abel, the stone is the Apple, the house is either the Garden of Eden or Earth, and so on. This is all rather rudimentary symbolism, rendered more complex only by the overlapping metaphors that Aronofsky creates. From what I can tell, mother! chronicles the history of Earth, but only one cycle of its existence, as God is forced repeat its creation over and over because humanity is doomed to fail. Humanity will turn to cults and violence, it will rip the heart out of Mother Nature and turn the purity into blackness, and because of his arrogance, God will keep repeating this process until the end of time.
This is heady stuff for what has been advertised as a weird, unsettling psychological thriller. But trust me, the material supports these arguments. In one of the scenes towards the climax of the film, Bardem's character describes how happy it makes him that everyone is able to take something different from his poem. That's one of the few moments in the film where it feels like Aronofsky is talking directly to the audience, encouraging them to look beyond the surface and create their own meaning. And in doing so, he has made a film that is deliberately open for interpretation. I'm pretty sure that the religion stuff is in the basic text of the cinematic language, but where you go from there is entirely up to you. As critic Angie J. Han said on Twitter yesterday, everyone seems to think they know what it's about, but everyone thinks something completely different.
So what's my interpretation? Well, I think many of the varying opinions are compatible- there's validity to most of the theories out there. There's a strange, but incredibly fascinating equivalence that Aronofsky makes between creators and God himself. In his mind, men create art in an attempt to play God. Whether that art is poetry, film, music, or so on, it's all done in an attempt to replicate the powers of the ultimate creator. But mother! is not just about crazy fans or power-hungry artists. There's something deeper going on here, something that exists within the depths of its hallucinatory craziness that goes beyond an anti-fan metaphor. I refuse to see that as the only argument that Aronofsky is making here- the religious subtext is too entrenched in the film's approach for it to be ignored as just a basic framework.
However, the most challenging part of analyzing mother! is reconciling the fact that there's a very loose connection between the first two acts and the bonkers finale. Harris and Pfeiffer are gone by the time the true insanity rolls around, and it feels to me like Aronofksy couldn't quite make these conflicting narratives mesh in a way that worked from a storytelling perspective. But if you look at it from a symbolic perspective, I think there's one way to really make it work- the first two acts of the film are the Old Testament, the finale is the New Testament. I say this mainly because the third act concerns the birth of Lawrence's child, and later, the child's murder by a group of adoring supporters. This is very clearly a metaphor for the Son of God, and it almost feels like Aronofsky has told the story of an angry, vengeful Mary, tired of the humanity that has wrecked the perfection she created.
So the symbolism is there. But what does it all mean? What is Aronofsky trying to say? Why tell this Biblical story now?
We think of people being awful as a modern phenomenon. We discuss things in terms of "Oh, what has this world come to?" But if you look at the history of man, going all the way back to the origins in Genesis, humanity has been terrible since Adam and Eve took that first bite of the apple. Original sin doomed us all, and no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to escape the inherent evil of the human race. mother! is a story as old as time itself, but it feels particularly potent in a society that many feel has lost its sense of decency. There's a lot of anger, and if you watch the news for too long, you'll probably lose your mind. By framing this story through the lens of an allegorical horror film, Aronofsky is able to comment on a variety of topics- global warming (the Mother Nature cues are there for a reason), the demands of fans, the unruly nature of creation, the mistreatment of women in society- while also scaring the hell out of you.
But ultimately, this insane little horror flick is about the futility of humanity itself, and the arrogance of God to love his adoring creations despite their most destructive tendencies. There are two sides to this thematic coin, but I think the story is much more interesting if you view Mother Nature as the victim in the relationship with God. Essentially, humans will never be good. Their curiosity and their abundance of reverence to their God has no bounds. But eventually, it will always devolve into fighting, into factions, into wars and conflicts that destroy Mother Nature and the peaceful world that we call home. And God will go along with it. Because he doesn't want his fans to go. He wants the worship, the adoration, the loving cries and the imperfection of his creations. Just like humanity, he will take from Mother Nature until there is nothing left, and he will start over again in the hopes that something will change the next time around. The humanity of today is no different than the humanity of yesterday or the humanity of tomorrow. Its evil, its greed, its selfishness dates back to the beginning and will never change no matter how many times God may try.
