History YMMV / Mother2017

* MisaimedMarketing: Paramount tried to sell the film as a commercial, jumpscare-heavy horror movie instead of an arthouse-influenced psychological horror movie with heavy religious symbolism, resulting in [[MedalOfDishonor a rare "F" CinemaScore from audiences]] who were positioned to expect the former.

"Some people... don't"

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: A number of critics seem to enjoy the movie more because it's deliberately ''made'' to be unconventional and allegorical and leave viewers confused.

--> '''Richard Brody:''' Aronofsky has long strained after art of a vast mythopoetic magnitude. In "Mother!," he achieves it--[[DeathOfTheAuthor but not at all in the way that he thinks]]. This morning, on Website/{{Twitter}}, someone asked me, "What was the point of the biblical references if the movie is basically about how much it sucks to be in a relationship with a male artist?," to which my response was, "Exactly." In other words, "mother!" isn't an allegory except [[WordOfGod by directorial decree]].

* BrokenBase: [[spoiler: Over the baby's death and eventual gutting. Most film goers absolutely ''hated'' the scene due to it [[EveryoneHasStandards being incredibly violent and sickening]] while others do feel the scene comes off as fitting with the movie's message, {{Anvilicious}} or not. There's no actual middle ground as most people can't decide if it was just a shock death for the sake of terrifying the audience. Also borderlines into NauseaFuel too]].

-->"Some people love it"
-->''screenshots of several five-star reviews''
-->"Some people... don't"
-->''disgusted quote from a negative review''
-->[[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity "But no one can stop talking about it."]]

* NarmCharm: For those who liked the film and were able to stay emotionally invested in it, the sheer illogical absurdity of the TraumaCongaLine mother is made to endure just strengthens her pathos. The Narm Charm arguably starts with how much Man and Woman (whom most critics liked) play into [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave comedic "bad houseguest" cliches]]. At least one reviewer explicitly told audience members "It's okay to laugh at this movie" (even if, toward the end, it's MirthlessLaughter).
* NeverLiveItDown: [[spoiler: '''The baby scene''']]. It's no exaggeration most people these days know about the film's infamous reputation by the fact [[spoiler:an infant has its neck and back snapped by a bunch of people crowdsurfing it]] and [[spoiler: most people hold it in complete disgust because ''[[EveryoneHasStandards everyone hates the idea of a baby being killed]]'']].

** Let's all be honest here: The film becomes a painful watch when it comes to the [[spoiler: abuse and psychological torment [[TheWoobie mother]] suffers throughout the film, treated poorly by the house guests who are either [[{{Jerkass}} assholes]] or [[LoonyFan are obsessed with Him's work]] and disregard her as nobody important, all while [[SmallNameBigEgo Him]] pretty much pushes her aside so he can be better appreciated by everyone around him]]. By the time [[spoiler: [[NeverLiveItDown the baby scene]] comes around, you're basically cheering for her [[GaiasRevenge full blown apocalypse as she wipes out humanity]] '''''[[TakingYouWithMe with herself via fire]]''''' because she definitely deserves to release her rage]].

** Creator/JenniferLawrence playing a wife subjected to neglect by her perfectionistic and narcissistic writer husband took on a new edge when Creator/DarrenAronofsky started dating her in RealLife during the course of filming. Many have pointed out Aronofsky and Lawrence's relationship has the same MayDecemberRomance dynamic as Him and mother in the film. However, they broke up just a few months after the film's release, considerably easing back this subtext. The fact that apparently Lawrence and Aronofsky broke up (in part) because Aronofsky couldn't understand or accept the criticism and audience's disdain for the movie make Him and Mother's relationship this.

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: A number of critics don't see the movie as a neo-Biblical allegory about environmentalism, as Creator/DarrenAronofsky insists, but as a symbolic take on how artists commit MuseAbuse for their art, and are trapped in cycles of exploiting their world for material for their art:

--> '''Richard Brody:''' Aronofsky has long strained after art of a vast mythopoetic magnitude. In “Mother!,” he achieves it--[[DeathOfTheAuthor but not at all in the way that he thinks]]. This morning, on Website/{{Twitter}}, someone asked me, “What was the point of the biblical references if the movie is basically about how much it sucks to be in a relationship with a male artist?,” to which my response was, “Exactly.” In other words, “mother!” isn’t an allegory except [[WordOfGod by directorial decree]].

