Darren Aronofsky's Mother! (Trailer) starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem

[IVS]

DAMNNNN HE CALLED YOU A PHILISTINE

Spoiler

Whats a philistine?

It means your a Palestinean or a P\Ph\Falistine.

 

[HamAndEgger]

So I saw this over the weekend.... where do I begin...?

Spoiler

So I thought from the trailer I was walking into a horror film, only to be given a metaphor about God / Mother Earth / and its inhabitants who are ruining it. Half way through I literally saw people leaving the theater. The trailer TOTALLY misleads anyone who thinks they're going to see a "Horror" film. What you REALLY get is an ambiguous metaphor about God and Mother Earth that you inevitably have to sit and think about when the movie's over with. It sorta reminds me of how they promoted "It Comes At Night". I don't even know if this was a good movie or not after knowing the overall premise . I'd recommend waiting for Screener copy.

 

[Grifter]

I get all the allegorical attempts in this movie (Harris and Pfeiffer = Adam and Eve, their fighting sons = Cain and Abel; Lawrence's love for Bardem is reflected in the house etc.) but that doesn't change the fact that this movie was an obnoxiously incoherent mess full of bad performances from usually good actors and a director being so self-indulgent that he gave zero fukks about making a movie that was entertaining on any level.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/darren-aronofsky-mother.html

After that, Aronofsky moved the project into an unusual rehearsal process. “It was three months with Jen and Javier,” he recalls. “We got a warehouse in Brooklyn and taped out the set and for three months rehearsed it and then actually shot the entire movie on video with our operator and our DP. No lighting, though; it was just to get movement. Even though there were no walls and no staircases, we were able to get a sense of movement and camera movement, and learn from that.”

During those rehearsals, he was particularly focused on Lawrence, who provides Mother!’s incendiary core. “I think there were a lot of things that the script asked that I have never seen her do, so I was trying to figure out how we were going to get there,” he says. “And during the rehearsals, she was very, very relaxed. She was present, but never really pushed herself. It wasn’t appropriate for me to push that, even though I wasn’t sure how she was going to do it. And I really didn’t get to know the character until we started shooting, and she showed up.”

 

[Makavalli]

Spoiler

I think it's worth noting that bibically, there will be a new heaven and a new earth once this world is destroyed. I think the ending of the film captures that cynical cycle of creation, destruction, and creation.

But on another note, while I find the bible/god/earth/humanity allegories interesting, I found myself much more compelled by the allegory of the tortured artist using his life experience as fodder for his work. In 2017, we have celebrities letting fans inside every moment of their lives. In fact that was the interpretation I took in the quickest, and the one that continues to resonate with me. That is what makes the film feel so personal.

Through social media, and reality tv, and tabloids, and TMZ, we have direct access to artists and people of fame. And it's instant access. Showing up at their house before they even know it. The privacy of a great artist is no longer sacred, in fact the transparency of sharing themselves with the fans and merging their work with their private life, creating a brand, has become more important than the art that they create. So not only do I want your book or movie or album, I want to see video and photos of your wedding, your children, your home. You have a secret closet housing something that is only for your eyes? Nope, I want that too. I want your darkest secrets, I want your sex tapes and nude photos, I want your shame and humiliation. I want your heart and soul.

I'm reminded of Beyonce's most critically praised album being the one where she shares being cheated on, and Jay-z in return creating his "most personal" album filled to the brim with secrets and revelations of his private life.

After directing depressing and personal films like The Wrestler, Black Swan, and Requiem, Darren has arrived at a place of pessimism, where fans expect more, more, more, and to please them he has to truly rip everything personal and private out of him to present to them. And I feel it's that way for many (male) writers.

They don't live life.

They don't appreciate moments.

They scour through life looking for moments they can strip for parts to make something greater.

They can experience one of the happiest moments of their life, the birth of a child, or the most mind blowing lovemaking ever, or a intimate conversation, or a belly full of laughter with friends, or a beautiful sunset while on vacation, but instead of enjoying it, they have to run off to write down their thoughts because the moment inspired them rather than fulfilled them.

And it leads to them alienating family, often their wives, builder of their homes, mothers of their children, who wonder why they aren't enough to make them happy, why they would rather lock themselves in a room for days on end rather than have breakfast with them, enjoy a nice dinner, or fukk them.

Why is the admiration of strangers more important than the admiration of the one you chose to build a life with?

Why must you take the happiness and love and pain of our home, and curate it to create your magnum opus?

Why is it so important for you to give the public our lives, the pain and joy of it all, for them to consume? Literal public consumption of everything that you value.

Usually, a Darren film is from the POV of the artist, or the entertainer who destroys themselves in order to give that great work or performance. But this time, it's from the POV of the women that love and build with those creators and entertainers, who then become destroyed by their lovers obsession and ambition to create and please strangers. The men willing to sacrifice their homes for the artistry.

