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Tag Archives: Darren Aronofsky

Mother!

30 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

2010's, Brian Gleeson, Darren Aronofsky, Domhnall Gleeson, Drama, Ed Harris, Horror, Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Kristen Wiig, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mother!

Film Title

Mother!

Director

Darren Aronofsky

Starring

  • Jennifer Lawrence as Mother
  • Javier Bardem as Him
  • Michelle Pfeiffer as Woman
  • Ed Harris as Man
  • Domhnall Gleeson as Oldest Son
  • Brian Gleeson as Younger Brother
  • Kristen Wiig as Herald

A delirious and disturbing horror/drama movie that both enthralls and annoys, Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! is the definition of a divisive movie. I remember hearing all the buzz about the movie being one of the riskiest studio releases in a long time, and I won’t argue there. But the film squarely falls into a mixed category as to its value and what it is trying to say to us.

An unnamed couple( referred to in the credits as Mother and Him) live in a large, isolated house somewhere in the country. Mother is a domestic goddess who is refurbishing the home, as we learn there was once a fire many years before that ruined the place. She is supportive of her much older husband, a poet with a severe case of writer’s block, but a lot of the time the love seems one-sided. She seems to always praise him and be there, while he isn’t the most forthcoming in approval or thanks to his wife. Their relatively tranquil existence is disturbed by a late-night knock at the door. There is an ageing doctor who says he has mistaken their house for a bed and breakfast. Mother is against letting him stay as he is a stranger, but Him is adamant that they cater to the man. The next day his wife appears and almost immediately begins to stir trouble for Mother. However, Him seems to revel in the company of these intruders, much to the annoyance and pain suffered by Mother. Gradually, everything begins spinning out of control for Mother as yet more people descend on the house and all manner of shocking events take hold, completed by Him basking in a new batch of inspiration.

Darren Aronofsky is the man behind the camera and script. He’s always been a director who knows how to shock and disturb cinema goers with his content, from Requiem for a Dream to Black Swan. I will say that Aronofsky builds up tension rather nicely with Mother! before unleashing an abundance of sheer craziness that will have you considering what you just saw. Credit where it’s due, Aronofsky crafts something extremely polarizing and material that is bound to get people talking. But there are certain areas that don’t quite add up and make the film feel bloated as a result. Aronofsky is clearly trying to say a lot of things, but at its heart, Mother! gets extremely esoteric. That’s not to say that any thematic material is gone( there is clear biblical parallels in the story and notions on inspiration), but it feels like an overload and that he is biting off more than he can chew in a good few ways. Plus, you can’t help but feel that Aronofsky is trying to be too clever and too self-indulgent with this movie. Mother! is a film that is hard to forget for sure, especially in the latter half. With the house being bombarded by intruders, everything including the kitchen sink is thrown at the viewer as all manner of hellish act is realised and put on us. Adding to this is the burnt gold of the cinematography and frequent closeness of the camera to Lawrence, exuding a claustrophobic air to everything. There is a distinct lack of a musical score here; Mother! utilises sound effects and unusual noises to bring out the eeriness of the piece in a rather successful manner.

One part of Mother! that cannot be faulted is the acting from the relatively small cast. Jennifer Lawrence ideally plays the lead, whose existence and sanity come under severe threat as the movie progresses. Starting out quiet, subtle and demure, before her mind unravels and she goes into alarming intensity and harrowing confusion, Lawrence gives the part her all and succeeds greatly with what she brings to the screen. On screen in almost every frame, Jennifer Lawrence sells the intense nature of Mother! brilliantly. Javier Bardem at his most lupine is effectively creepy and selfish as the husband whose inspiration seems to arise from the chaos surrounding him and his young wife. Michelle Pfeiffer is a wicked delight in a keen supporting part. Playing the intrusive, forthright and ever so feline woman who begins making her presence felt in Mother’s life, she’s devilishly toxic and strangely seductive to watch. Her and Ed Harris( whose enigmatic and equally as good) don’t have a lot of time on screen, but boy do they make the most of what they have! The same can be said of the Gleeson brothers who star as brawling siblings whose violence leads us into the second act of the movie. And appearing in a startling but entertaining cameo is Kristen Wiig.

Mother! as a movie is an extremely shocking experience, that is both hard to tear yourself away from and equally as repellent. I seem to fall into the middle ground of the consensus on this movie. While I will say that the direction is stylish and provocative and the acting is of a high standard, I must also bring forward that it’s a movie that often has too much going on, leading it to be hollow in the grand scheme of things. A movie that splits opinion is the best way to describe what Mother! is.

