The Beginner’s Guide: Darren Aronofsky, Director

Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969 in Brooklyn. As a budding cinephile, he spent his childhood devouring movies, which led to his ambition to study Film at Harvard University, of all places. While at Harvard, he met Sean Gullette, who would star in his student shorts and later his film debut, Pi – a film that would springboard a whole career of psychologically-based films.

Aronofsky belongs  to a class of cerebral film directors that includes Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher. All four use psychological themes in their films, all different aspects, but with one small point that connects them all, obsession. Fincher’s characters have obsessions with seeking what is true and what are lies, Nolan obsesses on how characters cope with death and Kubrick obsesses over humanity reverting to their most primal urges. Aronofsky’s characters are obsessed with their addictions, which leads them on a road to mental decay or breakdown.

His character addictions range from drugs to success to orderliness. These addictions become obsessions to the characters, and through the course of these films, viewers observe how these individuals slowly go through either mental breakdowns or decay. All for the need of their particular drug of choice.

Requiem For A Dream (2000)

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Aronofsky and the book’s author, Hubert Selby Jr., the film centers around heroin addicts in Coney Island. All the characters have dreams for a better life, but their dependency on their drug of choice spirals them out of control. It’s an emotionally draining watch, but captivating nonetheless.

This film also marks the start of the director using washed up actors in his films, but these actors give the comeback performances of a lifetime. While Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans give great performances as drug addicts, special recognition must be paid to Ellen Burstyn. Prior to the film, Burstyn was mostly known as the mom from The Exorcist, but with this film, she gives a home run of a performance.

She plays Leto’s mother who claims to get an invitation to appear on her favorite TV game show. Insecure about her weight, she starts to take diet pills, and becomes addicted to them. To keep with the Aronofsky theme, her mind begins to decay and starts to hallucinate. Her apartment becomes a nightmarish version of Peewee’s Playhouse and at the end of the film gets committed.

All characters dream of a better life, but let their addictions take control. The dream collapses and dies by their choice of poison. In Aronofsky’s next film, he shows us that drugs aren’t the only addictive substances, but emotional states, like love, can be just as harmful.

The Fountain (2006)

This title takes its name from the fountain of youth, a body of water believed to give you eternal youth. In this film, the fountain takes the form of a tree, you guessed it, the tree of life. The tree is part of three stories, set in three different time periods, but all connected by this tree. The key to eternal love.

Hugh Jackman plays three different characters using this plant for eternal love. In the past, he is a Spanish conquistador stealing the tree from Mayans to give to his queen, in the present he is a New York doctor using the plant to cure his wife’s cancer and in the future, a space explorer. In the future segment, the tree itself is aging and possibly dying, so they must travel to a star in hopes to revive the tree.

The three characters each become obsessed with their quests, due to their addiction to love. Not to sound corny, but love makes you go through great lengths to care for your partner. The conquistador will kill for the love of his queen, the doctor spends a fortune to find medicine to help his wife and the space explorer will cross galaxies in the name of love.

Like the previous film, the characters are obsessed with their addictions. They risk their lives for it. In the next two films, our characters have an obsession with success.

The Wrestler (2008)

Mickey Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a former 1980’s wrestler way past his prime and victim to hard living. He now scrapes by working part-time at a supermarket and doing wrestling gigs over the weekend. He spends the remainder of his time in his trailer thinking about the glory days. With an opportunity of an anniversary match-up with his former wrestling rival, The Ayatollah, he trains for what he hopes to be a comeback to the world of professional wrestling.

Like Burstyn, Rourke is a washed up actor who gives a tremendous comeback performance in this film. Randy is a broken man, physically and mentally. The world outside the ring is a cruel one, and he becomes addicted to reclaiming his ’80’s glory. Even after his decay (a physical one, heart attack) he still trains for the big match.

Since the world and his family see him as a loser, he wants to go back to the one place where he believes he can be somebody. He is addicted to his training, even though his body is now too old for it, and his mind gets lost in the fantasy that he will be a success. The obsession with success is found in the world of traditionally low-brow entertainment and in the high-brow one.

Black Swan (2010)

A ballet company prepares to put on a production of Swan Lake and two dancers compete for the coveted role. Like Rourke, Natalie Portman‘s character craves success in the world where she feels most at home. Her obsession with mastering these dance moves, unfortunately, take a dangerous turn.

She obsesses to the point where she is almost starving herself and begins to hallucinate. Her mental breakdown has her unable to distinguish dreams from reality. It also doesn’t help that the poor girl doesn’t have a friend in the world to confide in.

A bit of foreshadowing perhaps, but in a small role, Winona Ryder gives a wonderful performance as an alcoholic former ballet dancer. Aronofsky continues with his habit of giving has-been performers comeback parts. Ryder’s decay serves, as I mentioned, as a warning to Portman of the pressures faced in the competitive world of ballet.

Mother! (2017)

Released last year, Mother! is Aronofsky’s most controversial and polarizing movie. You’ll either think it’s brilliant or one of the worst movies ever. I liked it, but it’s a difficult one to recommend. Also, it’s difficult to talk about this movie with SPOILERS, since even a description might contain them. The rest of this article may contain SPOILERS below – you’ve been warned.

On the surface, the movie is about a pregnant woman whose husband invites guests to stay with them, and she wants them to leave. They do not leave, and more people show up, causing the pregnant woman to have more grief. She becomes addicted to finding ways to kick these people out.

In terms of subtext, some writers felt the poet husband is God while their child is a Christlike figure that the visitors kill in an unsettling way (this may make some viewers uncomfortable). The mother, Jennifer Lawrence, is a mother earth figure that the visitors (the human race) taint and ultimately destroy. Again, that’s one way of looking at it. Others may view what these characters are supposed to represent in a different way.

Whichever way you view them, Lawrence obsesses over restoring order and peace in her home, but her mind is slowly destroyed by the chaos. Like Portman, she receives no help, and is constantly beaten; both physically and mentally.

Final Thoughts

Aronofsky has made a career out of provoking his audience with visceral films of addiction, obsession and the imbalance it brings to a character’s mental state. According to IMDb, he has a film in development that’s slated for a 2019 release, an untitled AI courtroom project. No plot details as of yet, but sounds interesting, given the wave of excellent AI entertainment out there these days.

Regardless of the plot details, I’m confident his new project will feature men and women addicted to their obsessions, and how these obsessions eventually break them down. I personally look forward to his future projects, his movies leave a lasting impression on me as a viewer.

What is your favorite Aronofsky film? What is your opinion on Mother!, yay or nay? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!