If any traces of doubt still existed about Darren Aronofsky's status as a certifiably insane individual, Mother! will undoubtedly erase them. The seventh film from the whacked-out filmmaker that has brought unsettling, psychologically-draining films like Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream into the world is a deranged, artsy nightmare that offers up ambition, lunacy and narrative incoherence in equal measures.
To say that Mother! is a difficult film to comprehend would be one hell of an understatement. Trying to decipher the message Aronofsky is conveying here is like trying to read a dense novel that's written in a language that you don't speak or understand. There are little things to latch onto here and there (especially during the bonkers climax), but attempting to put together all of the mismatching, allegorical puzzle pieces that are dropped during this two-hour stay in a secluded house of horrors is an exercise in futility that generates an endless string of questions with nothing that even resembles a logical answer. I already feel bad for the poor film analysis students that are going to be forced to try and make sense of this convoluted spectacle of unhinged arthouse filmmaking a few years down the line.
Mother! is too scattershot, pretentious and baffling for me to recommend yet too unique, strange and well-acted (Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer are the standouts in the impressive ensemble cast) to completely condemn. It's essentially a "make your own adventure film" for philosophy buffs that is designed to generate a strong visceral reaction and be discussed/debated for an extended period of time after viewing. I commend Aronofsky for continuing to have the balls to make films that go to such great lengths to challenge their audience, but for the first time since 2006's The Fountain, the master of mindfuckery failed to parlay his endless supply of envelope-pushing creativity into an unshakeable piece of art.
To say that Mother! is a difficult film to comprehend would be one hell of an understatement. Trying to decipher the message Aronofsky is conveying here is like trying to read a dense novel that's written in a language that you don't speak or understand. There are little things to latch onto here and there (especially during the bonkers climax), but attempting to put together all of the mismatching, allegorical puzzle pieces that are dropped during this two-hour stay in a secluded house of horrors is an exercise in futility that generates an endless string of questions with nothing that even resembles a logical answer. I already feel bad for the poor film analysis students that are going to be forced to try and make sense of this convoluted spectacle of unhinged arthouse filmmaking a few years down the line.
Mother! is too scattershot, pretentious and baffling for me to recommend yet too unique, strange and well-acted (Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer are the standouts in the impressive ensemble cast) to completely condemn. It's essentially a "make your own adventure film" for philosophy buffs that is designed to generate a strong visceral reaction and be discussed/debated for an extended period of time after viewing. I commend Aronofsky for continuing to have the balls to make films that go to such great lengths to challenge their audience, but for the first time since 2006's The Fountain, the master of mindfuckery failed to parlay his endless supply of envelope-pushing creativity into an unshakeable piece of art.
2.5/5 Stars
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