Saw it.
Mixed feelings.
It is quite the experience. Do I ever want to watch it again? I don't know. I think I've put together pretty much what the movie is about, and so some of it would feel very long to sit through again. But damn, when everything goes to shit, it's just like "are you freaking kidding me?!"... again, and again, and again. it is like a Trump presidency -- every time you think you have been floored by something that happens, about five seconds later something ELSE happens. No kidding. No one can ever accuse Aronofsky of holding back in the movie, because it goes right where pretty much a lot of movies fear to tread. There's actually a lot more slow-build / incremental shifting than the trailers let on; but once shit hits the fan, it's just fucking crazy like on the level of "Project X" crazy.
No one said a word after the movie ended. They all just walked out. I sat there listening to "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis (which was a damn appropriate ending song) as literally everyone else in the theater (only about 30 people max, at the time I went) silently left, and then there is no other music -- just some sound effects as the credits finish scrolling. Sat there in the dark. Movie ended. Lights never came up. I quietly got up and walked out, feeling a little shell-shocked.
Of course my mind is trying to "interpret" it. I can't figure out whether it's Aronofsky justifying himself to someone, or whether it's a critique on a past relationship (although honestly the movie is very sympathetic towards Lawrence's character), or whether it's a "fuck you all" to the world of celebrity fandom. It could be everything. It felt very self-indulgent to me that way, like some kind of vocalization of Aronofsky's psyche... but who makes a movie just for that purpose?
Looking at aggregates:
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 183 reviews and an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "There's no denying that mother! is the thought-provoking product of a singularly ambitious artistic vision, though it may be too unwieldy for mainstream tastes."[22] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[23] The film received both boos and a standing ovation during its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "F" on an A+ to F scale, one of less than twenty films in the history of the service to receive the score.[21]
Having now seen it, I am not surprised at any of these outcomes. They sound correct to me, including the simultaneous boo's + applause as well as the "general audience" of CinemaScore bombing the movie, while from a critical standpoint there will be those who credit it with much merit (although some will also tear into it).
I think it did take a lot of balls to make this movie. And it really is well cast -- Bardem can come up both creepy + affirming, while Lawrence just has to emote her head off. Michelle Pfieffer does a turn as Woman... I always pegged her as NFJ based on her typical movie roles, and that's what she does here, she's really great Fe'ing around, whether to connect to Lawrence or just to be a total iron-clad biatch.
.... end result, though.... I feel like The Fountain has a lot more transcendent truth + is just watchable repeatedly. mother! is really just a movie to experience in a "holy shit" way and once is probably more than enough for most.
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EDIT:
hahaha! I missed a whole particular angle of subtext for this movie, damn! Because I was looking at it literally from the start, and it was hard to catch all the detail at times.
But I did actually nail one of the comparison points of the movie, that Aronofsky himself brings up. I had not seen it mentioned in reviews but it leaped to my mind immediately -- I'm not surprised to see him admit it. So at least I locked in on SOMETHING.
Mother!’s Ending: What Does It All Mean? | Vanity Fair
