15 Most Paused Movie Moments Of 2017

15. The Baby - Mother!

Darren Aronofsky's Mother! was easily one of the most controversial and consciously provocative movies of the year, taking aim at organised religion and exploring the fragility of humanity in amongst some serious, self-indulgence and occasionally impenetrable nonsense masquerading as lofty insight.

It's most stunning - and despicable - moment came when Jennifer Lawrence's Mother saw her new-born messiah-stand-in baby taken from her by Javier Bardem's God-like Him and torn to shreds and cannibalised by his zealot followers. It was a CGI moment inevitably, but it was horrific to watch, and demanded a pause either to break the tension or to perversely pour over the images Aronofsky felt so weirdly compelled to create.