MOTHER! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2017)

Director Aronofsky has said that he came up with the idea for this film after a screening of Luis Bunuel's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (1962) & his own thinking on the current human condition! As I lay watching the film - undoubtedly the most controversial release of the year - I was also reminded of many other films: Bunuel's own VIRIDIANA (1961; in the way in which invited guests unceremoniously take over a household) & SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965; throngs of people invading the personal space of & expecting answers from their idol); Roman Polanski's REPULSION (1965; a repressed woman who never ventures outside her home & loses her mind), ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968; a struggling artist invites a sinister couple into his marital home & they take over to the chagrin of the introverted & pregnant wife) & THE TENANT (1976; which had been the director's own male version of REPULSION anyway); Mike Nichols' WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRIGINA WOOLF? (1966; a younger married couple are the disbelieving witness to the constant squabbles of an older couple); & any number of Euro-horrors climaxing in conflagration & reincarnation (including Francesco Barilli's THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK [1974])!! The narrative is clearly an allegory but I found the implied biblical connotations heavy-handed & the overt criticism of modern-day fame perfunctory. Most audiences were shocked by the gory climax & some critics deemed this a black comedy; frankly, I was neither horrified nor entertained! All the characters involved (except for the perennially barefooted Lawrence) range from the slightly unsympathetic (Bardem) to the downright annoying (Harris & Pfeiffer)...one can't really fault Aronofsky's technical prowess here but, as Biblical tracts go, I preferred his more irreverent NOAH (2014), while BLACK SWAN (2012; still his best work) was a far more interesting & satisfying 'descent into the maelstrom'.