Darren Aronofsky On Rex Reed's 'mother!' Review

One of the most divisive movies of the year, everyone has an opinion on “mother!” but Rex Reed‘s review for The Observer might take the cake. The critic has never been a fan of Darren Aronofsky, but “mother!” holds a special place of loathing in his heart, as we writes, “I hesitate to label it the ‘Worst movie of the year’ when ‘Worst movie of the century’ fits it even better.” Ouch. The director has certainly been kicked around a bit for his outrageous horror movie, but he takes Reed’s comments as a badge of honor.

Sitting down for an extended interview with The Hollywood Masters, reflected on the criticism “mother!” received, but ultimately landed on the argument that time will be the ultimate judge on the movie.

“I mean, my favorite on ‘mother!’ is Rex Reed called it the worst movie of the century,” Aronofsky said. “For me, [that] is a victory. I mean, finally I got to the top of the list. You know, he hated ‘Black Swan‘ [which] was an ugly duckling for him. I remember somebody telling me that. I don’t really read reviews. I try to avoid them. It’s very hard to avoid everything in this world. You hear the conversation because of all the different types of ways we get media in this world. But, I’m not that concerned about that stuff. The job of the filmmaker is to make the film, and put it out into the world the best way that is possible with the resources you have, and then whatever happens, happens. I don’t think you can ever predict, you know, for a long time, ‘The Fountain‘ was really, really hated and made fun of and stuff, and I think the fans of that one have been the biggest fans of any film that I have had. The passion that people feel for that film has been deeper than any feedback I ever get from just people I meet. So, you don’t know how things are going to work, and it definitely, you know, the story of films takes a long time, especially if the filmmaker has worked hard on them.”

It’s a fair assessment, and it’s probably not worth losing sleep over one hyperbolic review. And hell, Aronofsky can also rest easy knowing that Martin Scorsese has his back.