Erix Antoine’s review published on Letterboxd:
A lot of people didn’t like Darren Aronofsky’s strange, surreal art piece. In the case of mainstream audiences, this is because they were probably expecting a thriller. In the case of some critics - like Rex Reed - this is because they’re old, out-of-touch, and - frankly - obsolete in the grand scheme of film conversations as of this writing.
In any case, it doesn’t matter, because any way you slice it this is a brilliant film - whether you like it or not - it is a masterful display of using film to communicate resonant, palpable ideas and evoke powerful emotions, purely through cinematic technique and striking visual storytelling. In fact, just calling it “visual”storytelling is kind of underselling. This movie is a sensory experience. And, at some points, it is almost tactile in the way it gets under your skin.
What’s it about? That depends, I suppose, on how you look at it and decide to read its various symbols. In essence, it’s a “home invasion thriller.” And I put that in quotes because there are layers. But, if you consider that your home is anything that you define as a personal space…or - more concretely - your very soul, then it is absolutely an invasive thriller of the most aggressive kind.
It’s a movie of ideas, concepts and symbols before you can sum it up with a basic plot. And, for a movie of dramatized concepts, it is not as ambiguous as you may expect. It often states its message plainly and clearly. So, really, it depends on how you choose to interpret that message. Is it about the sacrifices women make when they become mothers? The sacrifices mothers make for their children? Wives make for their husbands? … Or you could take it a little more literally: is it about the nature of artists and their creations? Is it about the selfishness of the artist - who presumes to create in service of their inspiration but is really only doing anything to serve themselves? Is it about the parasitic relationship artists ultimately have with their muses? About the parasitic relationship husbands have with their wives? Children with their mothers?
Or maybe it’s about the parasitic relationship humanity itself has with the world?
In truth, it is all these things - all at once. It is not a movie that can be acceptably summarized and explained. Suffice to say it is a primal, urgent scream born out of the fevered vision of a very ambitious filmmaker. It was no doubt an expensive, elaborate production and the powers that be at the major Hollywood studio that is Paramount Pictures should be applauded that they supported a project such as this. And the collective of artists that put it together are also deserving of applause. Because cast and crew alike have given their all to make this film a vital, unnerving, disturbing experience.
Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem both do wonderful work. They are joined by a solid supporting cast, the most notable of which are Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer as an unusual couple.
The film is powerful, effective and - to me at least - entertaining. But it is also more important to consider how the film lingers in the mind. This is a movie you want to keep talking about after you’ve seen it. And it’s a movie that people will talk about years from now…long after more successful “blockbusters” produced by Paramount Pictures are merely footnotes in the history of vacuous, mainstream cinema.