Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has most definitely become the most hunted man in movie culture this last week. His controversial “mother!” has caused a volcanic stir in the mainstream by bewildering, provoking and flat-out infuriating movie audiences nationwide (and some media to boot) with its non-conventional narrative, shocking images and a frustrating loop of a story. That’s fine, adventurous moviegoers have, at the very least, mostly appreciated what Aronofsky went for with this film; it’s hard for any of us to really complain about a studio movie taking the kind of risks “mother!” does even if you think it subjectively fails.
Best of all the reviews, however, was Rex Reed's scathing pan of the movie, in which he proclaimed in his review for The Observer: “I hesitate to label it the ‘Worst movie of the year’ when ‘Worst movie of the century’ fits it even better." Yikes. Sadly, that's a sentiment that many mainstream audiences I've spoken to, more or less, agree with Rex on. Aronofsky has however proclaimed that Reed's review was his favorite to read, which tells you so much about the man and how open-minded he really is. He clearly wanted this kind of reaction to his film and it worked.
However, Aronofsky's then-girlfriend, they recently broke up, and star of the film Jennifer Lawrence didn't seem to like her partner's obsession with reading reviews of his film, she even mentioned that tensions arose because Aronofsky would not. stop. talking. about. "mother!":
However, Aronofsky's then-girlfriend, they recently broke up, and star of the film Jennifer Lawrence didn't seem to like her partner's obsession with reading reviews of his film, she even mentioned that tensions arose because Aronofsky would not. stop. talking. about. "mother!":
“Normally, I promote a movie, you put the work in to promoting it, ask people to go see it, and then it’s just kind of out of your hands. I normally just kind of let it go. Dating the director was different, because we’d be on the tour together. I’d come back to the hotel, and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is a movie. He comes back from the tour, and that’s all he wants to talk about,” Lawrence told Adam Sandler during an “Actors on Actors” conversation for Variety. “I get it; it’s his baby. He wrote it; he conceived it; he directed it. I was doing double duty trying to be supportive partner while also being like, ‘Can I please, for the love of God, not think about ‘mother!’ for one second.’ And then he would start reading me reviews, and I finally was like, ‘It’s not healthy. I’m not going to do it, because if I read it, I start getting defensive.’ Especially because it’s my man. I don’t want to sound in an interview that I’m defending what we’re doing in any way. It’s awesome, what we did. The people who hate it really hate it. But it’s nothing that needs to be defended. If I read a negative review, I just feel defensive.”
Yikes, maybe the film is what made them break up? Who knows, and none of my business, but a film as passionately debated as mother! will surely cause awkwardly strange things to happen.
Yikes, maybe the film is what made them break up? Who knows, and none of my business, but a film as passionately debated as mother! will surely cause awkwardly strange things to happen.