Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

mother! 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

The Nightmare Continues, in HDR

Paramount's latest UHD release is the controversial mother! from writer/director Darren Aronofsky. A 4K/HDR treatment won't make the film any less divisive, but it's an interesting visual experience, especially given mother!'s origination on 16mm film and its gloomy cinematography. The 4K disc presents some notable visual improvements over the standard Blu-ray, but for reasons discussed in the Blu-ray review, I have to wonder whether most viewers will care either way.

mother! 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

mother! was shot by Aronofsky's frequent collaborator Matthew Libatique on 16mm film, which has become the director's preferred medium not only for its texture but also for the freedom allowed by the smaller camera rigs and less frequent reloads. Effects work was done in 35mm, and post-production was completed on a 2K digital intermediate. The 2160p master derived from that DI and presented on this HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD reflects the director's stylized vision, in which most of the color has been leached from the image and a haze has been cast over much of the proceedings, usually greenish but sometimes yellow or brown. HDR grading has not brightened or intensified the colors—blood is still barely red—but it has refined the textures of the image, tightening detail in closeups and using more refined blacks and contrast to create a greater sense of depth in the shadowy recesses of the house where so many strange events play out. Despite the additional resolution and sharpness, the image retains the softness reflecting its origination on 16mm film, and "that little patina that stands between reality and cinema" of which Libatique speaks in the extras remains intact and, if anything, more expressive. mother!'s treatment on UHD is a tribute to restraint in the melding of new and old technologies, both respecting and subtly enhancing the director's distinctive vision.

mother! 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The UHD arrives with the same Dolby Atmos soundtrack that has been previously reviewed.

mother! 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc has no extras. The included standard Blu-ray offers the extras described here.

mother! 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If anything, the discomfort that mother! inspires in its viewers is even more pronounced on UHD, and I can't recommend mother! in this format any more than I could the standard Blu-ray. But I'm still not prepared to dismiss it out of hand. Though stylistically very different, it reminds me in many respects of what David Lynch achieved with his recent Twin Peaks sequel: maddening, disturbing, oddly compelling, stubbornly resistant to being rationally explained away. Not many filmmakers can achieve that effect, and if nothing else, Aronofsky deserves credit for trying and (mostly) succeeding at something so wildly "out there". Just don't boot up the disc expecting to have fun. In reviewing the Blu-ray, I quoted an observation from Clive Barker: "When I go to the movies, I want to feel something. And I don't mind if it's disgust." In reviewing the UHD, I was reminded of another line from a close friend: "More of the same, only more so."