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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2017)
MOVIES BY MEERAH POWELL THE MOTHER OF ALL MOVIES Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! is a grotesque, intellectual thrill ride not meant for the faint of heart I t’s been a while since a major studio movie has been as divisive as Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! There is no spectrum of audience appreciation for this film, no mid- dle ground — only high praise or vehement disgust. And rightfully so. Mother! is not a movie for everyone. Although I fall into the former category of people who loved Mother!, it’s not hard to gather an inkling about why people hated the film. First off, the film’s marketing strategy was a recipe for disaster — pushed as a straightforward horror movie in- stead of the hell-bent, conceptual, psychological beast that it is. If you’ve seen any other Aronofsky movies, though — Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, Pi, etc. — you probably could’ve taken a wild guess that this is the direction the film would take. Second, there’s a by-now-notorious “gross-out” scene that has offended pretty much everyone, with some people saying it made them walk out of the theater before the film’s end. (Maybe I’ve just been desensitized by traditional horror movies, or I’m just a terrible person, but this scene didn’t particularly get to me.) Lastly, there’s the film’s plot — merely a blank slate for any number of allegories or metaphors — which is every- thing but traditional. Mother! stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a married couple. Lawrence is in the process of renovating Bardem’s childhood home after a fire; the two live in har- mony as Bardem’s character, a published poet, works on his writing and Lawrence works on the house. Mother! functions as a fill-in-the-blank film for the view- er, one to which you can ascribe any higher meaning you want — so much so that Aronofsky doesn’t even provide names for his characters. (In the credits, Lawrence is “moth- er” and Bardem is “Him.”) The couple’s idyllic paradise is quickly shaken when Ed Harris’ character shows up at their door. His wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, arrives shortly after. Lawrence is dis- turbed by the couple’s arrival, but Bardem is ominously calm, inviting the two to stay as long as they’d like. This is where things get weird. The film evolves into a feverish thrill ride going off the rails, with Lawrence’s character strapped in tight. In classic Aronofsky fashion, as Lawrence becomes more paranoid, so does the film, leaving the viewer unsure of what’s re- ally going on, yet pummeled by tangible anxiety. Her lack of control is the true horror, and Aronofsky makes sure the audience feels every second of it. This chaos is portrayed brilliantly by cinematogra- pher Matthew Libatique, best known for his work in other Aronofsky movies. Libatique creates beautifully frightening TIX $5 SUNDAYS $7 $3 TUESDAYS STUDENT & SENIOR DISCOUNT 762-1700 | 180 E. 5TH AVE DAVIDMINORTHEATER.COM $3 TUESDAYS Now Featuring FRI SEPT 22ND - THUR SEPT 28TH Middle Eastern Food & Vegetarian Items Asian Groceries 29TH AVENUE DESPICABLE ME 3 4:35 THE BIG SICK 5:05 WONDER WOMAN 6:15 492 E. 13th Ave 541-357-0375 M-Th 9am-7pm•F 9am-8pm•Sa 9am-7pm•Su 10am-6pm 70 W. 29th Ave. Eugene • 541-343-3295 20 THE TRIP TO SPAIN 2:25 4:50 7:15 FRI 4:50 SAT SUN-THU 2:25 4:50 7:15 Friday - Tuesday 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 Wednesday 2:00, 4:30, 9:00 Thursday 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 INGRID GOES WEST 12:05 9:30 DAILY COLUMBUS 2:45 7:25 POLINA (NR) In French & Russian with English Subtitles DAILY A young girl studies classical ballet. As a young woman she turns to modern dance and choreography. LANDLINE 2:45 7:10 9:30 2:45 9:30 FRI-WED THU 1:15, 5:45 THE LITTLE HOURS 12:35 5:00 9:40 FRI 12:35 9:40 SAT SUN-THU 12:35 5:00 9:40 3:45, 8:15 Wednesday 7:00 pm Seating is fi rst come, fi rst served. LITTLE HOURS 7:15 September 21, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com GIRLS TRIP 8:45 BABY DRIVER 8:55 12:20 