Mother reviews

Post Reply
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Big Magilla »

Reza wrote:Isn't Lawrence pregnant by him?
That would certainly fit the pattern!
Reza
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10031
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 11:14 am
Location: Islamabad, Pakistan

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Reza »

Big Magilla wrote:
Uri wrote:So, Aronofsky, who impregnated Rachel Weisz (born in 1970) while they were making The Fountain, then was rumored to do the same to Natalie Portman (1980) during the filming of Black Swan and now is in a relationship with Lawrence (1990), made a film about a poet who creates a woman to be his submissive wife, get her pregnant so he could write a new book during her pregnancy, then have his book published in time for the delivery, then have his creation and his baby taken and consumed by the adoring public (in a chain of events which demonstrates that he’s God, at least in his own universe/mind). Then he must get his wife killed, so he can have her core as the spark for the creation of exactly the same scenario, the way it happened before and will happen again and again, only while he gets older, the girls stay the same age. I wonder how he came up with such an idea for a film.
It was announced yesterday that Aronofsky and Lawrence broke up a month ago. I guess she's served her purpose.
Isn't Lawrence pregnant by him?
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Big Magilla »

Uri wrote:So, Aronofsky, who impregnated Rachel Weisz (born in 1970) while they were making The Fountain, then was rumored to do the same to Natalie Portman (1980) during the filming of Black Swan and now is in a relationship with Lawrence (1990), made a film about a poet who creates a woman to be his submissive wife, get her pregnant so he could write a new book during her pregnancy, then have his book published in time for the delivery, then have his creation and his baby taken and consumed by the adoring public (in a chain of events which demonstrates that he’s God, at least in his own universe/mind). Then he must get his wife killed, so he can have her core as the spark for the creation of exactly the same scenario, the way it happened before and will happen again and again, only while he gets older, the girls stay the same age. I wonder how he came up with such an idea for a film.
It was announced yesterday that Aronofsky and Lawrence broke up a month ago. I guess she's served her purpose.
Uri
Adjunct
Posts: 1230
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 11:37 pm
Location: Israel

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Uri »

Yesterday I saw Mother!, and by a strange coincidence, due to insomnia, early this morning I saw Lady in a Van on tv. Very similar films. Ok, one is a bombastic, simplistic, narcissistic, allegoric and humorless American extravaganza, the other a low key, self-deprecating English comedy of sort. Yet they both about the origin of Artistic creativity, and about male artists who, parasite like, use women to make the creative juices flow. Obviously, for red blooded, heterosexual Yank Aronofsky it’s a serial of statuesque nymphs, for gay Bennet it’s all about dotty old British broads, but the cannibalistic nature of the artistic proses is being addressed in both films – almost figuratively in the American (dah!) one, intricately and playfully in the British.

So, Aronofsky, who impregnated Rachel Weisz (born in 1970) while they were making The Fountain, then was rumored to do the same to Natalie Portman (1980) during the filming of Black Swan and now is in a relationship with Lawrence (1990), made a film about a poet who creates a woman to be his submissive wife, get her pregnant so he could write a new book during her pregnancy, then have his book published in time for the delivery, then have his creation and his baby taken and consumed by the adoring public (in a chain of events which demonstrates that he’s God, at least in his own universe/mind). Then he must get his wife killed, so he can have her core as the spark for the creation of exactly the same scenario, the way it happened before and will happen again and again, only while he gets older, the girls stay the same age. I wonder how he came up with such an idea for a film.

