Let’s just begin by acknowledging that this movie is so good if it came out twenty years ago it would have been banned, not only by the catholic church but by psychologists, samaritans, and the Republic of Gilead.

Mother is Whiplash without the drum sticks but with double the intensity, even if it does drag at the beginning and rush towards the finish.

The film has come under some criticism , mostly due to the length of time dedicated towards setting the tense atmosphere, but this basically boils down to thirty minutes of Jennifer Lawrence changing facial expressions, which leaves you wondering if you’ve ended up going to an adult version of the Emoji Movie.

Mother has an unexplained Carrie moment but it’s revealed pretty early that the house is owned by a world famous writer who’s working on his next novel while his wife works to rebuild the property after a fire burned it down to the ground prior to their marriage, but we learn little more about the time before until close to the end of the movie.

Clever angles and frantic camera bounce add to the turning of the screw opening which gives a haunted house feeling that you might be familiar with from horror movies. There are some really mysterious moments where Lawrence gets emotional with the timber walls and you get the feeling the house is part of her psyche but you’re never quite sure if this is an exaggeration of her attachment for her woodwork or if there is something deeper going on.

Of course this movie is all about the mysterious stranger who turns up on the doorstep, a bit creepy, and bringer of fire, his entrance adds the spark you’ve been waiting for. While trying to figure out this guest and his motives there is a moment when you’re left thinking to yourself that you’ve ended up at this year’s Broke Back Mountain but we never do find out what happens in the mountains when men go hiking alone.

Unfortunately it’s hard to write too much without spoiling the Movie but every line is retrospectively so clever and I’ve been very amused reading some of the bad reviews because if  you don’t come away from Mother questioning whether the pursuit of love diminishes our quest for art or whether our own hedonistic lifestyle is what prevents us from truly finding peace, then quite simply you’re not paying much attention to your life nor have you ever considered why you’re here.
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Mother is the pursuit of the meaning of life, if you don’t go see it you’re missing out. 

First of all this is the must see movie in cinema at the moment. The movie is Black Swan on cymbals, it’s a diverse work of genius in human thinking, the kind of emotional highjacker that all writers hope to achieve. We get so wrapped up in Andrew Neyman’s desire to achieve greatness that we have no idea what’s going to happen next. Tragedy, suicide, murder, love, death, and triumph are all possible in the pulse of the script.

The lead character, Andrew Neyman, is a shy introverted kid with a single minded desire for greatness, a desire that the ruthless and perhaps sadistic Terence Fletcher sniffs out and dangles before him, permitting Fletcher to influence a psychological hold over the young musician.  

Interestingly after Neyman bumps his head at the start of the movie, things get a bit hazy and this film could easily be ‘inception’ or just Neyman’s brutal reality, as he ends up in a nightmare realm full of his own fears and exerts little control over his rage, confronting his family, his peers and his mentors. At times the formerly introverted protégé has exuberant confidence to overcome the emotional hurdles in his life, at other times he is inflicted with the worst case scenario setbacks one could only find in dream like fantasy. The running theme of dripping blood is comatosing, it reminds us that this kid is on the edge and the bloodletting continues to build up anticipation of an intense eruption which could swing one way or the other.

Secondly I was a bit disappointed to read detractors like The New Yorker’s Richard Brody who complained that the protagonist was a tunnel visioned individual with no passion for creativity, and the film failed to capture the essence of jazz. Quite simply I don’t understand why critics pick holes like this in movies, such critics are basically reality tv junkies who’ve forgotten that movies are only two hours long, we don’t expect to go to the cinema to come out four days later having a well rounded view of the lead character’s entire life. This film is a tension boiler with psychological impact, if you want to go watch jazz there are plenty of musicians worth supporting and talking about, why spout a highbrow opinion on music about the one movie with a jazz element to actually come out of cinema.

Finally Whiplash deserves credit for the emotional roller coaster it provides, winner of both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the movie delivers every beat without rushing or dragging in a brilliantly rhythmic cinematic masterpiece.