You’ve seen Fight Club, you loved Black Swan, Memento is a classic to you, and you’ve seen The Village more times than you can count on your hands. You can handle crazy films, you think.

Then you drench your popcorn in melted butter, find your seat in the theater, and see Mother!.

“You think you can handle insane films and then you see Mother!,” you start to tell fellow film buffs the following days. That’s because Mother! is, without a doubt, one of the most daring, genius, and mind-detonating films ever made. With director and writer Darren Aronofsky–known for the films Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, and Noah–behind the finished product, Jennifer Lawrence (say what you will about her red carpet persona, she crushes every role she gets), Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Ed Harris as the leads, the film is taken to the next level.

Aronofsky’s script is incredibly creative, secretive, and new. Without its cast and filmmaking however, the film could have been any run-of-the-mill horror flick. It is the 16mm camera, astonishing acting, and, when considered, simplicity of the movie, that brings it to Oscar-nominee potential rather than box-office flop and clearance bin DVD. For those who want to blop on the couch with a beer and watch a movie that they’ll forget within the day, Mother! is not the right choice. That’s why the film has been labeled, by less-respected media outlets, as “pretentions,” “worst movie of the century” and, more eloquently, “crap.” Take note of the director’s previous work, however. Requiem for a Dream sent people running out of the theaters in pursuit of a trashcan to vomit in. Black Swan was met with a Roger Ebert review that warned against the film’s “full-bore melodrama.”

Requiem now sits on the American Film Institute’s “Best 100 Films of All Time” list. Black Swan swept the 2010 Oscar nomination list.

Mother! is not the average film. It’s experimental, horrifying, and pushes the envelope–far. It will leave you haunted, terrified for the future, and cautious of the world around you. For some, it will leave you frequenting church no matter the day; and for others, it will have your mouth curling into a knowing smile. Aronofsky will be at home, or on a press tour, or on the Oscar’s stage, accepting an award he most certainly deserves, and know that his film did exactly what he hoped.

Photo courtesy of Variety