5:05 5:05 12:20 5:05 The fi nal Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, is tasked with overseeing the transition of British India to independence, but meets with confl ict as different sides clash in the face of monumental change. HAPPY DEATH DAY (R) Free Advance Screening! Local beer, wine and cider... & now kombucha on tap! TICKET PRICES: MATINEE before 5pm $6 ADULT $8 | STUDENT $7 | SENIOR 62+ $6 CHILD age 12 & under $6 7:30 9:15 7:30 7:30 9:15 7:30 BEACH RATS FINAL WEEK FRI SAT SUN-THU In this adaptation of Nikolai Leskov’s novella “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk, a 19th century young bride is sold into marriage to a middle-aged man. Sunrise www.sunriseasianfood.com MOVIES THAT bijou-cinemas.com MATTER Serving the Eugene Community for Over 35 Years! LADY MACBETH (R) OAK STREET SHOPPING CENTER WILLAMETTE STREET Woodfi eld Station NEITHER WOLF NOR DOG 12:00 2:30 5:00 FRI 12:00 2:30 5:00 SAT SUN-WED 12:00 2:30 5:00 12:00 2:30 5:00 THU VICEROY’S HOUSE (NR) Including Vegetarian Seafood, Meat Substitutes & Snacks Seaweed, rice, noodles, frozen products, deli, snacks, drinks, sauces, spices, produce, housewares, and more. Sushi & Asian deli take-out SEPTEMBER 22-28 9/22-9/28 ALL AGES Asian Food Market tight shots, almost Kubrick-esque, paralleling The Shining’s young Danny tricycling through the claustrophobic halls of the Overlook Hotel. Libatique’s camera follows Lawrence throughout the house so closely and quickly during times of distress, the audience yearns to zoom out and reveal whatever it is that’s lurking around the corner. In the second half of the film, more and more people show up at Lawrence and Bardem’s home, claiming to be fans of Bardem’s work, trashing spaces and breaking furni- ture — with Lawrence’s character’s valid concerns ignored and scorned, and Bardem blinded with egotistical joy. The film’s final 30 minutes swirl into a total chaotic nightmare, with Lawrence’s character taken past her break- ing point, but still willing to give up everything to her hus- band and her home. There are an infinite number of allegories Mother! could represent, but the most coherent one is the Biblical creation story portrayed in Genesis: Bardem plays God, Lawrence is Mother Earth, Harris and Pfeiffer are Adam and Eve (their two sons who come along, played by the real-life siblings Domhnall and Brian Gleeson, are Cain and Abel), and the house itself is the Garden of Eden. But, for someone like me who has minimal Biblical knowledge, the film offers up a plethora of other metaphori- cal options for consumption: colonization, the destruction of land and nature, or humanity’s apathy about global warm- ing, the loss of control and bodily autonomy that women face in a patriarchal society — and the concept of maternity itself and the sacrifices that come with it. The list goes on. The multiplicity of Mother! is its beauty. Its ability to be a truly individual experience for each and every viewer is unlike anything I have seen in recent film. But inevitably it’s a film that people will either love or loathe. The film has already received an F on CinemaScore, a site that surveys moviegoers in random cities as they exit the theater. (Cin- emaScore gave the Emoji Movie a B, so my trust in its audi- ence ratings isn’t particularly strong.) Not unlike Aronofsky’s other films, Mother! features such grotesque and uncomfortable imagery that I question its re-watch value. And when I say grotesque, I was truly surprised that a major studio like Paramount decided to run with the film. That said, Mother! is definitely not for the faint of heart. If, however, you have an open mind about cinema and its ability to shatter Hollywood plot-points in an attempt to tackle the avant-garde and its deepest, most thought-pro- voking concepts — this is it. (Cinemark 17, Regal Valley River) 43 W. BROADWAY (541) 686-2458 REGULAR ADMISSION $9 ADULTS $8 STUDENTS $6 SENIORS $6 BEFORE 5 PM OPEN EVERY DAY BEST OF THE NW ANIMATION FESTIVAL NO PASSES OR DISCOUNTS 12:30 2:45 SAT 5:00 7:15 9:30 BLACK SABBATH: THE END OF THE END NO PASSES OR DISCOUNTS THU 9/28 7:30 10:00 BUY TICKETS ONLINE AT BROADWAYMETRO.COM
