Although I obviously got the supernatural and spiritual component of the film, to me the strongest throughline was a commentary about ego, creativity, and celebrity. Maybe this is coloured by the knowledge that Aronofsky was married to Rachel Weisz and is now dating JLaw, but to me that's the strongest through-line. Allow me to elaborate. Again, I think all of this co-exists with the biblical and spiritual and ecological stuff:
Imagine that this is a film about the difficulties of living or being with or loving a creative type. Anxieties that you are never enough. A failure to fully understand or appreciate their work the way their coworkers or fans do. Trying to provide for them. When they have a creative block or slump (I had about a 6 month long depressive episode brought on by some creative/writing hurdles I've had, and I think a lot about the impact that had on my wife while I was going through it).
When they finally do make it big, you have to share them with everyone. Will you lose them to their fame and the demands on them?
You might interpret the crystal and the fire and the house as memories of loss, an understanding of having fucked it all up. The feeling that losing everything is often interpreted for so many people as a silver lining, a learning experience, like Tennyson would say.
I think of the religious supplicants and the priest and the crowd and the murder and consumption of the child as the experience of having your private life turned public, having your work interpreted by the public, the knowledge that the thing that you make and do is now no longer yours and that it might be savaged by those outside, or worse, appreciated by those outside but in their own way. My words are for you. The priest repeating His words literally to mother is the experience of losing any semblance of control over your own experiences and life.
Then mother's eventual sacrifice is the end of the relationship, and acknowledgement that it had failed, the choice to walk away. Offering her heart is sort of a quiet knowledge that he will move on and start again and she knows that she will just be a part of his past, another learning experience.
Some other stuff; the blood spot in the wood is a Lady MacBeth thing. Her nagging doubts and guilt about the relationship, that just won't go away. It goes away for a while, and then it comes back and gets worse and eventually quite literally swallows everyone. The medicine she took is here either a literal antidepressant or figuratively a way of coping with doubts and pushing them away. She stops taking it when she feels she has control of her life, only to lose that control.
Two important characterizations that I think fit with this theme: first, mother's character being consistently ignored and gaslighted. She wants to have control, but she can because the fans and agents and everyone want to own Him. Imagine being married to someone who, to you, is neglectful and abusive and aloof, while to the public, he's a hero and a creative and a genius. Trying to convince people. Think about all the times we hear about sexual and physical assault survivors being ignored or disbelieved because their abusers have squeaky clean public faces. Even the apparent unwillingness of every character in the film to believe it is in any way her house -- the feeling of envy, jealousy, frustration, and anger that your spouse receives more support and validation and that your own contributions are invisible. This I think is a very gendered thing, thinking of "Behind every Great Man is a Greater Woman" -- the idea of all of the women in history who supported or in many cases were equal partners with their husbands only to be cast away.
Second, the way in which Bardem leaves and comes back, leaves and come back, always telling her he'll keep her safe, always apparently meaning it when he says he loves her. Think of how when a relationship fails, in many cases, one or both partners live in denial where they really think they've done nothing wrong and that they've tried, even as they neglect and hurt each other.
Finally, as their relationship fails, the mob of people, who had no business being in their lives to begin with, kick and stomp her and scream obscenities at her. "Kill the whore". Is this not something we've seen so often? The fucking president of the United States famously tweeted a storm at Kristen Stewart because she didn't deserve Robert Pattinson. I think of every time I've seen a public or celebrity relationship fall apart, or even an ordinary relationship, and the abuse and scorn that women get for causing or allowing a relationship to fail.
Again, obviously the religious interpretation is palpable. The writer having one very famous book, people carrying pictures (idols) of him. Adam. The rib. The apple. Cain and Abel. Him reminding mother that "they lost two sons, not just one". Writing the second book. The death of God's only son. God forgiving those who killed him. The consumption of the flesh. The literal character name. And obviously so is the environmental interpretation. I'm not saying it's not those things. JL and Aronofsky have both explicitly said it's those things. Fine. I'm just saying it's hard for me to believe that there's not a human and personal thematic throughline in the film, and that's the thing that spoke the loudest to me.
I thought the cinematography was beautiful and nauseating. Whiplash camera, everything happening just outside the field of view. The wise decision to keep the camera pinned on mother the whole time. Maybe the best scene was when during the wake for Abel, mother's attention keeps getting diverted from the couple sitting on the counter and the guy hitting on her and trying to get her number. The camerawork here is just exquisite; the couple just out of view hopping on the counter again the second her attention goes back.
I think the decision to not use the soundtrack was a wise one. The film stands on its own and the lack of non-diegetic sound, along with the camera, very firmly roots the film in mother's point of view. Bad year for Johann Johannson, but still.
My showing was pretty packed, although there were a fair few walkouts and a row of dudes laughing at everything.
All in all, I actually think was Aronofsky's best film.