Match Cut Directors Consensus - Darren Aronofsky

[StanleyK]

No guarantee I'll actually tally the results, but post your lists.

In case tallying does eventually happen, please follow the format of the original threads to make the job easier: chronological order with a rating from 1 to 10 (half-points allowed) next to each movie.

Probably one of the most frustrating directors out there. There's just about as much to love as there is to hate in his movies, sometimes in the same scene.

[StanleyK]

Pi - 5.5
Requiem for a Dream - 7
The Fountain - 8.5
The Wrestler - 7
Black Swan - 5.5
Noah - 5.5
Mother! - 7

[Dukefrukem]

1.Requiem for a Dream 10
2.mother! 10
3.Pi 10
4.The Wrestler 9
5.Black Swan 7
6.Noah 6
7.Fortune Cookie 6

8.The Fountain Needs a rewatch

[Ezee E]

Pi - 6
Requiem for a Dream - 9
The Fountain - 5
The Wrestler - 8.5
Black Swan - 9
Noah - 7.5
mother! - 8.5

[Mysterious Dude]

Pi - 9.5
Requiem for a Dream - 10
The Fountain - 6.5
The Wrestler - 8
Black Swan - 9
Noah - 6.5
Mother! - 7.5

[baby doll]

Pi (1998) 7
Requiem for a Dream (2000) 7
The Fountain (2006) 6
The Wrestler (2008) 5
Black Swan (2010) 4
mother! (2017) 5

[Spinal]

Pi 8
Requiem for a Dream 8.5
The Fountain 5.5
The Wrestler 4
Black Swan 6.5
mother! 8

[Peng]

Pi - 6.5
Requiem for a Dream - 9.5
The Fountain - 8.5
The Wrestler - 8
Black Swan - 9
Noah - 7
mother! - 8

[Skitch]

Pi - 10
Requiem for a Dream - 9.5
The Fountain - 8.5
The Wrestler - 5.5
Black Swan - 8
Noah - 6
mother! - 7.5

[Pop Trash]

Pi - 7
Requiem for a Dream - 9
The Fountain - 9
The Wrestler - 8
Black Swan - 8
mother! - 8

Imma fan of his consistent no-fucks-given De Palma + Cronenberg + David Lynch meltdowns. His films are also more funny than they are given credit.

[baby doll]

Imma fan of his consistent no-fucks-given De Palma + Cronenberg + David Lynch meltdowns. His films are also more funny than they are given credit.

I liked his schtick more when I was a teenager. Not having seen Pi or Requiem for a Dream since my late-teens or early 20s, I'm not sure if that's because I've grown out of said schtick in the interim or if he just sucks now. Maybe a bit of both.

[Pop Trash]

I liked his schtick more when I was a teenager. Not having seen Pi or Requiem for a Dream since my late-teens or early 20s, I'm not sure if that's because I've grown out of said schtick in the interim or if he just sucks now. Maybe a bit of both.

His films exist in the same Venn diagram as De Palma between ludicrously campy melodrama and dark, disturbing thrills. I get a real contact high from them.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Pi - 8
Requiem for a Dream - 9
The Fountain - 7
Black Swan - 8
Noah - 7 (but with a lot of secret and shameful love)
mother! - 7!

Been debating doing a YouTube video about how much Jewish folklore and kabbalah informed Pi, Noah, and mother!. But I probably won't. But someone out there should.

[Irish]

Noah - 7 (but with a lot of secret and shameful love)

It's not a good movie but there were many, many things about it that were worthwhile --- and even defensible. I don't think your love should be shameful.

(I like that Aronofsky travels further afield and creates work that's decidedly non-commercial. It's sure as shit more interesting than most.)

Been debating doing a YouTube video about how much Jewish folklore and kabbalah informed Pi, Noah, and mother!.

I would be extremely interested in this.

[baby doll]

His films exist in the same Venn diagram as De Palma between ludicrously campy melodrama and dark, disturbing thrills. I get a real contact high from them.

That's evidently what he's going for, at least in Black Swan and mother!; I just don't think he does a terribly good job of it. mother!, in particular, seemed to me to suffer from the same problem as Zulawski's Possession: It starts out bonkers and then keeps trying to top itself for two hours. Aronofsky clearly knows how to jolt an audience but he has less aptitude for any kind of sustained storytelling. Rather than a montage of attractions, we invariably get something closer to a conveyor belt--it's just one damn thing after another.

