mother!

Mother! is what happens when a dude has an idea he thinks is brilliant and no one checks him on it.

[Darren] Aronofsky wants mother! to have the intensity and inner logic of a sweaty nightmare. But it's a fake cinematic fever dream-the kind made by a director so self-conscious that he's always checking his own temperature.

Ultimately, you may be left pondering not so much the allegory as to why [Darren] Aronofsky would want to push not just his audience but his girlfriend through such an extreme wringer.

If this is Aronofsky's acknowledgement of those he's hurt in his life, then it is grossly remorseless.

It doesn't all work; long stretches, in fact, don't play at all. But it's formally impressive and deeply disturbing, and the mere fact that it exists at all is a testament to either Aronfsky's salesmanship, Lawrence's star power, or both.

Mother!... is just as gorgeous, bombastic and uninterested in presenting fully formed characters as those movies, but it's also pretty spectacular.

Aronofsky "recycles" others' and, ironically, his own previous film ideas, resulting in Mother! appearing an unoriginal horror concoction, an uncomfortable reminder of other, much better films.

If mother! lacks the refinement of a manifesto for a new breed of movie theater flick, it makes up for it in the audacity to be unique.

Once movies leave their creators’ hands they often become their own thing. “mother!” benefits from that truth. While Aronofsky has a pointed personal meaning behind it, what you bring to the film will help define it for you.

You may think it’s high art or garbage, but this movie is a singular experience.