mother! - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

mother!

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

PLEASE READ THE FULL REVIEW FOR AN EXPLANATION OF MY RATING, AS IT IS A HYBRID RATING AND WILL BE EXPLAINED AT THE END. ​

Movie
Darren Aronofsky is one is one of those directors that will COMPLETELY polarize an audience. I have never seen a mans works so heavily criticized, yet just as much loved by the opposing team as this man (well, except for maybe Terrance Malick). Films like Pi, Black Swan and The Fountain were obtuse and very artsy, he started to go more allegorical and biblical in his next few films, starting with Noah (which was a strange hybrid of historical fantasy and biblical blending as he mashed together everything from Christian Bible tales with Hebrew mythology and Babylonian texts to create a bizarre retelling of the classic flood tale). mother! was highly anticipated as Aronofsky kept things REALLY close to the vest up until the actual theatrical release of the film. We knew he was going to going with another use of religious allegory, but no one was really sure about WHAT he was going for until the day of wide release. Then it all came out like a flood (pun intended).

Aronofsky didn’t keep anything to himself, but rather spilled all of his creative “meanings” behind the film as soon as it was released, but if you’re even partially cognizant then picking up the allegorical nature of the film shouldn’t be too hard. The best way I have of describing mother! is that it is a completely normal horror film, up until it isn’t. Then things get completely bizarre and in typical Aronofsky fashion, will either leave the audience scratching their head in disgust, or raving about the complete and utter masterpiece that it is. There is simply no in between.

The movie starts out simply enough. A young wife (Jennifer Lawrence) wakes up to see that her poet husband (Javier Bardem) is not in bed with her, and she wakes up to investigate. Shortly after, the lovely couple are visited by a doctor (played by Ed Harris) who is looking for a place to stay. The clearly uncomfortable wife (the movie uses no names, so it’s easier to call them by their monikers) agrees to allow the aging doctor to stay, but there is something definitely sick about the man. He carries a large scar by his rib cage, and as soon as he wakes up the family is beset upon by the doctor’s wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their two sons (Domnhall and Brian Gleeson). The doctor’s wife is an obvious seductress and temptress, and the two sons are at war with each other. Soon after they arrive Domnhall Gleeson beats his brother to death (*cough Cain and Abel *cough) and runs off into the night.

At this point the film goes completely bonkers, with a funeral for the dead son than brings unwanted visitors into J-Law’s home, while Javier is completely oblivious to the fact that her world is being torn apart. To make matters worse the young wife is pregnant at the time and slowly coming to term within the movie (or quickly I guess you could say), but the nightmare isn’t even remotely over. As she comes to term the home is beset upon by rabid cultists who are in love with her husband’s works, and end up turning the place into a living hell for them. Their home is PHYSICALLY dismantled in front of their eyes, as the cult like followers tear the place apart for their own differing selfish desires. Then, in a scene that can only be described as “what in blue blazes did I just see?”, J-Law gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, to which Javier presents to the audience before they eat the flesh from his bones. After all of this torture, all of this pain, and all of this agony, the (now) mother snaps completely, expelling the invaders from her home, culminating in a scene that has her giving her (now) stone cold heart to her husband, which brings the movie back full circle (a surprise I won’t spoil for you) in which Javier must once again, begin creation anew.

Well, if you’ve even been remotely paying attention, the allegories and parallels are pretty obvious. Yup, Javier is god, The doctor is Adam, his wife Eve (the seductress), the two sons are Cain and Abel, and the resulting cultists are the differing religious sects and organizations that worship him. The son is “duh”, and the eating of the flesh is reminiscent of them turning on the gift of the son that we all know so well. The Mother is the lynch pin though. I’d like to say that I took credit for that little analysis, but Darren Aronofsky spilled all of the beans in multiple interviews, and spared no secret, so this is all common knowledge for those who have been keeping up, and straight from the director’s mouth. The “mother” is mother earth/Gaia, or whatever you want to call her. Aronofsky stated that he created the film after becoming incensed with how he viewed humanity treating the earth, and sat down and poured out his soul in a 5 day period when he wrote the script. What resulted is kind of a frustrated and angry retelling of creation, life, and the death of the world as told through the eyes of the earth itself. Watching as humanity comes to their perfect home, and then systematically tears it to pieces through hate, over use of religious love, and all sorts of abominations that mankind HAS technically done over the years in some way, shape, or form. The thing is, the movie is also pure and complete Darren Aronofsky to the core. Which means pretentiousness and art house self indulgence. Something the man has admitted multiple times that he revels in. This means that you’re either going to love the art house film for its flowery and brutally visceral take on the director’s heart felt outpouring, or you’re going to recoil in disgust at what is obviously an art house film that just rolls around on the floor with pretentious and self indulgent revelry.

One one hand, I really loved the film. It really IS a work of art when it comes to the crafting of the tale. Everyone is magnificently directed, and Aronofsky is a master at camera use. The ability to put a story like this into a traditional “home invasion” horror movie is incredibly intoxicating. Yet at the same time he once again lets himself fall into the pit of over indulgent visuals and a plot that will just smack you in the face with the allegorical Genesis tales. Some has severely criticized his take on biblical stories for being “completely inaccurate from a Judaeo-Christian point accuracy”, and in that I completely agree. HOWEVER, Aronofsky never intends to be accurate to that version of Genesis (a chapter he seems to be fascinated with lately) as he is an atheist Jew who takes things from the perspective of ALL of these differing tales about the same idea (creation, birth, death) are mythological, and thus pulls from a whole ton of sources (the Bible, Torah, Jewish mythology, Babylonian flood myths etc) to craft a tale that is wholly inaccurate to ALL of them. So while I completely hate his despising of religion coming from a religious background, I can UNDERSTAND where his point of view is coming from and appreciate the storytelling narrative for what it is. Myself personally, I’m literally torn down the middle. The story is magnificently told, but the WAY he tells it is so polarizing that it just isn’t accessible to the general populace. I know the critics have raved and raved about this film, but Aronofsky’s tendency to get so far up his own thought process that he devolves into art house self worship makes it so that he once again loses me as a proponent of his work.




