The audience at my screening was laughing at the end. I think they were expecting a horror movie, not a trippy creation myth with a couple of jump scares. I heard a lot of muttering coming out.
I had an okay time. I kind of wish it had gone more extreme. There are a few gross and brutal moments, but I never felt really uncomfortable. Kind of how I remember Black Swan being. I was mainly impressed at the crowded kaleidoscopic sequences where it felt like every cut was adding something new.
― jmm, Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:34 (six years ago) link
I liked Noah.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:36 (six years ago) link
jmm your experience was very close to mine. I liked the movie and admired its moxie but didn't love it
otoh having seen it, I find this take bizarre
Let's not pander to Aronofsky with the 'But what does it all mean?!' articles. I've got an interpretation: Aronofsky is a vile misogynist— Another Gaze (@anothergaze) September 16, 2017
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:38 (six years ago) link
choice quote from audience member on the way out: "I was expecting a normal movie, not...that"
also, this has joined the CinemaScore "F" club along with Solaris, the Box and a few others. They'd make a good poll, actually.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:41 (six years ago) link
at a minimum, from the AO Scott review it seems like this will actively upset a large number of 'plexgoers, plus a nutty Polanski rip can't be all bad.
(I think I know too much already tho)
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:43 (six years ago) link
oh also that excellent CinemaScore result
ordinary fuckin' people, I hate em
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:44 (six years ago) link
it's incredible to me that William Friedkin's Bug is also on that very short list cause I thought of it a couple of times during my screening
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:48 (six years ago) link
I don't expect to ever see it so I spoiled myself on the plot/ending. In terms of that aspect alone and realizing film is not text: sounds pretty fucking boring.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:49 (six years ago) link
also, this has joined the CinemaScore "F" club along with Solaris, the Box and a few others
aw man i love both of those movies
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:52 (six years ago) link
It is many things but "boring" is not in contention. xp
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:52 (six years ago) link
Whatever floats yer boat.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:54 (six years ago) link
read the spoilers and this sounds like the Hugh Jackman one with the floating crystal and monkeys
― 龜, Saturday, 16 September 2017 17:01 (six years ago) link
It weds the gonzo intensity of Black Swan with the grandiosity of The Fountain and (some of) the wanton cruelty of Requiem for a Dream.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 17:10 (six years ago) link
― 龜, Saturday, September 16, 2017 5:01 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I hated The Fountain but this was good. Definitely more Black Swan than that one. Feverish, intense and anxiety-inducing.
― The Marmadook (latebloomer), Saturday, 16 September 2017 17:21 (six years ago) link
Especially if you hate crowds
― The Marmadook (latebloomer), Saturday, 16 September 2017 17:24 (six years ago) link
This, more so than the 60-80% on RT bar mentioned upthread, is what truly gets my interest piqued.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 20:22 (six years ago) link
Visually, sonically, & psychologically, this movie was very compelling. The claustrophobia of the house, the constant closeups on Jennifer Lawrence, the nightmarish feeling of being unable to communicate with those around you & losing control of your environment... the lighting & Gothic atmosphere of the house & all its dust & debris & unfinished mess, all great... otherwise I thought it was pretty fucking daft and thematically shallow. Another movie about creativity and how hard it is to be an artist? Hard pass. So arrogant & uninteresting, & what's frustrating is there are sub-themes & tangents in here - fan/artist relationship; artist as deity & the one-way adulation & love between fan & artist - that are far more interesting than dwelling on how hard it must be to be someone's muse. A CRYSTAL? You must be fucking kidding me. And fwiw I found the violence & verbal abuse to be way over the top, gratuitous, obvious, & misogynist. He's a good technical director, but he should not write his own scripts.
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:23 (six years ago) link
A lot of the criticisms are the opposite of how I felt about it. I thought it was deeply feminist and Christian
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:32 (six years ago) link
Another movie about creativity and how hard it is to be an artist? Hard pass.
If anything, I thought this movie took artists to task! But then I've already seen a host of interpretations I disagree completely with.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:40 (six years ago) link
It felt very much like "woe is me, i ruin relationships and hurt people because i must CREATE!"
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:46 (six years ago) link
Except that She had a very near-complete monopoly on the perspective of the movie (nearly half the movie is literally first-person!) as well as our empathy.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:57 (six years ago) link
*Mother, not She lol
"Mother" is not a person. This movie had the emotional depth & subtlety of a political cartoon. Aronofsky goes to extreme lengths and constructs this visually stunning allegory only to convey profoundly dull observations about creativity.