** Creator/JenniferLawrence playing a wife subjected to neglect by her perfectionistic and narcissistic writer husband took on a new edge when Creator/DarrenAronofsky started dating her in RealLife during the course of filming. Many have pointed out Aronofsky and Lawrence's relationship has the same MayDecemberRomance dynamic as Him and mother in the film. However, they broke up just a few months after the film's release, considerably easing back this subtext.
** The fact that apparently Lawrence and Aronofsky broke up (in part) because Aronofsky couldn’t understand or accept the criticism and audience's disdain for the movie make Him and Mother’s relationship this.
*** The image of Him’s new work opening to unanimous acclaim and support sort of becomes this when juxtaposed with the actual film opening to anything but a unanimous response, let alone a positive one.

* NeverLiveItDown: [[spoiler: '''The baby scene''']]. It's no exaggeration most people these days know about the film's infamous reputation by the fact [[spoiler:an infant has its neck and back snapped by a bunch of [[WhatAnIdiot people crowdsurfing it]]]] and [[spoiler: most people hold it in complete disgust because ''[[EveryoneHasStandards everyone hates the idea of a baby being killed]]'']].

** Let's all be honest here: The film becomes a painful watch when it comes to the [[spoiler: abuse and psychological torment [[TheWoobie mother]] suffers throughout the film, treated poorly by the house guests who are either [[JerkAss assholes]] or [[LoonyFan are obsessed with Him's work]] and disregard her as nobody important, all while [[SmallNameBigEgo Him]] pretty much pushes her aside so he can be better appreciated by everyone around him]]. By the time [[spoiler: [[NeverLiveItDown the baby scene]] comes around, you're basically cheering for her [[GaiasRevenge full blown apocalypse as she wipes out humanity]] '''''[[TakingYouWithMe with herself via fire]]''''' because she definitely deserves to release her rage]].

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: A number of critics don't see the movie as Creator/DarrenAronofsky insists as a neo-Biblical allegory about environmentalism, but as a symbolic take on how artists commit MuseAbuse for their art, and are trapped in cycles of exploiting their world for material for their art:

* CriticalResearchFailure: To a good portion of the audience, regardless of whatever this movie is saying, it makes no damned sense according to even symbolic logic, mostly because the symbols are incoherent and deployed in ways that only make sense according to WordOfGod's idiosyncratic interpretation of religion and environmentalism, and falls apart to anyone deeply familiar with it, with either and/or both:
** Regardless of one's sentiment towards religion, it has very little to do with the debate of global warming and to the extent it does (such as using selective Biblical interpretation to deny climate change science), the film is pretty useless in addressing it, especially since [[spoiler:the ending shows that the world of the film has EternalRecurrence, where a new mother and new house emerge from the previous one's ashes, which is more or less the contrary to climate change activists' warnings of irreversible harm and it affirms denialists' belief that climate change is a matter of "natural cycles" that naturally repair themselves]].
** The film's take on the Judeo-Christian theology which it addresses via allegory falls apart on the basis of FridgeLogic. To start with, in Aronofsky's view [[spoiler:mother represents Mother Nature and Him is God the Father. Now "mother nature" is not a biblical concept at all. It's a folkloric concept, dating to 1266 AD, i.e. less than a thousand years old. Secondly, if Him is God, and mother is Earth and if God created the earth, then that would mean the married couple are committing incest and Him is marrying and impregnating his own daughter. However, that last part is consistent with the biblical conception of Jesus.]]
** The film implies that [[spoiler:the baby is Jesus and getting eaten by people is meant as a TakeThat about how HumansAreBastards. The problem is that Jesus intended to and willingly chose to sacrifice himself for humanity. And after a day and a half he was resurrected and his death happened as an adult.]].

* WhatAnIdiot: What '''else''' did Him and his followers think would happen when [[spoiler:they pranced a ''barely month old baby around'']]?

* {{Anvilicious}}: It's hard for a movie this confusing to be accused of this, but people agree the houseguests are such monsters that the movie's condemnation of whatever they represent -- misogyny, capitalism, organized religion, pollution -- is really over-the-top. Indeed, it is specifically comparing them to doing the worst thing most people can imagine doing ([[spoiler:killing and cannibalizing a baby]]).

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: By act two, one might begin to wonder if there's any real positive traits to any of the characters. Many may come from the movie feeling completely unattached to any of them, and that instead of being a arthouse horror examining the cost of art on relationships to instead be an odd narcissistic glorification of Aronofsky's creative processes instead, [[spoiler:especially since Him is rewarded at the end with a younger wife and a brand new house to repeat his cycle of creating things, rather than experience any punishment for arguably driving his wife (and however many other wives in previous cycles) to their deaths.]]
** Let's all be honest here: The film becomes a painful watch when it comes to the [[spoiler: abuse and psychological torment [[TheWoobie mother]] suffers throughout the film, treated poorly by the house guests who are either [[JerkAss assholes]] or [[LoonyFan are obsessed with Him's work]] and disregard her as nobody important, all while [[SmallNameBigEgo Him]] pretty much pushes her aside so he can be better appreciated by everyone around him]]. By the time [[spoiler: [[NeverLiveItDown the baby scene]] comes around, you're basically cheering for her [[GaiasRevenge full blown apocalypse as she wipes out humanity]] '''''[[TakingYouWithMe with herself via fire]]''''' because she definitely deserves to release her rage]].

