Mother! Review

What had brought me alone to a completely empty screen at half nine on a Thursday? The tantalising ‘mother!’ Controversy. I had read enough to be deterred on reasonable grounds from watching this film so I went in with my expectations around shin level but exited to get a slice of the scandal.
The conditions where perfect I was on the front row of an impressive screen with sound quality reverberating in my bones I was completely thrust into the mother house where the whole story takes place. The audio in this film is very effective, even the quieter sounds get eerily under your skin. For anyone who takes to YouTube for the ASMR videos, then the noise quality of Jennifer Laurence mixing paint shades will massage your ear drums royally. J-law's character ‘Her’ (as credited) represents an purely natural entity with garden of Eden updoo's and clothed in crisp Cotten whites. The grading and texture quality of this film early on is almost oily, like a still life painting - the serine calm before humanities gorey metaphorical decline. Very early on we see her mixing powders and spreading them lovingly on the wall and giving the same attentive warmth to her cold husband. The more we see her nurturing the house the more we feel her becoming dangerously intertwined within the very fabric of the home. There has been question over the genre of this film, whether or not it slots into the horror genre. I certainly felt a bizarre discomfort during this film. Not just because ‘Her’ life is snatched up by chaos but because of the lifeless, inescapable beige prison ‘Her’ was creating around herself. The moment she opens the militantly ordered linen draw it makes you feel the sting of unease when even just one unannounced guest arrives, let alone the horrors to come. The unresolved conflict for me in this film was how the seemingly picturesque woodland house was lacking in humanity but when the humans arrive a different kind of horror erupts and you get a sense that there is no optimum ground to be found within this story and this made me feel relentlessly uncomfortable.
‘Mother!’ Is very much like watching a piece of instillation theatre where it doesn't seem like there is a substantial plot but it certainly feels like you are in amongst the escalating action. I felt a certain degree of motion sickness coming out of this film as the camera seems to make a lot of quick spiralling shots. It almost almost mimics the snapping round of the head when you hear a sound over your shoulder. Very effective, but also very effective in making me feel slightly woozy.
For me; ‘mother!’ felt like something I hadn't experienced before, it was fearless and left me exhausted and for that I have to give ‘mother!’ my respect.