Aronofsky's "mother!" (Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem)

[Matt Mortem]

I haven't seen mother! yet but I have read the spoilers on it and it looks like the reason audiences hate it is because this is a bait and switch with a hefty dose of pretentious garnish. People go in expecting a horror-ish movie, come out wondering what the hell it was they just saw instead.

Given the subject matter buried under the layer of allegory I am both surprised and yet not surprised it failed to find an audience. The people who went all out over [blackout]The Passion of the Christ[/blackout] must like their movies to be more blatant than this apparently because it would otherwise be right up their alley I would think.

Having never seen the aforementioned blackout tagged movie and never intending to, I don't know how it and mother! compare in similarity besides the tone and allegory burying setting.

Difference between the movie you mentioned and mother has to do with "accuracy" for lack of a better word. The audience that came out for the Passion are the types that take their scripture literally. Mother is anything but a literally adaptation.

 

[killface]

Difference between the movie you mentioned and mother has to do with "accuracy" for lack of a better word. The audience that came out for the Passion are the types that take their scripture literally. Mother is anything but a literally adaptation.

completely unrelated but dude, where'd you get your gif from?

totally looking forward to mother! by the way, i've read the bad reviews but aronofsky films are always interesting at the very least. The Wrestler's in my top 10 all time movies list. (there, i feel better for making my post on topic)

 

[Matt Mortem]

completely unrelated but dude, where'd you get your gif from?

totally looking forward to mother! by the way, i've read the bad reviews but aronofsky films are always interesting at the very least. The Wrestler's in my top 10 all time movies list. (there, i feel better for making my post on topic)

It's from the upcoming Del Toro movie The Shape of Water

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

I just read the synopsis spoilers and all and I definitely think pretentious is the word to use and at some point it gets amazingly heavy handed with it.

 

[Teelie]

I thought I should add I do want to see this movie, just not in the theater. Some movies are better in the theater and some are better where you can sit down and watch it without an audience at your own pace.

It's ambitious but it also sounds like a potentially uncomfortable movie to sit and watch with a few hundred other people.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Pretentious and heavy handed aren't necessarily the same thing.

Pretentious to me is putting your own work on a pedestal when it's lame or puting a topic on a pedastal when it doesn't warrant serious attention.

 

[Octoberist]

I like the ambition and craziness, but I don't know if I like the actual film itself. Regardless, it made me and my friends talk about it, even days afterwards. So it does resonate.

But I don't think Darren fully capture what was intended. I 'get it' but that's not enough.

I don't know and my opinion doesn't mater. In 5 years time, we'll have a think piece about how we should like 'mother!' more.

 

[Octoberist]

There was a scene where J'Law's had a slab of paint that made me think of delicious gelato. Yes, I wanted to eat the paint!

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Just back from my second screening in two days (Things I do for my friends and of course, La Pfeiff). Yeah, I can certainly appreciate the film on a technical level and admire the performances, but the main problem for me is that there is just no story here. The characters are simply clothes horses for Aronofsky's general ideas about life, love, the arts, etc.

Unlike yesterday, about five people walked out after the half-way mark, before things even got crazy (Guess it was just too boring - the ultimate sin). I'm glad Pfeiffer made this movie and not every gamble will work out.

I'll buy it on Blu-Ray for Pfeiffer, but its not something I'll want to revisit (outside of her scenes).

 

[Primal Slayer]

I just got back from seeing it with friends and it was certainly interesting to say the least. I am glad I read comments on the film because the advertising was 100% misleading.

While I didn't straight up hate the movie I didn't enjoy it at the same time. It was just there for me. The film did stir up conversation among my friends with trying to figure out the meaning behind it. One saw it as a kind of metaphor for America and immigrants to a certain extent.

After reading more into the meaning behind the film I can see it a bit clearer and may have to rewatch it in the future sometime.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

https://***********/scottderrickson/status/909482844879183872

Scott Derickson
@scottderickson

In my experience, good criticism exists precisely to help illuminate the meaning and quality of a film.

https://***********/ErikDavis/status/909459181220110336

Erik Davis
@ErikDavis

Completely disagree. It's the movies you want to research & read about & understand in different ways that go on to become classics

https://***********/Sethrogen/status/909486509698379777

Seth Rogen
@Sethrogen

Or you just didn't get it.

https://***********/Chris_Stuckmann/status/909475179834769408

Chris Stuckmann
@Chris_Stuckmann

I'm sure filmmakers who started their career because of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Donnie Darko and Mulholland Drive would disagree.

^^ All of these tweets are in response to this one by THR

https://***********/THR/status/909419007089840128

Hollywood Reporter
@THR

"If you need to Google search the meaning of movie when you get home, it was a failure.”

 

[Darepool]

Derickson has one of the best twitter feeds going. He elevates that site.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

"If you have to google the theme the movie fails"

VS

"The movie was too heavy handed"

Pick one critics.

 

[DACrowe]

Real critics mostly appreciated (if not loved) mother! This is industry spin by a trade reinforcing their rationalizations for making stupid movies.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

What is a real critic? t:

 

[conan69]

it is because this is a bait and switch with a hefty dose of pretentious garnish

Yet people use this same logic to say why they adore David Lynchs work.

 

[DACrowe]

What is a real critic? t:

Touché. But how about someone who writes, thinks, and commentates about film professionally versus one who carries industry spin and gossip, and connections as their primary trade?

 

[Closerframe]

Anyone else think Wiig's character is...

Spoiler

Gabriel

 

[redhawk23]

Any thoughts on the mother's yellow medicine?

 

[Closerframe]

Any thoughts on the mother's yellow medicine?

I've heard theories that range between faith and sunshine.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Touché. But how about someone who writes, thinks, and commentates about film professionally versus one who carries industry spin and gossip, and connections as their primary trade?

I can agree with this.

 

[guitarsingerguy]

Any thoughts on the mother's yellow medicine?

I actually read a suggestion that it might be a reference to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper". The story is about a young woman driven slowly mad due to the submission insisted upon her by her husband. IDK...it's as interesting a theory as anything else I've heard about it, but if she's essentially mother Earth, sunshine makes alot of sense.

 

[redhawk23]

I've seen the yellow wallpaper theory, and while the film overall does have some thematic connections to that story, I don't see much about the medicine connecting to that besides it literally being yellow.

The medicine definitely seems to be suppressing something, almost like migraines, her reality gets shakey and she is hyper sensitive to noise.

She stops taking it [BLACKOUT]when she becomes pregnant[/BLACKOUT]

[BLACKOUT]after the baby's death those symptoms start coming back though as the chaos rages around her.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[guitarsingerguy]

A critic genuinely called this the "worst movie of the century." Give me a break... Even if you dislike the film, it is FAR from the worst movie of the century. Could you be any more dramatic?

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah, it's definitely not worse than The Last Knight or Dawn of Justice