Darren Aronofsky 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 almost six years since that movie got released.
Jennifer Lawrence, the star of “mother!” was on the “What Happens Live” podcast with Andy Cohen. She admitted still not totally understanding the film, despite the fact that she was sleeping with Aronofsky at the time.
Cohen: “On a scale of one to totally confused, how much did you understand your film ‘Mother!’?”
Lawrence: “I’m going to be honest. Well, I was sleeping with the director so I had CliffsNotes. So…five? Or a four. But if anybody needs any tips on understanding their films, you know what to do.”
Cohen: “Fuck the director?”
Lawrence: “Yeah!”
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 we 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.
On the podcast, Lawrence confessed to Cohen that it was a gruelling experience to shoot ‘mother!’ …
“I tore my diaphragm and cracked something in my chest […] My top rib, it still clicks to this day.”
In 2017, Lawrence admitted that Aronofsky wanted to keep filming during emotionally and physically vulnerable scenes.
I have oxygen tubes in my nostrils, and Darren’s like, ‘It was out of focus; we’ve got to do it again,’” And I was just like, ‘Go fuck yourself.'
What do you think of the film? Has it aged well? I’d rather not rewatch it, once was enough, but the puzzling nature of ‘mother!’ has always tempted me to revisit it, although I fear it would likely be torturous to do so.