Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer

Runtime: 121 minutes

6/10

Every now and then, a mainstream film will be released that will oddly challenge the conventions of the average movie-going punter.

One such film is Mother!

Darren Aronofsky is the writer/director of this disturbing and frustrating film that defies reviewers to try and explain what is going on in 350 words.

The film is already dividing the critics, with some hailing it as a classic and others feeling it is pretentious garbage.

I know what side the couple who walked out of my screening were on.

Glasgow Times: Mother!

The trouble is, the marketing makes the film look almost like a slightly unconventional home invasion horror, a mix between The Strangers and Rosemary's Baby, yet in the last reel, as the world this film exists in collapses under the weight of itself, you realise that whatever you thought you were watching was wrong.

The film's message seems both obvious and ambiguous, and it's hard to make your mind up as to whether it was a satire on how we have damaged the Earth to the point of destruction, or a modern day take on Biblical themes, or something totally beyond my rather limited speculation.

Movie wise, it's well put together, tense and eerie. The performances are all solid and everything is in the right place, however, the constant use of extreme close ups, especially of Jennifer Lawrence did become a little tiresome to the point of annoyance.

Yes, we were meant to be seeing things from her perspective, but honestly, it feels as though you feel like you know the back of this woman's head and neck quite intimately after the credit's began to roll.

So if you are looking for another horror masterpiece after viewing last week's It, you may be barking up the wrong tree here.

It's not that kind of film, despite what they might have made you think.