Darren Aronofsky most definitely became the most polarizing figure in movie culture back in the fall of 2017. His controversial “mother!” provoked a volcanic stir of reactions. It’s been exactly five years since that movie got released.
During the first press screening at the Venice Film Festival, there were both loud boos and people standing up to cheer as the movie ended. I was, and still am, in-between. I admired the sheer chutzpah of the film, but ultimately felt it didn’t work as a whole, as it opted to, first and foremost, provoke rather than coherently grab your interest.
The mainstream was bewildered, provoked and flat-out infuriated by “mother!”, with its non-conventional narrative, shocking images and frustrating loop of a story being the cause of the chaos.
Many adventurous moviegoers firmly appreciated what Aronofsky did; It was hard for any of us to really complain about a studio movie taking the kind of bold leaps you saw in “mother!”
Critics were split, with its 68% Rotten Tomatoes score confirming the polarization. Audiences all but shunned the film (a tepid box-office debut of $7.6 million) giving it a rare and almost unprecedented F grade on Cinemascore.
Even good old curmudgeon Rex Reed dubbed it the “worst movie of the 21st century” in his review. Amusingly, Reed ended up being quoted on the movie poster. Paramount were capitalizing on the noise around the film and campaigned it with a “we dare you to see it” kind of promotional campaign.
Aronofsky and then-girlfriend Jennifer Lawrence broke up soon after the film’s release. Lawrence ended up getting an undeserved Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. She later confessed to Variety that the bad reviews for “mother!” hurt her relationship with Aronofsky.
Time to rewatch this one tonight.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.