It's a devastating portrait. And ugly and cynical but I can't say that it doesn't often ring true.

Ok after reading this i can better process wtf i just saw and u are spot on. Homie was staring at his wife waiting for her to slip for a second so he could show off his newborn. Shyt makes me want to disconnect from social media even more

 

[KingBeez]

This was another solid movie by Aronofsky. Highly metaphorical/allegorical, and keeps your attention throughout. Jennifer Lawrence's performance was so-so to me, especially since I went into this movie cold, but now since I connected the dots, and read up on it, I like her performance better

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

 

[prophecypro]

Aronofsky has been on this tip for a minute in terms of the allegory of the film having a couple of obvious theme like Noah. If you've read some of the interests he has in his personal life it makes sense if not also shows a bit of self delousions of grandeur.
People will try and make this a cult classic especially college cinephiles.

 

[up in here]

So I saw this over the weekend.... where do I begin...?

Spoiler

So I thought from the trailer I was walking into a horror film, only to be given a metaphor about God / Mother Earth / and its inhabitants who are ruining it. Half way through I literally saw people leaving the theater. The trailer TOTALLY misleads anyone who thinks they're going to see a "Horror" film. What you REALLY get is an ambiguous metaphor about God and Mother Earth that you inevitably have to sit and think about when the movie's over with. It sorta reminds me of how they promoted "It Comes At Night". I don't even know if this was a good movie or not after knowing the overall premise . I'd recommend waiting for Screener copy.

Wait, is this shyt even scary cause if not I'm skippin it

 

[Deep_Black_Conscious]

Should have fukking watched IT instead

 

[TrueEpic08]

Short review:

mother! was good, quite good in fact. Though if you're not into two hours of Arnofosky taking a monk's flail to himself, this isn't your movie.

Yes, the themes are simple and forward, but a. they intersect in quite interesting ways (the least interesting and forward, actually, being the one that Aronofsky been crowing about in interviews for the past month and the most interesting and most blatant being the one he never really brings up) and b. forward and blatant is not a problem. It's actually much, much harder and the mark of a great director (like, canonically great director) to be able to take something that can be written on a napkin and make a thoughtful, engaging, and interesting movie around it (seriously, look at the filmographies of your favorite directors. There's often not a lot of thematic subtlety to be found). In other words, subtlety is overrated. So are three-dimensional characters.

Cinematography is excellent and, along with the fantastic sound design, the key to why this film works. Keeping the movements of the camera keyed to Lawrence's point of view was a great choice and makes it so that we feel her sense of panic, claustrophobia, and despair as everything deteriorates around her throughout the film.

The last 20 minutes is overstuffed as hell and really needed some editing, though. This should've been about 10 minutes shorter, at least.

With that said, the more I think about it the more I like it. Not for instant gratification types at all or people who think film isn't supposed to make them uncomfortable about anything (the real reason why this is getting such poor reviews in some places).

 

[King Crimson]

I really wish I could get a spoiler free review of the movie that would give me an idea of what I was in for. I get that maybe that's part of the point, but based on the trailer I thought I was in for a regular haunted house horror movie... I guess not... I guess I'm going to have to just come up off that 15 bucks and see it.

 

[The_Hillsta]

Man is this shyt a David Lynch type movie? Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive

If so then

The trailer looked like it would be a dope thriller, but if its just a bunch of random fukkery with no explantion, I'm good.

 

[OmegaK2099]

Man is this shyt a David Lynch type movie? Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive

If so then

The trailer looked like it would be a dope thriller, but if its just a bunch of random fukkery with no explantion, I'm good.

Its fukkery no explanation if you haven't read the thread

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Short review:

mother! was good, quite good in fact. Though if you're not into two hours of Arnofosky taking a monk's flail to himself, this isn't your movie.

Yes, the themes are simple and forward, but a. they intersect in quite interesting ways (the least interesting and forward, actually, being the one that Aronofsky been crowing about in interviews for the past month and the most interesting and most blatant being the one he never really brings up) and b. forward and blatant is not a problem. It's actually much, much harder and the mark of a great director (like, canonically great director) to be able to take something that can be written on a napkin and make a thoughtful, engaging, and interesting movie around it (seriously, look at the filmographies of your favorite directors. There's often not a lot of thematic subtlety to be found). In other words, subtlety is overrated. So are three-dimensional characters.

Cinematography is excellent and, along with the fantastic sound design, the key to why this film works. Keeping the movements of the camera keyed to Lawrence's point of view was a great choice and makes it so that we feel her sense of panic, claustrophobia, and despair as everything deteriorates around her throughout the film.

The last 20 minutes is overstuffed as hell and really needed some editing, though. This should've been about 10 minutes shorter, at least.

With that said, the more I think about it the more I like it. Not for instant gratification types at all or people who think film isn't supposed to make them uncomfortable about anything (the real reason why this is getting such poor reviews in some places).

Wait, what?

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

Shut turned into a house rave party!