ExecutiveChimp226

This COULD have been an interesting look at the TV show. We do see how it came to be and why, but then it quickly devolves into claims of racism 'defund the police'-style nonsense. Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and other random modern footage are somehow put into the episode, because they can't just show police officers arresting criminals without making them look bad. They interview a college teacher and the president of the 'Color of Change' group just so they get a chance to talk about how awful the police are.

The people involved with the show explain how any person on the show who doesn't have their face blurred actually signed a release form allowing their arrest to be put on TV. Legally the show HAD to be unscripted. So those are real criminals "presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law". Generally they were happy to be on the show. This was before the internet or social media and the only way to get that 15 minutes of negative attention that people wanted was to be on TV. You Could be on Jerry Springer... or you could be on Cops.

It would be nice if somebody could just make a show that sticks to historic facts, rather than wasting time with one-sided opinions by activists, but I guess that's too much to hope for.

A group of spoiled self-centered morons spend their time having sex with each other and molesting anyone that they happen to stumble across on fire island... but apparently that's okay, because everyone seems to enjoy it. Except for the two straight fishermen that are forced to "69" at knife-point. It's political in all of the worst ways from that time period (or any time period for that matter). They complain about censorship, Vietnam, the establishment and, well, basically anything that tries to force them to do anything that they don't want to do. However, that's not the worst of it. This movie also manages to commit the greatest crime that a movie can... it's boring. Not even the sex and nudity can prevent this from being a complete waste of time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to call anyone stupid. On the surface this movie seems pretty simple. With all of its biblical allegory it's plainly a two hour abbreviated version of the Bible, right?... Well no, not really. Actually it's based on the gnostic Nag Hammadi texts. And if you've never heard of it, don't worry, most people probably haven't.

Not to get too sidetracked, but (to be brief) the Nag Hammadi texts were written in the early ADs, lost, and then rediscovered in Egypt in 1945. They were originally declared a heresy by the early church. After their rediscovery they saw a slight resurgence in more modern times with people like Carl Jung and Aleister Crowley; in Hollywood with directors like the Wachowskis and Darren Aronofsky; and in music with bands like Tool. To fully understand 'Mother!', requires an understanding of what exactly that sect believed. I'm not trying to push any one kind of belief by explaining this.

Gnostisism claims that there was one true God, a shapeless form of energy and light. He decided to create more beings and did so by taking pieces of himself and forming them into living beings called 'eaons'. One of the aeons was a female named Sophia. Sophia also wanted to create something, but realized she couldn't without help. She was able to create a helper though and that helper is known as the 'demiurge'. The demiurge was the one who managed to create human life on earth.

Back to the movie. Who is Jennifer Lawrence supposed to be? A lot of people are saying that she represents the earth and the movie is telling how humans are hurting it/her. They're mistaken. The house they live in represents the earth. The endless forest surrounding them is space. The 'Mother' is Sophia. Her husband is not the Judao-Christian God. He's the demiurge. The demiurge is a malevolent creator, two steps down from the "True God", and he has little similarity to the God found in the Bible.

However, being a Jewish sect the gnostics do follow the stories in Genesis. So yes, the man is Adam. Yes, the woman is Eve. Their children are Cain and Abel. The crystal they're told not to touch represents the tree of knowledge.

One other thing that I haven't seen anyone mention: In one scene as their home (the earth) fills up with people a couple of them break the kitchen sink causing the house to flood and their creator to get mad and remove them... that's the biblical flood story.

If it seems like I gave some kind of college lecture instead of reviewing the movie all I can say is that the explanation of the source material will help people understand the movie better than my opinion on whether it's good or bad. With all this in mind you can make up your own decision.