12 Movies That Aren't As Pretentious As You Think

7. Mother!

Darren Aronofsky's psychological horror Mother! was one of 2017's most divisive and talked-about movies, revolving around a couple (Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem) whose tranquil existence is upended by the arrival of unwanted guests (Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris).

Aronofsky has a bit of a reputation for being a pretentious director, largely off the back of his 2006 fantasy epic The Fountain, which presented an alluring if messy jumble of ideas and, ultimately, struggled to fully convince audiences or critics.

If you called it pretentious, given Aronofsky's clear desire to say something yet leaving viewers largely mystified, it'd be tough to argue with that.

Mother! consequently released amid expectations that it'd be a mind-blowing metaphorical horror movie, when in actuality the narrative through-line is incredible simple, with Aronofsky pretty much spelling out all the subtext on a neon signpost.

As such many viewers misread Aronofsky's intent, that he was trying to craft some ultra-poignant, Earth-shattering allegory about climate change - Lawrence's protagonist serving as a stand-in for Mother Nature - when in actuality Mother! is really just a well-acted, nicely-shot horror film with obvious, totally straight-forward biblical parallels.

It's at least easy to understand where people were coming from here given the more opaque, try-hard nature of The Fountain, but to call Mother! pretentious is to lumber both the film and Aronofsky with more baggage than either intended.