"mother!" deserves better

This weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing "mother!", which (full disclosure) I loved. At the very end, I did have questions, but it didn't bother me because it was exactly how I was left after "It Comes At Night" and "The Witch". And like those two great films, I wasn't surprised when I saw "mother!" was not well received by audiences. This brings me to my previous rant about the poor reception of "It Comes At Night", but this time, I'm a lot angrier. 

People came into the theater not wanting to like "mother!" because of comments Jennifer Lawrence didn't even say. I know it's hard to separate art from the artist, but if you're going to boycott a film, make at least one google search so you sound like a somewhat competent movie-goer. 

I'm tired of audiences not liking a movie because the premise wasn't given to them with a pretty little bow on top. When a film is hard to understand at first, the filmmaker isn't insulting you. In fact, they're doing quite the opposite. Darren Aronofsky, the director of "mother!", treated his audience as an equal. If he laid out the entire purpose of his film for you, he would be doing not only his film, but you an injustice. He wants you to think about his film. He wants you to argue with his film. I can assure you, the one thing he doesn't not want is for you to discredit his voice because you saw a fake headline on Facebook about his main actress or he, God forbid, made you think too hard. 

Films, specifically horror films, are evolving into mysterious creatures, to the chagrin of most people. I think this evolution is bold and necessary. Jump scares and loud music aren't the end-all-be-all for the genre and never have been. Horror films like "Get Out", "The Witch", "It Comes At Night" and "mother!" are exploring fear that lies in the deep depths of our minds. They're making us uncomfortable and forcing us to face the real horrors in our life, all the while giving us great performances.

I am a firm believer in everybody's right to their own opinions, but I can't stand by and watch beautiful movies be torn down because you're too lazy to sit and think about it for more than a minute. The next time you see a movie, talk about it. Watch it twice. Do your research. By all means, Google it. But don't ever reprimand an artist for treating you with respect by not dumbing down their art.