mother!

The title mother! rhymes with "smother," which is a word that recalls the nature of many of Darren Aronofsky's films. His movies sometimes mix a "high art" sensibility with bludgeons of icky imagery. You feel for his miserable protagonists and the actors playing them because their suffering is bright, blunt, physical, breathy, and tear-stained. But there's also a strange sense of remove, as the incidents and the body horror (sanguine seeping wounds abound) in those character's lives, first pitched in a calming sense of reality, seem so outlandish. Very seldom does an Aronofsky movie have a settled place to land (think the ill-fated drop-to-mattress in Black Swan) or much humor. However, in the opening of mother!, there's the immediate cheekiness to the ridiculousness of the title (and the Shakespearean quill font presentation). The setting is peaceful, earthy and attractive with tinges of unease (throbbing walls, a delicate crystal glowing with bits of ember).

Jennifer Lawrence plays a reserved woman living with a poet (Javier Bardem) and obsessively renovating their remote mansion. The film, utilizing killer camerawork by Matthew Libatique, stays mostly in the constricts of Lawrence's point-of-view, with her long brown-gray hair and flowy white t-shirts, painters jeans, and nighties, moving throughout the rambling house. A couple (a pleasingly hammy Ed Harris and a perfectly calculating Michelle Pfeiffer) show up, disrupting the tranquil pale blue and taupe-walled household with discourteous behavior, neon underwear and smokers' hacking (this is a picture that refuses to breathe freely). Bardem eagerly takes them in while Lawrence expresses her displeasure to us through her vivid facial expressions (she's astoundingly good at this--doing so little to express so much with her countenance). It's this subplot where we see Aronofsky doing some of his best directing ever, with humor and unnerving tension. It's like a comedy of manners mixed with Polanski horror.

Then slowly, and in an increasingly garish way, the movie swings into screamy, gruesome farce with blatant shock scenes. Even though the filmmaker has been praised for this half of the picture, for his audacity, rabid energy and disdain for Cinemascore-squared mainstream audiences (you could physically sense the hatred in the theater for this movie after my showing ended), it also seems like an easy way (Aronofsky supposedly penned the script in five days) out of what seemed to be shaping up as a strong, sharp mystery. This is a filmmaker's film though, completely meta, in the vein of the rocket launchpad built on sand in 8 1/2, where the film scrapes away at itself until its destroyed (here, up in tacky CGI flames). There's also seemingly symbolic glimpses of the deification of artists, with worshiping crowds, badgering press and paparazzi, feeding off of the flesh of its targets. That poetry is the source of so much celebrity worship is also a good joke. The movie concludes sort of unsatisfactorily contextually and visually with a shimmer of Dan Curtis' Burnt Offerings. But both Libatique and Lawrence should be particularly commended for carrying us through this nightmare with skillful work and raw charisma. ***



-Jeffery Berg

mother!

Trailer for Darren Aronofsky's new film mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence, with Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

and the flood came, and destroyed them all by karen g.

Darren Aronofsky's films always portray tormented souls. Noah starring Russell Crowe, is no different. What was always a whimsical Sunday school story, turns out to be a dark, disturbing tale about human nature, survival and our darkest thoughts toward ourselves and the rest of mankind.

While the film is set in the time of Genesis in the bible, the movie is current in its depiction of an overpopulated, crime-ridden and sick world. Though inspired by the biblical story, Aronofsky’s adaptation has less to do with God’s wrath than it does with our desire to find peace in a less-than-perfect world. I’ve certainly felt dark thoughts creep into my heart while riding an overcrowded 6 train through the city. This movie, while portraying a bygone era is relevant in how we relate to each other as humans today. The “every man for himself” attitude is heavily played out in this story.

Noah is tormented by striking visions of great masses of water and eventually ponders what the “Creator” might be trying to tell him. Noah travels to visit his father, the wise Methuselah, played by Anthony Hopkins, to find the answers to his persistent nightmares.  He takes his family on an epic journey across the lands of the fallen angels, to find Methuselah. At his side is his reluctant, yet loyal wife Naameh, played by Jennifer Connelly and their two sons Ham, played by Logan Lerman of Perks of Being a Wallflower and Shem played by English actor, Douglas Booth.

There are moments where the movie made me feel like I was watching a cross between Transformers and The Neverending Story. The endless CGI sequences and the portrayal of the fallen angels known as "The Watchers" were more laughable than dark and moving to me. I felt, considering the subject matter, that "The Watchers" were a lost opportunity to really bring forth the crises we face as humans in just the smallest moments of our daily lives, when we struggle with what is right and wrong.

Methuselah’s character is quirky and comedic. Played against the gritty, serious Noah, the chemistry between Crowe and Hopkins just does not work. Methuselah ends up reminding me of a Star Wars type character, maybe even a Hopkins-like Yoda, with his hunched performance, skittish childlike banter and his endless search for "red berries."

Emma Watson in the role of Ila does not do a bad job of playing the young girl rescued by Noah and his family after her village was destroyed by pillagers. She grows to be loved by Shem but is barren due to an act of violence and is tormented by the fact that she will not be able to repopulate the earth. She begs Shem to find another wife, despite her love for him.  Ham, who is plagued by his need to find a wife and companion before the storm comes, is moody throughout the film. In the later scenes his resentment for his father leads him to a revengeful plot against him.