* AudienceAlienatingPremise:
** SurrealHorror that uses elements of everyday household drama as a complex allegory for Literature/TheBible and the darkness of human history is not a new genre. It's been the premise of acclaimed works as diverse as ''Theatre/TheSkinOfOurTeeth'' and ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac''. It has, however, generally been a tough sell to ordinary moviegoers, which motivated Creator/{{Paramount}}'s questionable decision to market it as a "regular" horror movie.

* CultClassic: After the opening weekend, Paramount's marketing seems to be aiming for this -- the ad campaign acknowledges and even celebrates the extremely polarized reviews.

* DontShootTheMessage: Many reviewers, especially female critics, take pains to note that they understand the feminist message Aronofsky is pushing but find the {{Gorn}}, {{Wangst}} and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory pretentious biblical symbolism]] to all undermine the effectiveness of the message and make the film an unpleasant slog, especially for actual survivors of abuse. As with most movies like this the question is raised of whether it's worth using such trauma-inducing or otherwise disturbing material without any meaningful catharsis at the end.

** The fact that apparently Lawrence and Aronofsky broke up because Aronofsky couldn’t understand or accept the criticism and audience's disdain for the movie make Him and Mother’s relationship this.

* ItWasHisSled: The "shocking moment" that Paramount hyped up became well-known after release. Although it's really hard to argue that [[spoiler:the guests eating a dead baby]] is something people wouldn't talk about.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Many people noted that an art-house movie about a couple living in a house in an out-of-the-way place filled with heavy themes of Christian and Gnostic allegory existed before this film; Creator/LarsVonTrier's ''Film/AntiChrist''.

** Perhaps to be expected from a self-consciously deeply family unfriendly movie, this movie takes HumansAreBastards to the extreme of cheering on mother [[spoiler: enacting a [[ApocalypseHow planetary-scale species-level genocide]]]]. The implied GreenAesop is anti-humanistic to almost EcoTerrorist levels.

* ItWasHisSled: The "shocking moment" that Paramount hyped up became well-known after release. Although it's really hard to argue that [[spoiler:the guests eating a dead baby]] is something people wouldn't talk about, especially considering that it's shaping up to be AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame.

** Everyone loving Him’s new work and coming to his house for the book signing becomes this with the films negative reception, bombing at the box office and razzie nominations.
** The fact that apparently Creator/JenniferLawrence and Creator/DarrenAronofsky broke up because Aronofsky couldn’t understand or accept the criticism and audiences disdain for the movie make Him and Mother’s relationship this.

* NeverLiveItDown: [[spoiler: '''The baby scene''']]. It's no exaggeration most people these days know about the film's infamous reputation by the fact [[spoiler: an infant has its neck and back snapped by a bunch of [[WhatAnIdiot people crowdsurfing it]]]] and [[spoiler: most people hold it in complete disgust because ''[[EveryoneHasStandards everyone hates the idea of a baby being killed]]]]''.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: SurrealHorror that uses elements of everyday household drama as a complex allegory for Literature/TheBible and the darkness of human history is not a new genre. It's been the premise of acclaimed works as diverse as ''Theatre/TheSkinOfOurTeeth'' and ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac''. It has, however, generally been a tough sell to ordinary moviegoers, which motivated Creator/{{Paramount}}'s questionable decision to market it as a "regular" horror movie.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Perhaps to be expected from a self-consciously deeply family unfriendly movie, this movie takes HumansAreBastards to the extreme of cheering on mother [[spoiler: enacting a [[ApocalypseHow planetary-scale species-level genocide]]]]. The implied GreenAesop is anti-humanistic to almost EcoTerrorist levels.

** The film implies that [[spoiler:the baby is Jesus and getting eaten by people is meant as a TakeThat about how HumansAreBastards. The problem is that Jesus intended to and willingly chose to sacrifice himself for humanity. And after a day and a half he was resurrected and his death happened as an adult. Furthermore, if we are meant to see the baby and its killing as an allegory for Jesus and Christianity, then that would make mother a Mary figure, except Mary had a virgin birth whereas we clearly see mother and Him having sex, so it doesn't make mother and her baby any kind of fit for Mary and Jesus]].