Only pretentious, white male filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky can get away with making pretentious and vile nonsense like ‘mother!’ and critics call it ‘art.’
Spoilers.
The film, on the surface looks like a happy couple whose home is invaded by obnoxious strangers. The characters are Him (Bardem), Mother (Lawrence) and Man and Woman (Harris and Pfeiffer). The Man and Woman have two sons. Do you see a biblical metaphor? It kind of hits you over the head and, unfortunately, doesn’t really stop.
The back end of the film is nothing but horror and violence. It’s supposed to make sense in that metaphorical way, but we live here and we know, so there is nothing to see that is worth seeing. Also: watching Jennifer Lawrence play one passive victim after another is kind of depressing. Mother Nature isn’t passive. She isn’t a victim. This film is a white man’s expression of pathological misogyny (God or ‘Him’ is just an entitled asshole).
Don’t waste your money. Also: deep sensory overload, deeply disturbing images of body horror and what amounts to torture porn. It is not being billed as a ‘horror’ film, it’s almost being billed a dark comedy, but it isn’t. There’s nothing funny or moving here. Trigger warnings include the murder and eating of a newborn by a crowd.
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I wrote earlier about Ali Smith’s novel, Like – this features a character – a writer – that has had a major breakdown and implies all she has done, post-breakdown. It is tasteful, thoughtful and insightful about the inner life of a damaged, creative person. It hints at ambition and ego and a love forsaken. Smith’s work is art that others can connect to (and won’t be reviled by).
Aronofsky’s presentation of a damaged ‘person’ is so over-the-top as to be out of touch with basic humanity. It’s a white man’s 30 million dollar wank.
[Barry Jenkin’s beautiful film Moonlight had a budget of 1.5 million and not an ounce of pretentious ‘art’ in sight.]