The scenes of the animals entering the ark and the epic storm sequences are all CGI, and they feel just as fake. I did not feel emotionally attached to any of the characters, except maybe the twins born to Ila (after a magical blessing from Methuselah in the forest).

I felt like the film tried to accomplish too much and so all we ended up with was another really long movie. I was exhausted by the trials and tribulations of Noah and his family, his growing resentment to his family and fellow man and his unshakable “calling” to serve the Lord - at any and all costs. I was even disappointed by Clint Mansell’s score that felt disconnected and unfaithful to the story and characters.

I will hand it to Aronofsky for always giving us the unconventional and the film certainly leaves you with a deep sense of discomfort, as all his past work does. The movie is definitely original in its structure and subject matter as it is thrown into a biblical setting, but we can definitely all relate to the feeling of being trapped. The ark is the perfect metaphor for our search for enlightenment and truth while sometimes feeling confined, and in the dark, even when we are surrounded by the ones we love.


-Karen G.

actor & director roundtables

Check out these are really great, intimate roundtable discussions about acting and directing from those who worked on some of the year's best films. From The Hollywood Reporter & Backstage Casting.

black swan

In Black Swan, Natalie Portman plays Nina, a tightly-wound ballerina who lands the lead in a New York production of Swan Lake, replacing aging Beth (a brilliantly cast Winona Ryder). Nina's existence is strictly within the confines of grueling rehearsals under the direction of Thomas (Vincent Cassel) and in the cramped apartment of smother-mother and former dancer herself, Erica (Barbara Hershey). Nina seems to be a bit of an outcast amongst the other dancers, and a nervous wreck, and is further undone by Lily (Mila Kunis), the company's newcomer--a breezy, loose California girl. As the production looms, Nina becomes more and more stressed and paranoid.


Black Swan is a combination of two of director Darren Aronofsky's best works: The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream. Those films have become so seminal in our young century, that it's difficult not to reflect on them while watching this one. The Wrestler still seems to me a stark departure for him, and yet a very fine film, with play-it-straight drama and an emotional punch, buoyed by Mickey Rourke's raw performance. Plumbing the perils of addiction, Requiem for a Dream goes in and out of reality. Black Swan has the shaky-cam, strict POV follow of Nina (including a Kim Novak-esque Vertigo bun motif), similar to The Wrestler (as are some of its themes) and the psycho-freakum shots (talking paintings, cuticle rips) recalling Requiem. Aronofsky is a gifted visual artist (another collaboration here with cinematographer Matthew Libatique) who also does fine work with actors. These are primarily the strengths of Black Swan which is such a compelling film to behold visually but also features some good performances. Portman is mesmerizing to watch. Aronofsky helps us experience her horror with a rich sonic landscape (bones crack galore!) and jump scare moments but Portman does a lot of the work herself and some extraordinarily realistic dancing. Cassel, as the masochistic director, gives a stormy, pitch-perfect portrayal. Hershey never rises to hysteric levels of Piper Laurie's mother in Carrie (an obvious homage) but she's sufficiently creepy and a welcome actor to have onscreen again. It's also nice to see Winona Ryder. She's a good sport by playing such a degrading role (her career is over, Thomas intones). She has a nice bit in drunken, runny mascara over-the-top mode. I wish Hershey and Ryder had more to do here and more good films to do in general. Kunis is nicely disarming and able to handle the duplicity of her role well. She's also somewhat of a breather in the bleak dun-dun-dun of the proceedings.


The problems with Black Swan rest largely on the creaky script and its not-too-subtle, Angela Carter-like re imagining of Swan Lake. The movie recalls All About Eve, which, with its illustrious dialogue, is one of the great all-time scripts. And because it recalls Eve, it also recalls dozens of other backstage dramas of varying value (there's a literal backstabbing broken mirror scene here that's dangerously close to the badness of Showgirls). The psychological dread and manicure-terror of the classic Repulsion is another obvious influence, though Polanski got to the tragedy quicker and more potently. Dialogue duds abound in Black Swan and gimmicks too. There are too many scenes where Portman sees another Portman... it's actually a bit cheesy. A night on the town with Kunis on E--complete with a strobe light dance club sequence and a shameless Freudian lesbian sex scene both straight out of 1999--fall flat. The tone too is often off. It veers between tony seriousness and Nightmare on Elm Street camp. Still, Aronofsky is a fine craftsman (those dance sequences, in rehearsals and on-stage are a marvel) and Portman is a compelling lead. The music too, including Clint Masell's adaptation of Tchaikovsky, is appropriately haunting and unnerving. The movie will likely endure (it's already spawning somewhat of a following) along with the universal struggle with achieving that vague thing called perfection. ***


-Jeffery Berg


-Check out this interesting writeup from ballerina Wendy Whelan on Daily Beast. She writes, "I have played the dual roles and understand firsthand the intense physical drain and the nervous energy that gets stirred up in both body and mind while preparing for it. When the body gets exhausted the mind can become fragile. It requires a particular strength and confidence in one's emotional core unlike anything else in classical ballet."