There’s a reason Darren Aronofsky doesn’t want you to know anything about his latest film, Mother!
“MOST PEOPLE, after they see the film, they don’t even wanna look at me,” says Darren Aronofsky with a basso profundo chuckle. Clad in New Balances, a Montreal Expos hat, and a black T-shirt bearing the logo of electro-punk label DFA Records, the 48-year-old auteur is introducing his latest outing, the secrecy shrouded Mother! (exclamation point required), to a micro audience of four—of which I am a part. We had to turn in nondisclosure agreements before being permitted to see the film, and a viewing of it suggests the reason why: Aronofsky doesn’t want you to know how, exactly, he’s going to push your buttons. But he’s going to push your buttons.
Aronofsky’s filmography is rich with moments of oft-surreal discomfort: It’s hard to shake off Winona Ryder stabbing herself in the face in Black Swan, or Russell Crowe nearly murdering a newborn in Noah, or Jennifer Connelly’s climactic scene in Requiem for a Dream, which I can’t even describe delicately here. But Mother! might be the most alarming entry in Aronofsky’s two-decade career. The film envisions a few months (or is it a few days?) in the countryside home of an idyllic couple, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. Unexpected visitors (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer) arrive; horrifying entropy sets in.
Beyond that, Aronofsky would prefer to stay secretive about details. “It’s a cruise missile shooting into a wall, this film,” he muses a few days after the screening, seated in a dimly lit equipment room at a Manhattan sound editing studio. “I want audiences to be prepared for that and prepped that it’s a very intense ride.”
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin August 21–September 3, 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin August 21–September 3, 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.