mother!
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
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It feels like the world is still recovering from the massive festival and cinematic rollout of Darren Aronofsky’s most controversial film mother!. I recall the film A Clockwork Orange’s name was peppered around the promotional cycle of mother!, and a more apt comparison couldn’t have been made (at least when considering the collective gasps and nausea that was instilled by this project). When it comes to the elements that bother people, I am absolutely in love with the audacity and rawness of mother!, and I most certainly don’t have any complaints in these departments. If anything, the minor qualms I have may dissipate with time, and the impact of such a film may linger more with me. I almost feel this happening already. Consider that it has been four years, and I am still remembering vivid images from a film I only saw once in theatres. Also take note that this was a film that was requested for me to review during October; this is clearly sticking with others as well.
As a piece of cinematic performance art, mother! is most certainly one of the most effective films in recent memory. Aronofsky slowly builds this film up to a despicable climax, without forgetting to have purpose in his decisions (no matter how disturbing mother! gets, everything has a reason here). This leads into the picture as commentary, and mother! has these in spades. Clearly, here is Aronofsky’s take on the abuse of our planet (represented as the titular mother: mother nature; mother Earth), and the world is a passion of the auteur (who actually found his knack for filmmaking whilst taking part in nature documentation). Clearly this mother character represents how humanity has not taken care of its home nicely at all (and you see this in some haunting, frightening and viscerally punishing ways). Aronofsky also loves the bible (even outside of a religious sense), so he places the rise of organized religion and the decimation of the world as a result in a character named Him (the male counterpart to mother). Some of the tales of both the old and new testaments wind up in mother! as vignettes, and without context Aronofsky uses these asides to place audiences in a state of confusion; primed for the chaotic onslaught of the final act. With knowledge, this is a beautifully woven series of allegories.
mother! is a heavily symbolic affair, but its horror is quite raw.
This may be my one complaint that does knock mother! down just a little bit (at least for now, since I’m still clearly bothered enough): for such a film built on the foundations of poetry and with the execution of the kinds of nightmares that come outside of the realms of reality, mother! is still just a little too heavy handed at times. It’s clearly not Aronofsky’s intention to make the film preachy, but that vibe does come off of certain scenes (or like he’s having to whisper to you what he was referencing with certain scenes, since his blinking wasn’t enough). Blatancy is something Aronofsky occasionally runs into, but he typically works with it better. In Requiem for a Dream, the obvious symbols help bring you back to Earth during some horrifying passages. Black Swan has a melodramatic and theatrical essence to it, so any similar cases fit in nicely. mother! feels like the opportunity for Aronofsky to have gone further than he ever has before artistically, and he does achieve this in ways. The film feels a little held back by the film’s insistence of holding our hands even during its most screwed up moments.
Again, I feel like this nit-picking of mine may disappear as the years come by. These are only feelings that are resurrecting the more I think about mother!. Upon reviewing this film again, I was first reunited with all of the sequences that bowled me over (and they’re strewn throughout the entire film, not just the unforgettable final hour). I won’t bring up anything as to not spoil, but I do admire Aronofsky for clearly trying to go the extra mile with this insane vision. If he practices the occasional symbolic subtlety, then he may only get better when it comes to how his films read contextually. He needn’t not worry with how he commands the screen, though. mother! is as magnetic, hypnotic, and traumatizing as anything he’s ever released, so you know it’s effective; for crying out loud, people are still upset by this film, so you know he did well there. Objectively, I know mother! has its occasional setbacks (primarily that a film this provocative should never spoon feed you), but subjectively I feel like this film is certainly one hell of a ride that fits in nicely in the filmography of one of modern cinema’s most daring — and unforgiving — minds.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.