Rating:

Rated R for strong disturbing violent content, some sexuality, nudity and language




Video:

Darren Aronofsky is another one of those people, like Nolan, who loves to use film stock whenever he can. mother! was shot using a mixture of RED cameras, along with 16mm and 35mm film stock to create a unique looking movie that is highly detailed, yet heavily stylized as well. The film starts out with a cool look and lots of earthy tones to it, but as the movie progresses into the spiral of downward craziness it gains a yellowish hue with lots more dim lighting. The grain levels are wonderfully clean and precise, but the dim lighting and yellow grading applied to it sometimes can wash out the black levels just a bit. The most obvious comes from when the Doctor and Javier are talking together in the living room, but it gets really obvious with the cultists tearing the place apart. The bright reds of the blood coming from the light bulbs, or the neon shades of her heart pop with much more intensity, but the overall spectrum leans more towards pale whites and earthy shades than anything extraordinarily visually colorful. Fine detail across faces, and inanimate objects are exceptional, with only small spikes of grain or digital noise in the dimly lit interior shots to keep it from looking perfect.





Audio:

Like usual, Paramount is one of the “good guys” and puts their Dolby Atmos track on both the Blu-ray AND the 4K UHD disc, so this portion of the review will be the same on both of two reviews. No matter if you love the movie or hate it, the Dolby Atmos track is easily one of the single best parts of the whole movie. You wouldn’t expect a dramatic horror movie like this to have such an encompassing track, but it is an amazing sonic experience. The track rumbles and pulsates with LFE straight from the beginning “burn” scenario, and just gets better from there. The dialog is always above reproach, but it CAN get a bit talky during the first half of the film. However, when the cultists start invading the house the surround channels and the LFE channel goes off the charts with activity. The rumble of her heart turning to stone pressurizes the low end with an incredible sense of “ear popping”, while the visceral roar of gunshots while Kristin Wiig executes people (If you’ve ever wanted to see Kristin Wiig go full psycho then this is the movie for you) reverberates with raw energy, and the surrounds are awash with the sounds of rabble in the background. This is one of those awe inspiring tracks that just feels so visceral, so peaceful, and so nuanced to the point of making any home theater nut squee with excitement.





Extras:

• Mother! The Downward Spiral
• The Makeup FX of Mother!

Final Score: ​

As I said at the very beginning of the review, read till the end to see WHY I gave it a 3/5 rating. As someone who really appreciates the mans attention to detail, and his loving way of crafting a story (no matter how bizarre), I have to give it a 5/5 across the board. BUT, as someone who got so extremely frustrated as his self indulgent pretentiousness in the way the story unfolds, I gave it a 1/5, thus I have to meet somewhere in the middle and give it a 3/5 for the completely product. For those of you watching, I’m pretty sure that a 3/5 will never come close to your final ratings. I predict that this will either be a 1/5 movie (what did I just watch!?) or a 5/5 movie for the person who loves to peel back films like an onion and analze them like a tapesty. I can only recommend watching it for yourself, as there is no way I can predict how it will play out in that arena. I both loved and hated the film, but still found it a fascinating watch with a great video encode and a PERFECT audio encode. If I have to give ANY complaints about the Blu-ray package (or the 4K UHD) its that there are only 2 extras, and this film really deserves at LEAST a feature length commentary.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Barden, Ed Harris, Domnhall Gleeson
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Written by: Darren Aronofsky
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish, Portuguese DD 5.1
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: R
Runtime: 121 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 19th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Interesting Watch

 

[Asere]

Thank you for the review. My wife and I really liked it but I can see why some will love it or hate it. The ending was a surprise for us and overall we were both intrigued throughout wondering what is actually going on. I want to buy it but my wife says it is too disturbing for a second viewing although a second viewing might be better because there is always something you missed the first time around. 4/5 for me

 

[Michael Scott]

haha! yeah, it was one of his more visceral ones. I really was fascinated by him putting his normal allegorical art house style of directing inside the confines of a horror film. I'm glad you enjoyed the film. Aronofsky is one of those "love him or hate him" directors and while I don't always ENJOY his works (or agree with some of his assertations), I fully acknowledge that the man has a fantastic ability to make a multi layered, chaotic, film that is pure tapestry to the core.

if anything, the 4K and the Blu-ray discs are technically impressive, so if you do pick it up, you won't be disappointed

I won't spoil the surprise for anyone else, but the ending was a revelation. It completely makes sense why J-Law has such an uncomfortable look on her face when Ed Harris asks her if the Crystal was a gift from her near the beginning of the film. Especially when you realize what it symbolizes and why it would be a piece of consternation in her relationship to her husband.

 

[Asere]

I would really like to hear what others think about it here. Maybe we will get some replies. Come on everyone make mother a priority watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. This one is interesting. I will save it for a rental.