{"id":5210,"date":"2018-12-29T11:36:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-29T16:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5210"},"modified":"2022-10-25T16:19:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T20:19:37","slug":"darren-aronofsky-mother-2017-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/darren-aronofsky-mother-2017-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!” earns its exclamation point"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Darren Aronofsky’s mother!<\/em> is an allegory so undisguised that it barely qualifies as one. It’s more like a cinematic smoothie: blend one (1) King James Bible, the Big Bang \/ Big Crunch Wikipedia article, a heavy splash of Lars Von Trier-esque literal-as-metaphorical torture of a beautiful woman, season to taste with climate change science, and suffer through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A male filmmaker portraying a male artist as god, simultaneously elevating and exploiting the woman that supports him is, in a word, problematic. When I couldn’t willfully look past those misogynistic aspects, it brought to mind the risible Lady in the Water<\/a><\/em>. At least the circumstances aren’t so grim that there’s room for a little comedy, as in portraying Adam and Eve (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer) as the worst houseguests ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But… but… but<\/em>. Wow. Just, wow<\/em>. I fully respect and understand many of the negative reviews, but I have to admit I found its punk rock spirit flat-out astonishing. What audacity to make something so deliberately confrontational, rude even. I quite literally watched most of the film with my jaw hanging open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If nothing else, you can’t deny mother!<\/em> earned its exclamation point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stray Observations:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n