Brandon at Random Reviews

I like all of these people. Jennifer Lawrence is an amazing actress and I feel like it’s pretty on-brand that I’ve had a big crush on her forever. Javier Bardem never ceases to amaze me with his performances. Ed Harris is a spectacular supporting actor with a massive body of work. Michelle Pfeiffer has been a spectacular actress for a very long time, and she was fucking Catwoman for shit’s sake.

That being said, something feels off about this movie from moment one. There was just something amiss and I couldn’t put my finger on it for the longest time. Obviously the filmmakers gave me a hunch that this tone or whatever that was going on was no accident because it was too pronounced. As the story developed I felt like it got weirder and weirder and I couldn’t understand what was going on.

Now I’m not usually super great at picking up on even some of the most obvious themes, but this is very clearly a lot of biblical allegory. Right? It presents every step of the story as off-putting and kept this viewer exceedingly uneasy wondering if other unpleasant shit might happen next. Spoiler alert, unpleasant shit not only happens next, the unpleasantness keeps escalating and getting even unpleasant-er.

I mean it’s not like it’s unbearable to watch, but like who wants to use this as a means for entertainment? I have a list of movies I’ve purchased that I’ll never watch again and I’ve gotta say this will hit the top of the list.

The thing is, all the acting is great and all that. The writing isn’t bad. It’s not like it’s a horrible movie, or even an unwatchable one. It’s just so bogged down with the semi-underlying message and parable present here that for me it loses its overall quality somewhere along the way. I didn’t get out of this what I like to get out of most movies. I need entertainment to triumph over pure discomfort (even if that discomfort is the whole point I guess) or it doesn’t work to be a good film for me.

I didn’t hate this film necessarily, but I will say I cannot endorse this motion picture as a movie reviewer. It was too jarring, too upsetting, too over-the-top for me. The commentary and allegory wore me too thin. I think I’m done with Darren Aronofsky. I didn’t like this.

⭐️⭐️

“Metaphors?! I hate metaphors. That’s why my favorite book is Moby Dick. No froo-froo symbolism, just a good simple tale about a man who hates an animal.” -Ron Swanson