[Pop Trash]

That's evidently what he's going for, at least in Black Swan and mother!; I just don't think he does a terribly good job of it. mother!, in particular, seemed to me to suffer from the same problem as Zulawski's Possession: It starts out bonkers and then keeps trying to top itself for two hours. Aronofsky clearly knows how to jolt an audience but he has less aptitude for any kind of sustained storytelling. Rather than a montage of attractions, we invariably get something closer to a conveyor belt--it's just one damn thing after another.

I know what you mean about Possession (which I do like). I watched it on a double feature with Polanski's The Tenant a few years ago and preferred Polanski's mysterious, slow burn approach to Zulawski's nuts and nutser approach. I don't think mother! is really like that, though. The first half of that film is a slow burn until it ramps up and goes bonkers. Eventually it turns into a surreal Bunuel-esque comedy-of-manners. It contains some of the most hilarious scenes of 2017. It also, obviously, has some of the most disturbing. I still can't believe it opened wide in North America.

[baby doll]

I know what you mean about Possession (which I do like). I watched it on a double feature with Polanski's The Tenant a few years ago and preferred Polanski's mysterious, slow burn approach to Zulawski's nuts and nutser approach. I don't think mother! is really like that, though. The first half of that film is a slow burn until it ramps up and goes bonkers. Eventually it turns into a surreal Bunuel-esque comedy-of-manners. It contains some of the most hilarious scenes of 2017. It also, obviously, has some of the most disturbing. I still can't believe it opened wide in North America.

The first half of this movie is pretty nuts, beginning with the absurd premise that a poet could afford to live in this house on his writing alone. In other words, despite the efforts of the talented cast to give their characters some reality, there are no real people in this film that one can believe in very seriously, only allegorical figures. Accordingly, the hyperbole of the first and second half of the film feels willed, a self-conscious tour de force, rather than growing organically from the characters and situation.

[Pop Trash]

Scorsese on mother! and contempo cinema culture in general:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...column-1047286

[Spinal]

I still can't believe it opened wide in North America.

Guess they thought Jennifer Lawrence would be enough to pull people in. It kind of reminds me of when I saw Holy Smoke at my local mall theater, presumably because it featured the star of Titanic.

[Pop Trash]

Guess they thought Jennifer Lawrence would be enough to pull people in. It kind of reminds me of when I saw Holy Smoke at my local mall theater, presumably because it featured the star of Titanic.

Eyes Wide Shut was like that. Its got Tom and Nicole, guys!

[Ivan Drago]

Pi - 8
Requiem For A Dream - 8.5
The Fountain - 9
The Wrestler - 7.5
Black Swan - 10
Noah - 7.5
mother! - 9.5

[Yxklyx]

Requiem for a Dream - 10
Mother! - 9
Pi - 9
The Fountain - 8
Black Swan - 8
The Wrestler - 7

I think Dukefrukem and I are nearly on the same page - except for The Wrestler.

[MadMan]

I know what you mean about Possession (which I do like). I watched it on a double feature with Polanski's The Tenant a few years ago and preferred Polanski's mysterious, slow burn approach to Zulawski's nuts and nutser approach. I don't think mother! is really like that, though. The first half of that film is a slow burn until it ramps up and goes bonkers. Eventually it turns into a surreal Bunuel-esque comedy-of-manners. It contains some of the most hilarious scenes of 2017. It also, obviously, has some of the most disturbing. I still can't believe it opened wide in North America.

Possession is much better than The Tenant. Polanski has done far better films.

[MadMan]

Pi-9 (90 on my own scale)
Requiem for a Dream-10 (100)
The Wrestler-10 (98, needs a rewatch)
Black Swan-9.5 (95)
mother!-10 (98 really from me)

Still have not seen Noah or The Fountain. I am glad I saw mother on the big screen, just because it was an experience, heh. I was the only one in the theater.

Pi is wonderfully strange, but it suffers from its limitations. I saw and was impressed by Requieum this year. The Wrestler struck a cord with me, but I have only seen it once. Black Swan still echoes in my memory, particularly for its take on glory exacting a high price.

[MadMan]

Pi - 8
Requiem for a Dream - 9
The Fountain - 7
Black Swan - 8
Noah - 7 (but with a lot of secret and shameful love)
mother! - 7!

Been debating doing a YouTube video about how much Jewish folklore and kabbalah informed Pi, Noah, and mother!. But I probably won't. But someone out there should.

Go for it.