Movie producer and studio honcho Harvey Weinstein is also a part-time columnist at Deadline, where he has space to share his musings. And like every other cinephile, who seem to be the only people who bought a ticket for “mother!,” he has an opinion on Darren Aronofsky‘s divisive horror movie. But unlike everybody else, Weinstein starts of his piece by reminding you that he distributed Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “The Master.” In fairness, he brings it up because he claims that just like “mother!,” it was a genius picture that also received an F-grade CinemaScore, but actually, that’s not true.
Once that weird introduction is out of the way, Harv gets breathless about “mother!,” declaring it to be a “brilliant” movie that “really, deeply scared me” (it’s interesting that the film’s arch humor seemed to fly over his head). Here are some excerpts of what Weinstein had to say about the picture:
READ MORE: Darren Aronofsky Reacts To ‘F’ Cinema Score For ‘mother!’
…Mother! [like ‘The Master’] is another one of these movies that will live forever. Critics and audiences lament the fact that there isn’t any new, daring or original work out there. If that’s the case, then this is The Holy Grail of original, yet it works its magic in a genre that is as old as movies itself – horror.
… this movie really, deeply scared me. And that could have been it, and I would have been satisfied. But Darren isn’t the kind of filmmaker that aims for ‘just satisfied’. He wants you to commit to his vision, to give something of yourself for it.
…Mother! is the ultimate writer’s block movie. We’ve seen some excellent films come from this sub-genre, with Stephen King’s works often leading the pack. But this is not just a story of stymied genius; it exists in a class of its own. The layers astound me – the biblical, the natural, the referential – all stacking together to lead us into a kind of wild ride through the Western world’s narrative canon. And yet it never feels overstuffed – the tension is as taut as can be. The first twenty minutes had me on the edge of my seat; I nearly jumped out of my skin when we first see Javier Bardem on screen. When I’m frightened, I reach Steph Curry heights; Mother! had me hanging off the basket rim.
…It should be clear to anyone reading that I think Darren is brilliant, as is his film. I expect the conversations about Mother! will continue long after it has left theaters. He brought us a story we all thought we knew, and made it his own; a story about women and men, the creative process and its victims. It’s a terrifying story, but an important one.
It’s a pretty big mash note to “mother!” and Aronofsky and I would not be surprised if Harv has already reached out to the director about making his next movie. For now, “mother!” continues to have everyone talking.
