mother! is the 228th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr and Dan Murrell. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2017 psychological horror movie mother! It was published on January 9, 2018 as part of Screen Junkies second annual Fan Appreciation Month. The video is 4 minutes 40 seconds long. It has been viewed over 2.1 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - mother! on YouTube
"Slowly but surely, everything goes cuckoo-bananas-nutso-cray." ~ Honest Trailers - mother!
Script[]
We asked you to vote for the 2017 movies you wanted us to make an Honest Trailer for. Here's your number four pick. You guys are weird.
From the mind behind Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and Noah (Darren Aronofsky) comes a gruesome, paranoid Bible allegory, which is kinda what you should expect by now from the mind behind Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and Noah.
mother!
Experience a gripping tale about...something, where this...mother and this...guy have some increasingly bad houseguests; stuff happens; then, slowly but surely, everything goes cuckoo-bananas-nutso-cray. (shows a crowd of guests acting wildly, damaging and eventually blowing up mother and Him's house) What is going on?! Stop making me feel dumb, movie! You're the dumb one!
Stroke your chins for what's either a retelling of the Bible from nature's perspective, an allegory about global warming, a meditation on the creative process, a critique of traditional gender roles, or a story about how hard it is to date a famous person, in this film that refuses to answer basic questions about plot or character, but does tell you what Extreme Home Makeover would look like if it were directed by Satan. Move...that...bus! (a bus drives out of the way, revealing guests causing chaos in mother and Him's house) Move it back! Move it back!!! (the bus drives back where it was)
Witness gruesome imagery that will disturb you to your very core, where a baby being eaten alive is nothing compared to a close-up of Javier Bardem smiling; Kristen Wiig acting serious; and unprepared public speaking.
man: Would you say something? (mother looks around nervously as a group of onlookers stare back at her)
See, this is my actual worst nightmare.
Follow Jennifer Lawrence's giant face around for half the run time (shows a close-up of mother as she walks around her house) as she takes on a barrage of nonstop household chores (shows clips of mother cleaning throughout her house, followed by a clip of her pulling out a trundle bed), generally walks around, and stares at the wall. But if that sounds boring, wait until you hear what her husband is going through -- he's a poet with writer's block. Wooooooah. Man, this movie sounds like it was written by a guy with a lotta scarves. (shows an article titled "The Many Scarves of Darren Aronofsky") Oh, right.
So dive into the esoteric film that audiences either loved, hated, or really hated (shows a CinemaScore rating of 'F' for the film), in this film that looks and sounds beautiful, avoids easy categorization, and really makes the audience think, but sometimes feels like the whole thing was dashed out over a long weekend, because it was (shows an interview in which Darren Aronofsky discusses writing the film over a long weekend).
Starring Hunger Games: Literally Catching Fire (Jennifer Lawrence as mother), No Country for Old Testaments (Javier Bardem as Him), Dread Flanders (Ed Harris as man), Catty Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer as woman), A McPoyle Brother (Domhnall Gleeson as oldest son), What It Feels Like to Host Your In-Laws (shows a group of people raiding mother's kitchen), and The Forbidden Siiiiink!
mother (as various guests sit on her kitchen sink): That sink's not braced yet...Could you get down from there? That sink's not braced yet...Get down from there...Please, get down from there...Please...(as a guest is bouncing up and down on the sink) Stop doing that. Don't do that. Stop! Stop doing that!
We get it already; don't sit on the sink. Jeez, you're not my real mom.
Honest title for mother! - Big Momma's House 3. Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
Big Momma's House 3
If there's one thing you can count on in a movie, it's that a writer working in isolation will always go insane (shows Him, Jack Torrance from The Shining, Barton Fink, and Charlie Kaufman from Adaptation).
Trivia[]
Honest Trailer Commentaries - mother!
- The writers thanked fans for voting for mother! during Fan Appreciation Month because they found it challenging and interesting to write an Honest Trailer for this film.
- Head writer Spencer Gilbert admitted he kinda liked mother!, whereas writer Joe Starr hated it and "rage wrote" his initial draft of the Honest Trailer.
- This is the only Darren Aronofsky film that Screen Junkies have made an Honest Trailer for. They have produced Honest Trailers for some other films starring Jennifer Lawrence including The Hunger Games (and its sequels), X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
Watch the full Honest Trailers Commentary on YouTube
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - mother! has a 97.3% approval rating from YouTube viewers. SlashFilm was impressed by Screen Junkies multiple readings of the potential meaning of the film, writing "even though the Honest Trailer is poking fun at mother!, it’s kind of remarkable that these are all viable readings of a movie that feels like a hodgepodge of insanity on the surface." Slashfilm also noted that "this might be the first Honest Trailer that is more thoughtful than funny, and that’s just fine with us." Hello Giggles applauded the Honest Trailer for diving "deeper into the movie’s bizarre details." In the same article, Hello Giggles said, "As usual, the parody series’ take on the movie is pretty harsh, but then so were the reviews when Mother! came out." In addition, Hello Giggles praised Screen Junkies for doing "a pretty good job of summing up a one-of-a-kind movie, though we think they missed an opportunity by not even mentioning the movie’s lowercase title."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - mother!
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Producers - Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Max Dionne
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell
Edited by Kevin Williamsen and TJ Nordaker
External links[]
- The "Mother!" Honest Trailer is here to remind you that the movie is actually about a faulty sink - Hello Giggles article
- ‘mother!’ Honest Trailer: If Extreme Makeover Were Directed by Satan - SlashFilm article
- mother! Honest Trailer tackles 'kookoo-bananas-nuttzo-cray' film - EW article
- Honest Trailer for “mother!” Tells It Like It Is - Horror Freak News article
- The Honest Trailer For MOTHER! Will Freak You Out All Over Again - Geek Tyrant article