mother!: every once in a while,out comes a film that is utterly confounding. Such is the case of this Darren Aronofsky’s work; it’s not so much that the storyline is hard to follow, but that it’s hard to make head or tails of what the director (who also wrote the screenplay) was trying to say with this heavily allegorical material. The story is very disturbing, increasingly so, and the technical aspects enhance that feeling. Director of photography Matthew Libatique’s tight and active camerawork, the rich sound design, the ethereal quality of the isolated location, are all examples. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance is strong, with her displaying a great deal of vulnerability; the casting of Michelle Pfeiffer is inspired, as she pulls of the cattiness of her character beautifully; Javier Bardem’s is less enticing, however.