By now it's likely you have either seen or walked out on mother!, Darren Aronofsky's great whatsit of a thriller. Quite a few critics, myself included, are fans. Quite a few audiences are not. (Fun fact: mother! achieved a rare F grade from CinemaScore, a research firm that conducts exit poll results of viewers).
It's not a movie for the "Let's go see something entertaining on Saturday night" crowd. It provokes all kinds of allegorical interpretations, and that kind of sounds like work, doesn't it? Who wants to work when they go to the movies? Critics, that's who. And anyone else happy to ride out that "What in the world is going on?" sensation that cinema experiments often foster (see also, The Tree of Life. Or scorn it in outright mockery, if that's your druthers). It seems demanding art can be...demanding.
Here's something that mother! lovers and haters can likely agree on: Spirited arguments about movies are fun. Not Hot Takes, not Twitter rants, but actual debates. Even if I weren't a proud member of Team mother!, I like to think I could appreciate the passion it has aroused.
