Wednesday, January 10, 2018

mother! (2017)

What an utterly baffling movie. What's really frustrating is that I think I understood the allegory with my basic knowledge of the Bible and yet I was still baffled. Javier Bardem is God. And the house is Earth. That much I'm sure of, but Jennifer Lawrence is a little trickier. Is she the mother Earth? Is she the nature spirit? Is she Mary? Is she also Christ? I think there's probably a degree of truth to all those identities. That's what was confusing. Pick a metaphor and stick to it.

The movie itself defies categorization. It's marketed as a horror film, but it's not actually scary. What is scary is just the sheer number of people in the house and what terrible guests they are. But it's not really thrilling either. It's just uncomfortable. I will concede that the last twenty minutes of utter chaos is pretty impressive. It's an immersive, visceral experience. 

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