SO BEHIND! 10/13: mother!

Well, let's just say I had a busy weekend, and I've fallen two reviews behind. I'm a terrible human. Get outta here with those judgements. I need my space. Back off me bro!

10/13

Today's film was Darren Aronofsky's controversial horror-ish film, mother! Well... where to start with this movie? Maybe I should start with the fact that I don't know how this film was quite so controversial, but I guess I had a bit of a head start on that as someone told me the entire plot of the movie awhile back. Luckily I forgot most of what they said, but I did remember the big allegory that this film is meant to be. This probably was the biggest assist in watching this movie as it put everything through a more accurate lens.

mother!, at least on the surface, is centered around a woman (Jennifer Lawrence) who lives with her husband (Javier Bardem) in an isolated home out in the country. She is working on restoring the home from a fire that ravaged it while her husband, a poet, struggles with writers block. Eventually their idyllic but seemingly purposeless life is shaken up by the arrival of gradually more people who begin to wreck the house without any regard for decency. The wife continually asks them to leave and becomes increasingly frustrated as her husband seems to condone, and even accept, their behavior. Ultimately, all this is just a backdrop for the larger allegory of the film: Mother Earth's struggle against the worst aspects of humanity (Aronofsky states this as war, hate, inconsiderateness, religion, zealotry, and more) and God's seeming acceptance and even love for them despite their behavior. 

I suppose where the hate mother! received originated from was if you went in watching it not knowing or understanding the metaphor you would be completely lost. The bizarre nature of the movie all makes sense when you understand all the biblical references and commentary throughout the film (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer as Adam and Eve, for example), but without that knowledge the movie would seem to be nothing more than illogical mess. 

With that said, I think this where mother! is weakest: it exists only as allegory. I look at film like, say, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, for example. A new retelling of The Odyssey, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? doesn't exist just as allegory. It's a film on it's own, and an incredible film at that, that doesn't require knowledge of The Odyssey to understand the film. Sure, knowing the general gist helps understand the finer points, but the movie is it's own thing, enjoyable on it's own and standing up on it's own. mother! does not and only exists as allegory. I think, because of that, it's only a watchable film if you understand the deeper meaning; it doesn't work at all aside from that. 

Knowing that, I still can't say even two days later whether or not I liked mother! It's a (mostly) smart film and is certainly an absolutely original piece of cinematic art. It's not really a film, but more that: a moving picture art piece. It has deep things to say and even if I don't agree with the near wholly negative outlook the movie takes I recognize the importance of the warning in the message. As this is a horror binge I should probably touch on the horror elements of mother! as well, although I'm not sure if this is a horror movie. Sure, it has classic horror elements, but really the scariest part of the film is the idea that people would invade your house without your consent and not leave. When this first happened in the film it was deeply unsettling and I actually found myself wanting a movie about that, without the allegory. This idea of frustration horror (as I'm dubbing it) is genuinely horrifying and, all the deep metaphor aside, I wanted a movie about that. 

I feel like this is less of a review than a discussion as I'm still trying to make sense of my feelings about mother! It's a though-provoking film, but beyond solving the allegory there's not much more to dissect. My numbered rating here reflects that conflicted feeling; it's definitely like few other movies I've watched. 

6/10