Themes of rebirth and renewal merge chaos and fire in this Beckettian drama.

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2017)

mother!: Poetry lovers battling riot police. A house under attack not just from the police but from military forces is shelled, burned, ripped apart by a mad mob. A man (Javier Bardem) and a woman (Jennifer Lawrence) live in an isolated house, he is trying to rediscover his muse and write poetry once more, she is single handedly refurbishing a dilapidated, damaged house. First one, then two, then four strangers arrive, violence erupts. Now a mob is present as a wake turns into a fanfest for the poet.
This film by Darren Aronofsky has the structure of a bad dream, nay, a a nightmare. Themes of rebirth and renewal merge chaos and fire in this Beckettian drama. Some scenes of extreme violence and one particularly disturbing sequence involving human sacrifice cannibalism. Lawrence keeps the film rooted whilst Bardem leads and inspires the chaos. 8/10.