I could be wrong. But the fact that I was able to get all of this out of the film is an indication that this is an uncompromising, astonishing masterpiece. And not only is it a film of rich thematic qualities- mother! is an outstanding work of cinematic force and composition. Aronofksy and Lawrence are currently in a relationship, and that's very clear from the way that the director shoots this film. He is completely obsessed with his star's beauty, and his camera captures almost the entire film in close-ups that focus on Lawrence's perspective. Lawrence is front and center for every scene, and the camera moves rhythmically along with her. If things are calm, Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique keep the handheld camerawork steady (this was shot on 16 mm film). But when things get crazy, the camera swirls and swoops, spinning around Lawrence and intentionally disorienting the viewer. Aronofsky gets truly wild at times, and it's so much fun to see a filmmaker liberated from any constraints that would normally limit their vision.
If Aronofsky's sheer force of will is the reason for the film's triumphant success, then Lawrence's blunt physicality has to run a close second. The Oscar-winning actress has been better in other films, but never has she thrown herself into a role quite like this. Lawrence doesn't hesitate for a second, jumping right into the disturbing world that Aronofsky has created. She perfectly encompasses her character's paranoia and horror, throwing in an appropriate amount of empathy to make her descent into the madness that much scarier. Lawrence is the star here, and while Bardem's egotistical craziness and Harris' almost childlike earnestness are impressive in their own right, Michelle Pfeiffer's delectably acidic character is the only one who comes close to matching the lead performance. She's perhaps the film's best chance at Oscar glory, even if I'm pretty certain that the Academy is going to collectively give mother! a big middle finger.
Beyond the acting and the vision, mother! is a film of limitless feeling. And not the good kind. No, I'm talking sheer terror and fright. It is deeply claustrophobic, set in one very memorable location that distinctly sets the stage for all of the action. mother! certainly isn't limited by its single setting- in fact, Aronofsky has no problem using it to his advantage when the film requires as much. The film is a thrilling kind of surrealist nightmare, operating in a psycho-religious realm that few directors would even think about touching. I'm not even going to attempt to put the insanity of the third act in words, because I believe that it just can't be done. But it's one of the few times that I've ever looked at a movie screen in disbelief, shocked by the power of the images I was seeing. mother! doesn't resemble anything you've ever seen before. It strikes a deeply unsettling chord and stays there, trapping you and holding you in its grasp until the title cards roll. That is something that few films are able to do, and even fewer with the mastery that Aronofksy consistently displays.
With mother!, a director known for pushing audiences to their limits has created a kind of cinematic Rorschach test. Take from it what you will, but just know that it is going to mess with your head. mother! will hit you like a freight train and leave you speechless, blowing your mind as you stumble out of the theater and try to comprehend what you just saw. It's not a film that you simply watch- it's one that you experience, a full-body nightmare that will shake you to your core. And because of this, I can't help but think that we've seen something truly monumental.
mother! won't be for everyone- after all, we learned earlier today that it just received the prestigious "F" CinemaScore. But for those willing to embark on one of the most stunning trips you'll ever have in a movie theater, run and see this thing while you still can. mother! is shock filmmaking of the most incredible kind, and a masterwork that I will never forget. Even in its slowest moments, mother! is the kind of film that makes you lean forward, hoping to uncover its endless mysteries. For that reason alone, it's incredible. But the fact that it's one of the boldest pieces of directorial wizardry in recent memory makes it a certifiable work of pure genius.
THE FINAL GRADE: A (9.5/10)
Images: IMDB
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