Movie Review : "mother !"

Though the trailers I saw in theaters for “Mother” tried to sell this as a horror movie  with lines like “You won’t forget where you were when you saw Mother” (of course not you were in the god damn movie theater) it is not a horror , though it plays on similar sensations as a horror movie. The buzz surrounded the film due to the fact it was directed by Darren Aronofsky , who also brought us “Requiem For A Dream” and “the Black Swan”. The latter being almost more of a horror movie than this film. It feels more like a Lars Von Trier film and has a similarly unsettling chaos in the surreal narrative as “Antichrist”. Funny enough the heavy handed religious layers make Jennifer Lawrence seem like the Anti-christ when she pretty fuck says “Fuck You” to the concept of forgiveness and burns it all down.

I am sure the Bible Thumpers who also double as hipsters will start trying to make the most out of a bad situation when they are sorting through the Biblical outline, that will have you going “Ok, there was Cain and Abel, now when is the flood coming?” But the the films real message is actually what makes it endearing to me. It gives Christianity the middle finger and asks the dumbfounded audience “Do you see how fucking crazy this concept of religion is?”  when you take those concepts and apply them literally rather than metaphorically, they whole things is beyond nuts and this film paints a picture of that. So in this rejection of the Christ concept it’s almost as satanic as “the Witch”, but is far from being as good as that movie.

So what of the horror elements? Well there is an element of the invasive neighbors from “Rosemary’s Baby”. Aronofsky even admitted that “Rosemary’s Baby” was an influence on this movue.  If the thought of having tons of uninvited guests makes you have an anxiety attack then this movie will terrify you. There is some psychological terror as Jennifer Lawrence’s character loses her shit. I did like the Madonna to whore descent, which was almost a rape scene, and there was a dynamic at times that reminded me of ‘Straw Dogs” until Javier  Bardem’s character begins much like the path the Church took to believe his own hype. Even though this was not a horror movie, it was not a bad film as it made me feel something, bad movies don’t make me feel anything. I support the fact this movie is a middle finger to Christianity and think more movies should have the balls to step out and do that. So it was a success in that regard. If you are looking for an art house horror movie , you will have to wait until Lars Von Trier releases  his serial killer film “the House that Jack Built”.