Requiem for a Dream

14 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 49 Comments

Tags

2000's, Darren Aronofsky, Drama, Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Psychological Drama, Requiem for a Dream

Film Title

Requiem for a Dream

Director

Darren Aronofsky

Starring

  • Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb
  • Jared Leto as Harry Goldfarb
  • Jennifer Connelly as Marion Silver
  • Marlon Wayans as Tyrone Love

The hopelessness and destructiveness of drug addiction and shattered dreams is brought to chilling and startling life in Requiem for a Dream. Darren Aronofsky directs this harrowing movie that is never easy to watch, but totally hypnotic and devastating in his it captures the lows of drug abuse and addiction in general.

The film concerns four characters in Brighton Beach, New York and in the shadow of Coney Island. Sara Goldfarb is a kind, middle-aged widow who is hooked on television shows and sweet foods. Though she has friends, she is lonely and her only real visitor is her son Harry. The trouble is Harry, while at heart a good young man, is hooked on heroin and other drugs, which prompts him to regularly pawn her television to feed his drug habit. He and his best friend Tyrone, who also takes drugs, want to make some money from dealing so they can make it big and not have any worries at all. At the start, their drug business goes pretty well, yet goes sour as darkness sets in. Also present in their lives is Harry’s rebellious girlfriend Marion, who has a flair for fashion designing and wishes to open her own store. She is from a privileged background, but has distanced herself from it and hangs frequently with Harry. Marion regularly starts to consume heroin and other drugs as much as Harry and the once artistic and loving girl resorts to prostituting and degrading herself to get the next fix. This really becomes prominent as Harry and Tyrone’s plans implode and they are all left scrambling for the drugs they crave so much. Meanwhile, Sara receives a call that she has been selected to appear on television. Thrilled by the prospect as it has become a sanctuary for her, she sets about cleaning up her blowzy image. Yet she become extremely fixated on her appearance for television and in particular getting into a red dress from her younger days. Now older and having put a bit of weight on, she attempts to diet but can’t help her hankering for sweet foods. Finally, she goes to a sleazy and corrupt doctor who prescribes a collection of diet pills. Sara begins taking them and while the weight falls off, her increasing dependence on them results in a horrifying mental breakdown. Quickly, the drug addictions worsen and the lives of the quartet are irrevocably altered into darkness and desolation.

Darren Aronofsky masterfully crafts this shocking and hard-hitting movie, unearthing a desolate wealth of broken emotion in the desperate situations of the characters and how their dreams are ultimately crushed by addiction. His restless camera and variety of techniques, such as time-lapse, exaggerated sounds and split screens that throw us into the dangers of addiction and the brief moment the characters feel any hope are mesmerising as well as horrifying. He truly makes the movie a painful but necessary experience that leaves your stomach churning and your head spinning. While Aronofsky is chiefly a visual director of the highest order, he can also expose the sadness of individuals grasping for something just beyond their reach. His screenplay, co-written with Hubert Selby Jr., the author of the book from which the film is based, discovers the lost hopes and pipe dreams of the four people and how they go about it the wrong way in the end. One stand out example is the revealing and very tragic monologue from Sara to her son, as she speaks of how her pills have helped her be someone again( when in reality, the sad irony is that her mind has been broken and she continues to slip). The manic sincerity and deluded belief with which she speaks of how she feels like she matters again is just so devastating to watch and heartbreaking in the extreme. Cinematography and editing immediately out you in the mindset of these tragic characters looking for the next gig, spinning and often in extreme close up so there’s no room to hide. What most stands out is the scenes of drugs being consumed as they offer escape, high or buzz that everyone craves. The high is temporary and fleeting, but enough for the characters to get by for that moment, while it erodes away their self-respect and sense of reality. It’s all illusory in the end as their cravings grow and their lives are destroyed by their habits. Routine and repetition feature heavily throughout the psychological drama, almost another form of addiction in itself for everyone involved. There’s no big happy ending to Requiem for a Dream, and neither should there have been because it would have cheapened it. What we are left with is a shattered and bleak picture of just how far these four people have fallen in chasing what they thought would be the answer to their prayers, but became a nightmare. As a movie, Requiem for a Dream leaves you shaken and floored with just intensely it depicts addictions of every kind and the dark, grim outcome of them. I mean, the last half and hour is a visceral descent into personal hell for the characters and we are pulled in too and forced to witness the degradation of it all. And of course, there is the iconic and memorable score for Requiem for a Dream that lingers in the mind. Composed by Clint Mansell and performed by the Kronos Quartet, the throbbing, humming pulse, haunting strings and electronic design of the music provides hypnotic listening and deep horror in equal measure.

