Mother! (2017)

 'Mother!' is another of director Darren Aronofsky's extremely on the nose, revisionist biblical/ ecological parables, as such a fitting follow up to Noah (2014). I must confess some embarrassment with how much Aronofsky, one of our most pretentious, if still interesting directors, had me through this thing. It's fairly clear, fairly early just what the parable is here, but I kept looking for more, and became kind of swept up in the thing. There is real audacity here, especially later in the film during which the figurative flying rodents have a case of the runs. Marketed as a thriller or horror movie, many people who paid to see this film in the theater on the strength of Jennifer Lawrence's casting, probably had an unsubtle metaphor of their own for the director. ***