A Ridiculously Pretentious Guide to the Films of Darren Aronofsky

Spirituality & the Clash of the Real and Surreal

Pi (1998)

The reality of Pi is expressed through the high-contrast, scathing black and white imagery with its coarse 90s grain, smothering blur and shaky close-ups. The dialogue is conversational, casual and informal. It feels improvised. The story, however, is anything but real. Mathematical mysticism of the highest order, a Wall Street cabal of numerologists. A completely rational mind would have to say that the science of Pi is pure fantasy, admittedly, one that the human soul so longs for; belief in a simplistic cosmic fractal unity, underlying purpose, Fibonacci harmony. To see patterns in nature is human, whether these patterns have meaning is a matter of belief. And what that meaning is, is not a absolute.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

2000’s Requiem for a Dream is a harrowing tale of the dream of youth, which all the characters are chasing. The son, his lover and his mother and his best friend abandon responsibility and care and ascend to ever increasing highs. Freedom, dreams of making it. Change. As the mother’s lonely, drug-fueled TV fantasies grow ever more hysterical, we see all of the characters begin the descent into their end states. The crushing reality of youth is waking up from the dream. It costs an arm, it costs freedom, it costs innocence, it costs sanity, it costs love.

The Fountain (2006)

Three stories are but one.

The Wrestler (2008)

The Wrestler exists at the intersection of reality and fantasy. An economically and morally bankrupt, middle aged failure. With a broken family, estranged daughter and generally fucked up existence. Driving to gigs in the van. Cleaning off his own make-up and blood. This is the reality of this tragic hero. It’s the quiet anticlimax. But when he steps into the light of the ring, the mythology of the Wrestler comes alive. It’s what his fans scream for, as they also bay for his blood. It’s what he ultimately decides to give his life for. Pure dedication. His denial of his daughter, the material world and complete acceptance of fantasy landscape of the wrestling ring.

Black Swan (2010)

The dancer. She’s worked her whole life to get to this moment. Everything depends on now. There is no second chance. She is rendered in two. Two parts that have always co-existed. An awakening. In a scene almost inverse of the Piano Teacher, she delivers the performance of her life and comes to understand herself in a way few ever do. It is a film that makes us question, directly, what is going on. What we think is real in the scene and what we think is not. How do we sleepwalkers make sense of what we see with no frame of reference?

Noah (2014)

I don’t talk about Noah.

Mother (2017)

Wow, what a film! The secret of Mother is that none of it is real. It exists entirely in storyland. Parable space. The reality, we bring to it ourselves as viewers. We ask where are they? WHEN they are?? Deliberately vague, their world is timeless. Ever cycling through the same narrative of genesis and apocalypse. As viewers we apply our own notions of what is real. We try to makes sense of the story with our own prejudice: 1950s!? No, obviously contemporary hipsters! But our efforts at interpretation are the only reality that exists in this place. There is no universal truth known to man. We exist as children or guests in the world of another. A world who’s rules we do not define. Rules we must learn. He gives and He takes back. Spirituality is submission to inevitability. And the madness of reality is caused by our resistance to accepting God.