Review: mother!


Well-cast film in which wife and interior decorator Jennifer Lawrence fixes up husband Javier Bardem’s childhood home while he suffers writer’s block. One night a stranger claiming to be a doctor (Ed Harris) happens upon their abode mistaking it for a B&B. Bardem, being a nice guy lets the stranger (who seems to have some kind of phlegm-y ailment) stay the night. Lawrence isn’t terribly happy about this. Soon when the doctor’s wife (a perfect Michelle Pfeiffer, in one of her best roles in years) turns up as well, Lawrence is even less pleased. Eventually Harris’ kids turn up, things get rowdy, and Lawrence appears to be getting anxious/neurotic/crazy about everyone’s indifferent or just plain rude behaviour towards her. Things are weird and only get weirder. I’m not kidding, the film is insane.



This 2017 psychodrama from writer-director Darren Aronofsky (“The Wrestler”, “Noah”) has wildly divided audiences. A lot of people loathe it. I’d wager most of those people simply don’t like the type of film this is. Perhaps people were unsure just how seriously to take it all, because this film is actually damn funny and I believe the humour to be intentional. The random funeral scene suggests Aronofsky is taking the piss a bit here at the very least. The film is nuttier than a fruitcake and only gets weirder. It’s far from flawless, but Aronofsky’s made a pretty good stab at a Polanski-esque psychodrama here. I just wish it were a bit shorter and little less admiring of early Polanski. The finale is unfortunately too close to one of Polanski’s most famous films for my liking.



Underrated by some, if it were 20 minutes shorter and a little more original this film would be an absolute winner. As is, it’s quite good and seriously nuts. Psychodramas are tricky to do successfully, but I think Aronofsky mostly succeeds here, partly by having some absurd fun with it. See it and make of it what you will. 



Rating: B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more