Review of mother! (2017) by Adam P — 20 Sep 2017

When Cole first saw Mother!, he texted me, as is his wont. I hadn't seen it yet, so he immediately asked if he could join me. Knowing Cole's distaste for bad movies, I knew he must've liked it. For the first 2/3rds of Mother!, I sat wondering what in the world Cole saw in this slow and opaquely weird style-trip. Then the final act hit, and I experienced 30 minutes of the most head-pounding insanity I've ever seen, the result of which not only overshadowed the previous 90 minutes, but shed life-giving light into it.

I knew nothing of Mother! beforehand. I knew Aronofsky's heady filmography, and saw the darkly trippy trailers, but the story details were hidden, which was part of the fun. I will say only this: Lawrence and Bardem play a sequestered couple whose lives are disrupted by some mysterious guests. From there, things get...strange. Jumping between the quiet meticulousness of Kubrick and the eye-widening peculiarity of Lynch, it's a movie-lovers utopia. Even when I was hating it, I was perplexingly intrigued, before becoming completely enrapt with adoration.

With Get Out, It Comes at Night, Split, and now Mother!, this has certainly been the year of unconventional horror. However, where most of these have a fairly broad reach, Mother! won't even come close to being for everyone. If you don't want your brain power, belief systems or general comfort violently disturbed, stay away. However, if you're looking for an utterly unique, sporadically violent allegory that will take up residence in your head for days, it's an absolute don't miss. Among the best of 2017.