Review of mother! (2017) by Wayne K — 07 Dec 2017
I've long been a fan of Darren Aronofsky and his boundary-pushing cinematic ventures, and mother! was certainly an experience. He never just makes 'another movie', instead striving to gives his audience something big to digest, that is if they can keep their food down long enough.
Jennifer Lawrence displays remarkable bravery in taking the title role, much like Maria Bello did in Downloading Nancy, and delivers a gutsy performance that sees her transforming from meek and mild to wild and vengeful.
A biblical allegory which details the destruction of the Earth by callous humans, the film begins feeling more like a passive-aggressive home invasion movie, with Ed Harris & Michelle Pfeiffer posing as 2 of the rudest, most unwelcome house guests in history, but things soon get much worse.
The final half hour, where everything goes quite literally to Hell, is some of the most disturbing and uncomfortable yet strangely compelling cinema you could ever witness. It was far too much for many people and I completely understand that, but for me the disturbing content always fit the narrative and had a genuine reason for being.
Requiem For A Dream was much the same, with moments you couldn't look at but were never quite able to tear your eyes away from. Here he just takes things a little further, and I admire that in a filmmaker: The willingness to go that extra mile.
The worst thing this film could have been was mundane, but thankfully it was anything but. It appalled the masses, but many, included myself, saw real merit in it, and I think it's been unfairly vilified.
If you have the stomach for it, see it and judge for yourself.
This review of mother! (2017) was written by Wayne K on 07 Dec 2017.
mother! has generally received positive reviews.
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