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 22:11 (six years ago) link
Interestingly, I agree with most of what Rex Reed says here, even though I really like this movie!
http://observer.com/2017/09/darren-aronofsky-mother-worst-movie-of-the-year/
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Saturday, 16 September 2017 22:16 (six years ago) link
Polanski's Tree of Life
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Saturday, 16 September 2017 22:20 (six years ago) link
Reed's review makes it sound like it's a disaster, albeit an absolutely must-see one.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 16 September 2017 22:24 (six years ago) link
hahaha holy shit @ that Reed review
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 22:24 (six years ago) link
the funniest thing to me is that I left the film convinced that Mother represented God (or more literally "mother nature") - tending to all aspects of the home/world, far beyond any "homemaker" cliche - while Bardem represented humanity, with art standing in for human endeavor generally, but now I've seen at least one person suggest it's the reverse
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 22:45 (six years ago) link
This was terrible and boring for an hour, after which it turned terrible and interesting. The violence turned my stomach. I don't get liking movies that produce anxiety.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:26 (six years ago) link
I loved Michelle Pfeiffer though -- she looked great and was commandingly brittle.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:27 (six years ago) link
Lol @"We don't smoke in this house.""That's smart."
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:32 (six years ago) link
I didn't find it that bad aside from maybe the worst five seconds of the mob sequence, though I did just see Caniba a few days ago so my threshold is pretty high at the moment
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:33 (six years ago) link
also "Do you have any painkillers?"
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:33 (six years ago) link
I agree than Pheiffer was really good and brought some badly needed levity
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:34 (six years ago) link
Aronofsky gives the impression that he's never read a long book in his life.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:36 (six years ago) link
I do if it's justified. Same goes for violence like that. Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing is a great example of that. This was just so intellectually barren & literal. "The Poet" give me a break
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:40 (six years ago) link
Nope. The violence offended me insofar as it was at the service of banal points about an artist's self-absorption. Conveying dread isn't a skill if what you're dreading is stupid. I was in knots waiting for the next act of egregious violence -- that's not skill
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:41 (six years ago) link
I agree with you, Alfred. I said as much.
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:49 (six years ago) link
I know. I did appreciate Aronofsky's playing with The Exterminating Angel tropes.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:55 (six years ago) link
yeah! I was thinking about that, too. the house was very cool & imposing
― flappy bird, Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:58 (six years ago) link
Same goes for Justine by Marquis de Sade, which mother! reminded me of. Doesn't make it a feminist text at all. Just relentless abuse in the service of... what?
― flappy bird, Sunday, 17 September 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link
hey Whiney's the one arguing it's feminist, I'm just not convinced it's misogynist
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 17 September 2017 00:22 (six years ago) link
Rex Reed's review is the funniest but this is the most convincing I've seen
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/wjx8zb/mother-tries-very-hard-to-be-more-than-a-disturbing-abusive-movie
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 17 September 2017 02:27 (six years ago) link
This type of stuff is getting ridiculous post-LaLaLand
"viewers start to question what more Aronofsky is trying to say here, except, "That's bad.""
Like, it's perfectly OK to have a shallow reading of a movie, but stuff like this assumes the director had a shallow vision
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, 17 September 2017 02:49 (six years ago) link
hated this but I had just yacked from nausea due to a hangover an hour beforehand so idk that I was in the greatest place to receive this
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 17 September 2017 02:51 (six years ago) link
The fuck would you ever go see Aronofsky with a hangover to start with! And I say that as someone who likes much of his work.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Sunday, 17 September 2017 02:57 (six years ago) link
yeah that sounds like a nightmare
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 17 September 2017 02:58 (six years ago) link
needed to kill a few hours and at the time I bought the tickets, I wasn't nauseous. bumpy Uber ride on the way there changed that pretty quickly
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 17 September 2017 03:06 (six years ago) link
This sounds exactly like the kind of movie that I suspect that I won't like, will finally be compelled to check out months from now, and then will end up not liking.
The Bunuel comparisons have popped up in everything I've read on it so far, but I kind of suspect this film lacks anything like Bunuel's playfulness.
― the general theme of STUFF (cryptosicko), Sunday, 17 September 2017 03:46 (six years ago) link
I agree, there's nothing Bunuelian in Aronofsky. the parallels with Exterminating Angel are strictly superficial
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 17 September 2017 04:05 (six years ago) link