Ye, ye, women, for they can reproduce, are the source for all the creativity in the world and men are leaches, sucking this eternal, primal energy off them, because this is the only way they can create Art (=civilization), but then, of course they abuse it all and ruin the world, by not coming to dinner at time. Naturally, in Aronofsky’s world, after delivering the baby, if a woman, God forbid, do have a chance to grow older and bring up her child, she would turn out to be a possessive, clinging bitch, and if not a mother, a cold hearted, manipulative career woman. Alas he’s not only a misogynist, he’s also a misanthrope, but all in the service of his mighty art, so it’s fine.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Sabin »

SPOILERS

I fall slightly more positive on mother! I don't know how anyone can take this film as a metaphor for ANYTHING. By the end of the film, it seemed pretty clear to me this is God (who is both loving and evil) and Earth who are perfectly content alone, Adam and Eve show up, screw up paradise, Cain and Abel show up, one kills the other, and then we enter the more Christian realm of mythology....so I don't need to tell you where that's going. That said, there are only three pleasures in mother!: 1) wondering wtf is going on, 2) figuring out what is going on, and 3) watching Darren Aronofsky escalate the situation beyond. He's a very talented director who knows that we aren't going to understand exactly what is going on until the child is born so the bulk of the escalations feel more visceral than pretentious. So, the best thing I can say about mother! is that while I walked away talking with my friends about what the film meant, it didn't feel like I was watching a term paper.

Its message is appropriately bleak for the year in which I am watching it, and uncommonly bleak from a studio film. But the first half is a total slog and robs us the ability to care. It feels like the work of a filmmaker who knew where the movie was headed so he treaded water until we got there. All told, I appreciated it.

The casting of Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence is perfect. Hard to imagine anyone else in these roles.

Was this first third of this film shot in a faster frame-rate than 24 fps and ADR'ed? It's almost as though they were trying to replicate the same High Frame Rate filming technique used in The Hobbit.
"How's the despair?"
The Original BJ
Emeritus
Posts: 4312
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:49 pm

Re: Mother reviews

Post by The Original BJ »

I didn't really care for this one, though I must admit I always kind of get a kick any time mainstream audiences are duped into seeing something that is essentially a challenging art film that was marketed to them as an entertainment.

At first I tried to just go with what the movie was doing, realizing pretty quickly that it wasn't attempting to depict actual human behavior, so it would be pointless to fault it for its heightened style. But as it went on, and dipped further into surrealism, I found much of it very repetitive, cacophonous, and empty -- at some point, a movie that feels like it could be a metaphor for almost ANYTHING doesn't feel that different from a movie that is about NOTHING.

Still, it's clearly a work of ambition, from an obviously talented filmmaker, and I did find myself laughing from time to time at the audacity of it all, a reaction I don't think would have displeased Aronofsky (who has proudly embraced that 'F' CinemaScore.)

I think Black Swan was much more successful at grounding its outlandish elements in characters and scenarios that otherwise felt real, whereas Mother! is just all chaotic randomness all the time, and I got tired of it pretty quickly.
User avatar
Precious Doll
Emeritus
Posts: 4453
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Precious Doll »

I found Mother rather tiresome and aside from The Wrestler have never really connected with Darren Aronsky's films. I find it amazing that anyone would even think it is shocking and daring. The casting of the much younger Jennifer Lawrence with Javier Bardem only works because it makes her seem even more vulnerable and it's terribly easy to see where this story is heading.

Will no doubt will gain a cult following of sorts.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Mister Tee »

Seems wildly divisive -- reports of significant booing after the screening, but a number of enthusiastic critical reviews (86 on Metacritic after 6 reviews, including Gleberman's 60).

But it appears to be miles away from Academy fare.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Sabin »

Owen Gleiberman calls it a largely empty experience.

http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/mo ... 202545924/
"How's the despair?"
User avatar
Precious Doll
Emeritus
Posts: 4453
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Mother reviews

Post by Precious Doll »

From Indiewire. I know they liked it from the heading but why?

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/09/mother ... 201872856/
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
User avatar
Precious Doll
Emeritus
Posts: 4453
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Mother reviews

Post by Precious Doll »

THR http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review ... ew-1033545

A good review at best.

Variety: http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/mo ... 202545924/

Good as well but neither of them are anywhere near rave level.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Post Reply

Return to “2017”