Ellen Burstyn heads the cast with the best performance in the movie. The rest of the small cast are extremely fantastic, but Burstyn is the real glue of it all. She is simply heartbreaking and mightily powerful in her portrayal of the sweet, widowed and obsessed mother whose life spirals into oblivion once she gets the call to say her biggest dream will come true(eventually at the expense of her mind). It’s a completely vanity free performance as Burstyn throws her body and soul into Sara; hauntingly displaying insecurity, deluded dreams and a quivering vulnerability that continues to unravel as pills ravage her. An impressive Jaded Leto, sporting a gaunt face and withered physique, finds a deep desperation within Harry, who is inherently a good person making the wrong choice. He’s a dreamer at heart, much like his best friend, but one whose life continues to crash as his habit worsens that Leto plays splendidly and convincingly. Jennifer Connelly contributes a fearless sense of debasement and drowning as the initially rebellious and crazy in love Marion, who gets more hooked on heroin than her boyfriend and resorts to desperate measures for it. A surprisingly effective and largely serious performance from the usually funny Marlon Wayans is what rounds out the tragic quartet of characters. At first he is jocular and filled with wonder, but over time his dreams go up in smoke and Wayans subtly embodies that feeling of loss and sadness. What is admirable about all the performances is how far they are willing to go to depict the hardships and horror of addiction, which they all do to a massively skilled and shocking degree.

Grim and unrelenting, but intentionally so, Requiem for a Dream is a haunting film in every sense of the word as envisioned by the highly skilled Aronofsky. Bolstered by a wholly committed cast, in particular a heart wrenching Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream is challenging and horrifying, but you’ll never forget it once you’ve seen it.

Black Swan

30 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 69 Comments

Tags

2010's, Barbara Hershey, Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Psychological Thriller, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder

Film Title

Black Swan

Director

Darren Aronofsky

Starring

  • Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers
  • Mila Kunis as Lily
  • Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy
  • Barbara Hershey as Erica Sayers
  • Winona Ryder as Beth MacIntyre

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan; a feverish, dark and hypnotic psychological thriller about obsession, desire and mental disintegration is set in the gruelling world of ballet. Focusing on one women’s all-consuming obsession and desire for perfection, it boasts strange and striking visuals, bravura direction and a committed, Oscar-winning performance by Natalie Portman.

Black Swan mirrorsNina Sayers is a diligent ballerina with a New York company. She is a dedicated dancer but fragile when it comes to criticism as she obsesses over getting everything perfect. When the company’s director, Thomas Leroy, casts Nina in the lead role in the production of Swan Lake, he begins to wonder if Nina has what it takes to embody the dual role. Her pristine, shy and somewhat virginal appearance are a perfect fit for the White Swan, but she lacks the sexuality and uninhibited freedom to play the Black Swan. As the big day of her performance approaches , Nina is pushed towards razor’s edge as she attempts to unlock the darker side of herself. To raise the stakes even more, the new arrival of the sensual Lily, who possesses the sexuality needed for the Black Swan, becomes a source of challenge for Nina’s unstable psyche and the presence of her overbearing mother does little to help. Risking her life for her art, Nina battles strange events as she spirals into hysteria for the price of her graft and obsession. Cue the creepy blurring of reality with hallucinations, sexual awakening and some striking and terrifying visuals as Black Swan throws the audience head first into the lion’s den of desire, obsession and ballet with haunting results.

The ballet at first may seem a strange place to set a psychological thriller but it adds to the sense of rivalry and desire that send Nina into dangerous hysteria. Darren Aronofsky has crafted a sometimes horrifying studyblack Swan Rave scene of an interior mental breakdown, comparisons can be drawn with Polanski’s The Tenant and Repulsion. Visually, Black Swan is a cornucopia of startling and arresting imagery such as broken mirrors, bloodied injuries in the style of Cronenberg’s body horror  and vivid colour that adorn Black Swan’s screen. Scenes that stand out are the opening dream sequence of Nina dancing the prologue to Swan Lake and the hallucination filled rave scene when Nina and Lily cut loose on the town. Sonically, Black Swan excels with barely there whispers and the rustling of wings appearing as Nina spirals into mental unraveling. Anchoring the proceedings is the committed and fearless work of Natalie Portman, who collected a much deserved Oscar for her performance. She encapsulates Nina’s shy and virginal demeanor and the various facets of her obsession as her character’s already tenuous grip on reality begins to break as she attempts to dig deep into her soul to find the darkness and sexuality needed to embody the Black Swan. It is a dedicated and never-better performance from the gifted Natalie Portman. Mila Kunis provides the perfect foil to Nina’s fragility as the rebellious and sexy IMG_1085.CR2Lily. Vincent Cassel is suitably wolfish as the director who pushes Nina to breaking point as she trains for her role. Barbara Hershey is chilling as Erica, Nina’s overbearing mother who holds an iron grip over her ‘sweet girl’ and refuses to let go, instead living her life through her young daughter’s. In a small but memorable role, Winona Ryder plays an embittered dancer forced out of the company due to her age by the wolfish director.

Visually audacious, operatic, feverish and featuring an absolutely outstanding performance by Natalie Portman, Black Swan is a visceral and chilling psychological thriller with horror elements that refuses to let go and leaves you pondering long and hard after the curtain has closed.

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