Subservient to no one

There might be some spoilers. Towards the end of this film I was shouting at the TV for it to hurry up and END, partially because I was bored, partially because the ending was predictable, and partially because I did not feel the character deserved such a long send-off. I'm getting kind of tired of watching films whose only purpose is to be shocking, either through extreme violence or extreme emotional turmoil, but otherwise have nothing to say, and which leave you with that lingering, nagging question: what was the point of that? If this film's intention is to show how a psychopath thinks then it was pretty much same-old same-old. There was nothing new here and I can get so much more insight reading a book about a serial killer instead. I'd be interested more in how he got into the serial killing game, how he deceived his victims, and this is something the film fails at. It shows him deceiving one woman, but other women appear without any preamble. If there is anything

There are many ways to tell a story, and stories can be allegorical, sure; but with the allegorical you can end up with a story that lacks internal logic. Characters might not follow any meaningful rules, instead being guided by a narrative outside of the story being told. Often they act completely out of character, and the only explanation we are given is that it is 'allegory'. This is the case with Aronofsky's mother! Allegory isn't necessarily a problem in storytelling, but if the viewer/reader is not aware of what being referenced the story can be perceived as confusing or unrealistic. If you were to watch mother! and not understand the (frankly glaringly obvious) references to Judaeo-Christian lore, the film would not make sense. You would end up with a story that is more surreal than anything else, something nonsensical in which the characters don't react to the events that have come before, who don't learn, who don't develop. Jennifer Lawrence plays